People who eat meat have been given an urgent warning by scientists after the results of a recent study.
While neither veganism nor vegetarianism are exactly new movements, the majority of Americans - up to 80 percent of people - still regularly eat meat, according to the FMI's Power of Meat report.
But a new study, published in Frontiers in Nutrition, has found that cutting out meat can be better for your health in multiple ways - especially if you're trying to shed the pounds.
Scientists at the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine carried out a four-week trial involving 62 overweight adults in the US.
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They compared the Mediterranean-style diet - including meat, fish, eggs and cheese - with a low-fat vegan diet.
Half the group started on one diet, the other half on other, so everyone had an equal chance of going on either diet first.
Each person was kept their assigned diet for 16 weeks, before taking a four week 'cleansing break.'
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Participants returned to their usual diets for a month, then swapped to the opposite diet for another 16 weeks.
Participants logged their daily food intake throughout, so the scientists could calculate each person’s dietary acid load using two established scores - PRAL and NEAP.
An acid load measures how acidic your diet is, and this is important because a high acid load can have negative consequences.
One of them is inflammation. A high acid load interferes with the hormones and enzymes that regulate fat burning.
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So even if you eat the same number of calories, your body becomes less efficient at turning them into energy and more prone to storing them as fat.
Additionally, an acidic environment in your intestines can discourage healthy gut bacteria.
So, as well as acid loads, participant's weights were also measured.
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On the vegan diet, people's acid-load scores dropped, and participants lost about 13 pounds on average. On the Mediterranean diet, acid-load scores stayed roughly the same, and their body weight didn’t change.
So, by switching out acid-producing animal-based foods for alkaline plant foods and carefully measuring both diet and weight, the scientists could directly link lower acid intake to significant weight loss.
As we already know, a higher weight is linked to other health issues including diabetes, which can in turn increase the risk for heart attacks and stroke.
It doesn't mean we should cut meat out altogether, though.
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Instead, try dialing back animal-based servings and pile on alkalizing foods instead - like leafy greens, berries and legumes.
That way, your body isn’t stuck fighting an acid overload.
And you might soon notice the difference by way of inflammation, gut health and shedding the pounds.
Ellie Kemp