Best Diet for Weight Loss: Vegan or Mediterranean Diet? | Dr. Neal Barnard

Will you lose more weight on a vegan diet or the Mediterranean diet? "The Weight Loss Champion" Chuck Carroll is joined by Dr. Neal Barnard LIVE to discuss the results of a study that tested the diets head to head to see which is best for weight loss!

Dr. Barnard also talks about whether the brain causes you to crave fat when you're eating a low-fat diet!

Have a question about diets? Leave it in a comment and we'll try to get you an answer on an upcoming episode.

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[fenfen]

I live in Israel, so i can tell you about our diet: 1. Junk food here is VERY expansive, but Our fruits and vegetables are very cheap. 2. Most of the year is hot, and when it's hot you eat less, and more lightly . 3. Because most of the year is hot, we are very conscious of how our body look in summer clothes and bathing suits, so we exercise and eat well, which is easy, cos plants are cheap and VERY accessible with wide variety. PLUS, our health care system encouraging a healthy life style :) We also very encouraged to quit smoking and have free meetings to help with it.

[solotraveler]

Hah, I was on the Mediterranean diet for ever, Mediterranean food was by far my favorite food. I was also on high blood pressure and cholesterol meds forever. Nearly 16 months ago I went whole food plant-based vegan and today I am Rx free, blood pressure is perfect now. I will never eat animal products again, the way I feel is all the proof I need.

[amystarobin]

I bought broccoli and chia peas with vegetarian broth and cooked them with seasoning minced garlic minced onion and turmeric to start Vega . I eat quaker high fiber oatmeal packet 3 cups of grapes I eat a16 oz broccoli and there are 2 cups in Progresso chick peas . I payed off my treadmill and started it today after many years without walking. I did 1.6 mph today in 5 segments throughout the day. I am 66 soon 67 I have lost from 263.6 to 204 seeking 150 for 5.5

[carmen.rudman]

I could listen to Dr Barnard all day long. So knowledgable & kind 🦋

[angelaspielbusch]

Love ❤️ Dr Neal!!!! The Thank you for this wonderful channel!!!!

[vegahimsa]

It was mocked, but 80/10/10 (carbs/fat/protein) remains the clearest description of a healthy (whole plant vegan) diet.

Sure, variation is allowed (and more complicated), but not much. Protein 5-20%, Polyunsaturated fat 5-10%.

[karenborowick]

Luv this show. I've learned sooo very much and am happily about 90% vegan. Thank you for all you do.

[luluandmeow]

I've always had my doubts about how "slimming" the Mediterranean diet is considered, as I grew up in Italy and lots of people are overweight, it's normal for 30 year olds and older to be overweight, not obese but still not slim and not normal weight either. Once you give up oil, you'll be wondering how you could ever pour it on a little lettuce leaf or steamed veggies as they're tasty on their own, no need to add fat.

[norak]

I loved Doctor B's inner squirrel analogy! It's hard to win a battle against mother nature! I'm 5 5 and was 117 lbs before winter started now I'm at 123lbs! I'm 64 years young and feel great with no meds! Once this cold breaks I will be outside much more and actually have a hard time staying at 117! I definitely eat more in the warmer months but I use many more calories as well!
Loved this presentation and LOVED the inner squirrel explanation!

[daviddrost]

"The most important finding in this study is that the daily use of olive oil, about 40 grams per day, markedly reduces the dosage of blood pressure medication by about 50% in hypertensive patients on a previously stable drug dosage, " says L. Aldo Ferrara, MD, associate professor of internal medicine at the Frederico II University of Naples in Naples, Italy, and the study's lead author."

[tatoalfasino]

I am from mediterranean coast in Spain and we have a problem with old people. Most of them are obese or overweight because everybody thinks olive oil is healthy. The olive oil industry in Spain is very important.
The goverment is trying to make a Nutriscore ranking products from A to E, olive oil is the only product that would be out.

[citadelofwinds]

The charts truly tell the story - especially the one involving the head to head diets done for 2 x 16 weeks. I was surprised to see that those who did so well during the vegan diet actually ended up putting on weight when they switched to the Mediterranean diet. But no surprise that both groups lost quite a bit of weight on the vegan diet.

[ethicalphytophage]

Dr. Barnard, you're a marvel! Thank you for all you do! Vegan4life

[GEMSAustralia]

Wonderful way of explanation in simpler terms. Thanks a lot Dr Barnard and exam room

[brad]

I refer to myself as “mostly plant based” because even though my wife and I dropped meat on a whim with no transition, we are still having some dairy. Once we have eliminated those foods I will gladly refer to myself as vegan, a label I previously mocked and dismissed.

[orangemoon]

I have been asking the same question as Cindy but I DID GAIN WEIGHT after trying to switch from low carb diet of 4 yrs to WFPB with no fat/oil. However, I am not much of a meat eater...dairy I do like.
I really wasn't eating enough of either the last 8 months and was not seeing anymore fat loss despite still seeing a good excess of it. The limited fresh produce choices had also lost their luster to me and the thought of legumes left me salivating. Low carb had gotten rid of my medical issues and lowered my weight...I finally felt alive! That's what had kept me on this diet. Now that I had fixed my issues, I thought I could do better if I could move over to a cleaner way of eating that felt more natural to me anyway. After almost 2 weeks of implementing the half and half plate method on WFPB, I had gained 8 pounds and always felt hungry or sick... never in the middle! Kind of like when I went through the keto flu. I kept thinking it would go away but the scale just kept going up, I freaked out... now what? I was so terrified and felt like I was stuck having to go back to low carb so I did. Lost the weight in a month plus a few more pounds but still really want to make the switch just don't know how without the drastic weight gain. I had to be so committed to be able to loose it and can't handle the thought of putting it back on so quickly. I had no idea I was backing myself into a corner on keto... I always thought I would be able to transition out. Any advice or resources would mean the world.

[zamin_ali]

Is there such a thing as a "Vegan diet"?

I believe what the doctors should be stating is what type of vegan diet it is. For example, is it a Whole Foods plant-based diet? Or is it any kind of diet that excludes animal products?

[peacefulveganrelationshipc]

Thanks so much for educating us and keeping us informed!

[iloveTRUMP]

Diabetes is my problem…I have only been doing this (plant based) for about a week and a half using very minimal evoo and my blood sugar has dropped dramatically

[Magnulus]

These two diets aren't necessarily mutually incompatible. Right now I find it more practical to eat a more or less plant-based Mediterranean diet that is somewhat lower in fat (25 percent of calories from fat), but not Pritikin or McDougall levels. Going down to 10-15 percent fat requires making everything yourself and completely avoiding processed foods.

I use alot of foods from Latin American and the southern US in my meals, as well as foods from southern France. Sometimes I also eat East Asian style foods, such as miso soup, and those tend to be lower in fat. I think long term, we all need to be working on ways we can transition to a more Vegan Macrobiotic or East Asian Vegan diet, with lots of cruciferous vegetables like bok choy, purple sweet potatoes, and calcium-rich tofu (if you eat foods like that, you hardly need fruit in your diet since they are so rich in vitamins), and macroalgae like kombu and alaria. But that shift is harder than even being Vegan itself for many people.

BTW, the Predimed study used 4 tbsp of olive oil a day. That's alot of calories. I try to use no more than a teaspoon of olive oil when I cook, and I only lightly spritz vegetables (if I do so at all) with it to go into my air frier, just because olive oil is so calorie dense- you will not lose weight eating tablespoons of any oil every day like that.