Featured Image Credit: WKBW
Topics: Health, Netflix, Food and Drink, Vegan
Niamh Shackleton
Identical twins who went on a separate meat and vegan diet revealed the results of the respective diets.
Identical twins are perfect for studies like these because they share nearly 100 percent of their genes with their sibling, so it gives more accurate results when comparing how their respective diets impacted their bodies.
A perfect example of this Hugo and Ross Turner, who have done several health-focused studies over the years.
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Most recently the British brothers tried different vitamins, with Hugo taking on the plant-based vitamins while Ross took the equivalent animal-based products.
The result? They found that plant-based vitamins had the biggest positive impact, with Hugo's Omega-3 index improving and there being a big increase in his D3 levels.
Hugo and Ross aren't the only twins that have taken on these kind of challenges though - Jevon and John Whittington were part of a study that used them and 21 other sets of twins.
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In the 2022 study (which was conducted conducted from May to July), Stanford Medicine investigated the idea that a vegan diet improves cardiovascular health and explained the key health benefits of both an omnivore diet and a vegan diet.
The study was also part of a Netflix documentary You Are What You Eat: A Twin Experiment, which was released in January 2024.
Participants were given 21 meals of plant or meat-based food by a catering service while for the last four weeks, they prepared their own food.
And two of the twins that were involved in the study later spoke to the New York Post and explained the big differences in their health after the two months.
John, who went on the vegan diet, was able to lose significantly more visceral fat, which is known to be more dangerous in the long term.
John’s body fat was 11.1 percent, weighing in at 137.2 pounds with 0.37 pounds of visceral fat, the kind of fat which develops around the center of the body.
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Jevon, who was given the omnivore diet to follow, had nearly identical body fat ahead of the study – 11 percent, and weighed just over a pound more at 138.6 with 0.22 pounds of visceral fat.
Fitness wise, the twins worked out few times a week, focusing on cardio, weight training and interval training.
By the end of the study, John had lost 0.19 pounds of visceral fat from following his vegan diet — leaving him with just 0.03 pounds.
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In comparison, Jevon’s visceral fat dropped by just one point from 0.22 to 0.21 pounds.
The vegan diet also resulted in a 20 percent drop in insulin levels and a 12 percent drop in bad cholesterols. Meanwhile the meat-eating diet didn't impact John's health at all.
His meat diet allowed him to produce more muscle however, as Jevon bulked up on extra 7.1 pounds of muscle after the eight weeks, while his brother only gained 2.3 pounds.