The Stanford Twins Experiment: Vegan vs Omnivore Diet in Identical Twins

New clinical trial compares Vegan and Omnivore diet in identical Twins. Let's look at the results and implications

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Disclaimer: The contents of this video are for informational purposes only and are not intended to be medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment, nor to replace medical care. The information presented herein is accurate and conforms to the available scientific evidence to the best of the author's knowledge as of the time of posting. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions regarding any medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay seeking it because of information contained in Nutrition Made Simple!.

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0:00 New trial
1:27 Results
3:10 Weight and Calories
4:11 Glucose, B12 & TMAO
6:07 Nutrient intake
7:50 Diet satisfaction & Adherence
10:22 Summary & Takeaways

[abeach_]

This is probably the most respectful comment section regarding diet that I have ever seen :)

[CptVein]

Man, not gonna lie, I came into this video thinking you'd be skewed one way or another.
Glad you just plainly talked about the facts. Very informative.
Thank you.

[stephennorman]

I've watched a ton of health gurus and hucksters and research reporters on U-Tube. You are the cream that rises. Among the few who join you in that, you sit alone at the very top: succinct, articulate w/o pomposity, untainted by the till, warm delivery, and sciencescienceSCIENCE. Thank you
Stephen

[supratiksarkar]

🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation:

00:00 🌱 *A randomized trial comparing vegan and omnivore diets in identical twins, with 44 twins (22 pairs) randomly allocated to each diet.*
00:50 🥦 *Both diets designed to be healthy, avoiding ultra-processed foods; study lasted two months with free food delivery in the first month.*
01:19 📉 *After two months, vegans experienced a larger drop in LDL-cholesterol, a 17% reduction in fasting insulin, and a 1.5 kg weight loss compared to omnivores.*
02:34 🍽️ *Weight loss, reduced saturated fat intake, and possibly increased fiber intake contributed to the observed changes in insulin and cholesterol levels.*
03:28 🔄 *Study design allowed different calorie intake; isocaloric studies answer different questions than ad libitum studies, and both are valid.*
04:25 🧪 *B12 levels trended down in vegans, but not significantly; TMAO levels (indicator of animal product consumption) trended down but not statistically significant.*
05:41 🧬 *Biological age measured but not included in the publication; to be published separately. No significant differences in HDL-cholesterol, triglycerides, and fasting glucose.*
06:58 🥩 *Protein intake in vegans at 57g/day, possibly near the RDA; improved grain intake during the trial, but refined grains bounced back after the trial.*
08:19 🤔 *Diet satisfaction reduced in vegans, with 90% planning to continue some dietary changes; omnivores showed a higher likelihood of adherence.*
09:33 🍔 *Difficulties in adherence for vegans included dislike of foods, longer preparation times, unfamiliarity, and hunger satisfaction issues.*
10:51 🔄 *The study emphasizes common nutritional principles: sustainability, protein intake for vegans, cardiovascular metrics for omnivores, and favoring whole foods for both diets.*

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[BM.V]

For me 10 years vegan my diet satisfaction is 10/10 for daily life but i agree when eating out the options arent as good. Fully vegan restaurants are expensive, its like a rice and lentil dish is over $24 at most places. Like come on, the cheapest foods you can prepare and you charge as much as a restaurant selling steak just because you have the vegan name. And then when you get it there is barely any veggies at all and still feel hungry after cause the portions aren't good cause people think vegans need to eat the same volume but we need more volume cause of the lower caloric density. I very rarely eat out cause of this. But if i had to rate my satisfaction score for eating out it would be a 1/10 so I agree with the participants. Eating at home, bo problem, eating out is tough.

[HPLeft]

I have been an ethical vegetarian (not vegan) now for 43 years. For most of this time, I ate a lot of dairy and packaged foods - and I ended up being diagnosed roughly a decade ago with 50% blockage in three coronary arteries and high blood pressure. I have since moved to a near-vegan, high-fiber version of the DASH diet - and am now enjoying reasonably good cardiac health. In hindsight, I can only attribute my coronary issues to the consumption of high-fat dairy and processed foods. I personally have no problem staying on my current diet, especially now that I am retired and have the time to prepare most meals.

[falconjames]

Going fully plantbased 10 years ago cured my excema, gum issues, anxiety, EXTREME mind fog etc. It turned off health issues I had since I was a young kid like a switch in just a matter of days. blew my mind. Today I do triathlons, have perfect blood values, full of energy, happy and vibrant never had any health issues whatsoever ever. I guess everyone is different though and we might respond differently to foods. But for me it saved my life and gave me an awesome one.

[nichtsistkostenlos]

Not opting to balance protein intake across both groups seems like a HUGE miss. Weird that they opted to specifically lower the vegan protein intake, potentially introducing confounding variables completely unnecessarily.

[Cedrus]

I have been whole food plant based for three years. At 71years old, I now weigh in at my high school wrestling weight. I'm never ever going back to the American Diet. I do not like cancer or heart disease. I was surprised how every restaurant and grocery stores have so many foods for this new trend. We really can rescue Americans from devastating Cancers and Heart Disease.

[rockerbob]

As a father of 19 year old identical twin boys this is super interesting. One plays college baseball and one has his personal trainer certification…..so both are very physically fit. Mom is a no gluten vegetarian and dad is an omnivore.

[Barb]

Excellent video. I was vegan for almost 30 years.. a year ago I started eating everything. Number one was finding out I had osteoporosis (and discovered vegans are prone)…and, in addition, getting too much muscle wasting. Now I’m feeling so much better.. my BP went from 145/90 to 119/70. I lost 8 pounds ( I tried not to loose weight, but it just happened). I’m now 5’4” 118 lbs. I can get up from the floor easily—an issue that scared me. I really needed more protein, and I hope all vegans start to increase as you age…and watch those oscillates! One other massive change was eliminating all ultra processed foods and all added sugar and alcohol. I did that in one day after listening to Dr Robert Lustig speak and it woke me up to the horrendous detriment of UPF and sugar. Huge wake up call on that. Now I would call my diet more Mediterranean style and extremely low carb. I feel like this is how my body was meant to fuel.. and (like you mentioned in the video) this is truly personal. I’m 76.

[jrmint]

As a woman, eating enough protein was not a priority bc so many vegan influencers say americans consume too much protein. That was the wrong message for women, especially as they get older. We most definitely need to pay attention to protein bc women by design pick carbohydrates when left to their own device. I lost a lot of muscle during my few years of dieting. Women need to prioritize protein and resistance training. It would've been interesting to see how the breakdown of sexes affected protein fat and carb breakdown, bc I really agree that protein was quite low for the vegan group. Most aging women cannot afford a drop in protein intake just bc we don't have much muscle to spare...most of us.

[Anonymous-dveh]

Hi doctor,
Can you please make a video about pumpkin seeds / oil and concerns regarding lectin ? There's so much contradictory information around and it gets very confusing. You are the one person i can trust to deliver the complete information regarding such things.
Thank you so much for all your thoroughly researched videos.

[Test-ebbj]

As you said, reactions & results are really not surprising and I get the reasons for the lower acceptance of vegan foods. If your “why” is not intrinsic or convincing enough it can can throw you off as the constant navigation to get the right food is tiring. Would be interesting to see if their attitude differed between the first and second month. Convenience plays a BIG role in food patterns.

[KTPurdy]

If you choose vegan, take you time (years) to get there at your own pace. After starting vegan 15 years ago, I love the diet

[drbachimanchi]

As an endocrinologist I find it very easy for many patients to follow predominantly wholefood plant based with occasional animal products.... Almost eating animal products once in 15 days... Mostly some milk fish and eggs. I have seen many people slowly becoming vegan over time once they catch hold of vegan philosophy

[YousufS]

It would be really interesting to see what a typical day of eating looks like for you

[veganfortheanimals]

Interesting stuff, Doc. Am interested in hearing more about the "biologically younger" info that hasn't been released

[joshs-honn]

Appreciate the more balanced summary of the study on this channel, compared to most of the media gushing over how vegan outperformed omnivore. The lack of control on kcal explains both the weight loss and blood markers, and the lack of satisfaction on the diet also (at least partially) explains the lower consumption of kcal. So not surprising, and not at all the home run that most of the media stories are running with. Also very much appreciate you pointing out the low B12 and low protein in these diets; if this was planned more than an 8-week study, I'm sure the IRB would have shut it down for safety reasons!

[bhami]

My wife and I have been whole food plant-based for twenty years (mainly following Dr. Fuhrman). We would never go back to omnivore, but it is true that food preparation time is an issue, and requires the serious long-term commitment. Yes we make big batches of soups and such to freeze, but still...