However, it is still important to remember that even vegetarians who enjoy pasta, crackers, cookies, chocolate, sweets and large amounts of soda will also suffer from being overweight and obesity. The real benefit from eating a vegetarian diet does not come just from eliminating meat but also from eliminating processed foods, simple sugars and incorporating a greater number of complex carbohydrates into the diet plan.
Vegan diet, weight loss, and diabetes:
A prospective clinical intervention study of diet and its effects on body weight and other cardiovascular risk factors recruited 113 workers aged 21 to 65 years with a BMI≥25 kg/m2 or with a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes. Workers at the intervention site were instructed to follow a low-fat vegan diet. At the end of the 22 weeks, the intervention group lost on average 5.1 kg (vs a gain of 0.1 kg in the control group; P<0.0001) as well as an average of 4.7 cm from their waist (vs gain of 0.8 cm in the control group). Among the intervention group, 48.5% had a weight loss of 5% body weight compared to only 11.1% among the control group. (9)