People began buzzing about Clinton's mostly plant-based diet shortly after his daughter Chelsea's wedding in July last year. This week, after further revelations about his diet in an interview with CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta -- he has only eaten one bite of meat, a piece of turkey during Thanksgiving, in the last year -- news outlets have been in overdrive about the benefits of veganism.
Veganism, a plant-based diet that cuts out all dairy products, meat and fish, was no more than a fringe trend a few years ago. However, as more and more people have begun to see its benefits and with an ever-increasing number of celebrities endorsing it, veganism is now being seen as a mainstreamlifestyle choice that could drastically alter one's health.
Studies have shown that vegans maintain a healthy weight more easily than those on more traditional low-fat diets. Diabetics have better glucose control and lower cholesterol on a vegan diet.
There's reason to believe a plant-based diet canprevent serious diseases like cancer, obesity, heart disease and diabetes.
Leading the research on the benefits of a plant-based diet is Dr. Dean Ornish, founder and president of the nonprofit Preventive Medicine Research Institute, and Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. He also oversees The Huffington Post's Medical Advisory Board. Dr. Ornish met Clinton after his angioplasty last year and convinced him that radical lifestyle changes could profoundly alter the course of his health. "Moderate changes weren't enough for him to reverse or prevent heart disease," Dr. Ornish told ABC News. "In our studies we show that [a plant-based diet] could actually reverse the progression of heart disease. Within a month we found that the blood flow to your heart can improve."
Research has shown that despite an inheritance of genes with a predisposition to cardiovascular disease or cancer, lifestyle changes can alter the appearance of those genes.
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Bill Clinton declares vegan victory
Where's the beef? Not in Bill Clinton's diet.
Kevin Mazur, WireImage
Clinton says he was inspired to follow a low-fat, plant-based diet by several doctors, including Dean Ornish, author of Dr. Dean Ornish's Program for Reversing Heart Disease.
Kevin Mazur, WireImage
Clinton says he was inspired to follow a low-fat, plant-based diet by several doctors, including Dean Ornish, author of Dr. Dean Ornish's Program for Reversing Heart Disease.
Lacto-Ovo Vegetarian: Does not eat meat, fish or fowl. Eats dairy and egg products.
Ovo Vegetarian: Does not eat meat, fish, fowl or dairy products. Eats egg products. Lacto Vegetarian: Does not eat meat, fish, fowl or eggs. Eats dairy products.Vegan: Does not eat any animal products including meat, fish, fowl, eggs, dairy, honey, etc. Source: The Vegetarian Resource GroupAbout 3% of U.S. adults are considered full-fledged vegetarians because they never eat meat, poultry, fish or seafood, and about 1% of people are vegans because they also never eat dairy, eggs or honey, says the Vegetarian Resource Group. "The percentage of vegetarians has doubled since 1994," says John Cunningham, consumer research manager for the organization.
Elizabeth Turner, editor in chief of Vegetarian Times, says, "A much larger number of people — 22 million based on a poll the magazine did in 2008 — are what I'd describe as vegetarian-inclined. These are the people who might have the occasional chicken or fish. They're interested in vegetarianism and moving in a veg direction, but they aren't all the way there yet.
"What the science shows is that people who are vegetarians have a lower risk of heart disease and cancer, especially colon cancer, and they tend to live longer," Turner says. "They're also less likely to be overweight."
But, "a vegetarian diet is not by definition a healthy one. You can't just replace meat with French fries," she says. "What makes a great vegetarian diet is eating whole foods that come from the earth like whole grains, fruits, vegetables, beans and nuts. Beans are the ultimate source of protein, and they are loaded with fiber."
Clinton says he was inspired to follow a low-fat, plant-based diet by several doctors, including Dean Ornish, author of Dr. Dean Ornish's Program for Reversing Heart Disease. Ornish has been working with Clinton as one of his consulting physicians since 1993.
After Clinton's angioplasty and stents in 2010, Ornish says he contacted the former president "and I indicated that the moderate diet and lifestyle changes he'd made didn't go far enough to prevent his heart disease from progressing, but our research proved that more intensive changes could actually reverse it," he says.
"Heart disease is a food-borne illness," says Caldwell Esselstyn, Jr., author of Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease. He's in a documentary about the benefits of a plant-based diet, Forks Over Knives, out next week on DVD. He advocates going "cold turkey from the typical fatty, meat-laden, dairy-rich Western diet" to this kind of plan.
Gina Lundberg, a preventive cardiologist in Atlanta, says a vegan diet is wonderful if people can follow it. "But it's so limited in variety and taste that people get sick of it, and they don't stick to it."
Nestle says that the vegan diet "is probably good for President Clinton, but whether it is good for everybody is a subject of much debate."
"Whatever they (vegans) do personally is fine, but I don't want them telling me that if I eat a little meat, there is something wrong with my diet. I think animal foods can have a place in a healthful diet."
Eating a vegan diet can be unhealthy if….
A vegetarian diet can be a healthy one if people avoid certain pitfalls, says registered dietitian Dawn Jackson Blatner, author of The Flexitarian Diet and a blogger at food.usatoday.com. Here are some common mistakes vegetarians make:
•Eating usual meals minus meat. Just opting out of meat will lead to a diet low in protein, iron and zinc, Blatner says. So instead, you need to swap in plant proteins, such as beans and legumes, that can provide the essential nutrients and help keep hunger at bay, she says.
•No-veggie vegetarian. "This mistake is also known as the 'beige diet,' with a focus on dull-colored carbohydrate foods such as bread, pasta, rice." Each meal and snack should have colorful, disease-fighting produce to get optimal health benefits and to keep calories in check, she says.
•Faux-meat fixation. "You know you are guilty of this if you look in your fridge and see too many veggie burgers, 'chicken' nuggets and veggie lunchmeats," she says. These are fine in a pinch, but indulging regularly in these veggie conveniences results in too much processed food that is too high in sodium.
•Vegan health halo. The word "vegan" or "vegetarian" on a package is not a synonym for healthy, Blatner says. Even if a cookie, cake or fries are veggie-friendly, these are still junk foods that should be enjoyed in moderation, she says.
•Cheeseaholic. Some vegetarians rely only on cheese to get protein, eating foods such as cheese sandwiches, cheese on pasta and cheese and crackers for a snack, Blatner says. Overdoing it on cheese ends up being too high in calories and saturated fat, she says.
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