In this episode, Jackie Jackson talks about her transition from the standard american diet to a plant-based diet. She lost 50 pounds in the process over about 1.5 years. Here are some pictures of her before (left) and (after) her weight loss.
Jackie explains in the video that she thought she was just “big-boned” but found later that she was able to lose weight on a plant-based diet and felt lighter. After she lost weight, she found it easier to exercise as well.
There have been many studies supporting how people on plant-based diets are on average thinner than their meat-eating counterparts. Berkow and Barnard found that a vegan or vegetarian diet is highly effective for weight loss.(1) Wang and Beysoun showed that there was a positive association between meat consumption and obesity, using data collected in the 1999–2004 U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.(2) The Oxford component of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition reported a significant difference in age-adjusted BMI, with the meat eaters having the highest BMI and vegans the lowest. (3)
Thanks to Jackie for sharing her inspiring story with all of us!
References:
(1) Berkow SE, Barnard N. Vegetarian diets and weight status. Nutr Rev. 2006 Apr;64(4):175–88.
(2) Wang Y, Beydoun MA. Meat consumption is associated with obesity and central obesity among US adults. Int J Obes (Lond) 2009 Jun;33(6):621–8.
(3) Rosell M, Appleby P, Spencer E, Key T. Weight gain over 5 years in 21,966 meat-eating, fish-eating, vegetarian, and vegan men and women in EPIC-Oxford. Int J Obes (Lond) 2006 Sep;30(9):1389–96.