"Healthy Vegan" By The Numbers

I'm continually amazed that vegans who carefully read labels on food products for animal stuff so often seem to be ignorant of recognizing the sodium and fat content in what they eat.  Vegan recipe blog posts gleefully writing "drizzle olive oil liberally" and "I can't get enough olive oil" and "oil is good for you" and "add 1 cup Earth Balance" drive me nuts from recognizing that it is these misconceptions, myths, and dellusions that actually promote and encourage heart disease.

Remember, the only guys to reverse (and in theory, prevent) heart disease (Ornish, Esselstyn) recommend 14 to 20 grams of fat MAX per day.  This is from 20+ years of peer-reviewed research.

In pondering the issue, I decided to put together an ad hoc list of 10 statistics that every vegan who wants to be a healthy vegan (and prevent heart disease) should consider memorizing as a guide for how they shop, cook, and as a reason to do so:

1)  14 to 20 g:  recommended maximum fat grams per day by Drs. Ornish, Esselstyn, Barnard, and McDougall

2)  12 to 14 g:  amount of fat grams in 1 TBL of oil

3)  100 to 120 calories:  amount of calories in 1 TBL of oil

4)  16 TBL:  number of TBL in 1 cup of oil, Earth Balance, Soy Margarine, etc., (240 g of fat)

5)  24 g:  fat grams in one serving (2 TBL) of most oil-based dressings

6)  10 percent:  recommended daily percentage of calories from fat (Ornish, Esselstyn)

7)  < 2000 mg:  recommended sodium per day (Esselstyn)

8)  2400 mg:  amount of sodium in 1 tsp of salt

9)  445,687:  number of deaths (US) from coronary heart disease in 2005... the single leading cause of death in America today (source)

10) 17,000,000:  number of people killed by heart disease and stroke a year, which is almost one-third of all deaths globally (source)

Note:  yes, going vegan lessens your chances of getting heart disease, but it DOES NOT necessarily prevent it, especially if you are using added oils (which aren't foods anyway and fuel artery-clogging plaque formation, just as bad as saturated meat).  Exercise, although useful, is not the determinent variable here (Esselstyn).  It's the added non-food:  oil.

Know the truth, learn the stats, and understand what products you are adding to your healthy food that will make it unhealthy, and stop it.  Your circulatory system will thank you... and, in very high probability, take care of you longer than if you didn't.

Comments

[Debbie in Iowa]

Hmm, the link was stripped out. Jeff's article is at http://www.healthscience.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=105:understanding-food-labels&catid=75:healthy-eating&Itemid=123.

[Thanks! Mark]

[Debbie in Iowa]

Excellent article. I also highly recommend Jeff Novick's* article on reading food labels; "they" deliberately make it difficult to figure out, but Jeff makes it make sense. Specifically regarding fat:

6. Check the calories from fat.

Weigth Loss

It’s on the Nutrition Facts label. Unfortunately, it doesn’t tell you “percent of calories from fat,” which is how all health guidelines direct us to limit fat. You’ve got to do a little math. Divide the number of calories from fat by the total calories. (If the serving’s 150 calories, 50 of which are fat, your product is 33 percent calories from fat.).

If division trips you up, go by grams. Use this easy rule. If a product has 2 grams of fat or less per 100 calories, its fat content is within these guidelines for processed foods: the fat, per serving, is 20 percent or less of total calories. You don’t have to be a mathematician to realize that 4 grams of fat per 100 calories is double the fat I recommend.

Don’t be fooled by claims like “99 percent fat-free” soup or “2 percent fat” milk. They’re based on percent of weight, not percent of calories. So that can of 99 percent fat-free soup may actually have 77 percent of its calories from fat, or more. And 2 percent fat milk actually has about 34 percent of total calories from fat; 1 percent milk has about 23 percent calories from fat.

*Jeff's the nutrition expert on John McDougall's team.

[Thanks for the link and feedback. I think there might be an error, though... 150 calories of which 50 are from fat is 30%, not 33%. Also, I think 20% of calories from fat is too high, but I'm not "officially" an expert.

Still, some good advice! Appreciated... Mark]

[Jay]

Hey! No offence, You are worrying way to much! Vegans don't really have to worry about heart disease. Heart disease mostly happens in people who consume red meats. It's nice to eat a fat baked good once in a while, it's not going to kill you. Vegetable based fats are good fats for you. Olive oil doesn't kill you! I don't understand your whole Olive Oil thing. Olive Oil is very healthy and I saw on the Oprah Show that Dr.Oz says to include olive oil daily for a healthier lifestyle. You should start listening to some smarter doctors that really know something!

[I listen to the ONLY doctors ever, to have successfully reversed heart disease and diabetes. It's the vegetable based fats that will increase your odds on getting a host of disorders.

There's a lot of misinformation out there. I suggest you read Ornish, Esselstyn, and Barnard... people who've actually shown, scientifically, that added oil should be avoided. Did you read the interview on madcowboy.com I did with Esselstyn?

Perhaps you should read a bit more and stop being so emotional about it all. Altogether too many people are dying from diseases they needn't, and it's not just the carnivores that are getting sick.

Best, Mark]

[Elizabeth]

Great post- I definitely agree! Some people just assume because it is vegan it is healthy and that is not the case. I don't eat/cook with any added oil because I'd much rather get my daily fat from nuts and avocados and other whole foods. I love nuts and nut butters and find them so much more enjoyable than drizzling oil over my vegetables. Oil and butter are definitely not tastes I crave!