This past week, we had the International Congress on Vegetarian Nutrition. During this congress, there were many different topics discussed relating the benefits that plant based diets have upon health, either to decrease overall mortality rate, improve longevity, improve the gut microbiome, decrease cancer rates (colorectal, prostate, and breast), and much more. For the first symposium, they discussed the topic of epidemiological studies of vegetarians, finding different cohorts studies and how it could affect health in the future. The Adventist Health Study-2 (AHS-2) it a long and extensive cohort study evaluating and comparing health outcomes amongst Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) vegetarian and non-SDA meat-based diets. There was a 60% mortality
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Reflection As future health professional, it is crucial to understand what are some nutrients that impact our health in a positive and negative way. Learning from all of these extensive studies, in which many of them took more than 10 years to have their results, I understood the positive health benefits of following a plant based diet. Moreover, in this congress, for the second symposium they evaluated if plant based diets are adequate in each life cycle, from early childhood to geriatrics. I learned that plant based diet, is adequate for anyone, at any age, and it promotes a healthier lifestyle, and longevity. In one of the lectures, the speaker ended with a quote from Michael Pollan, “Eat food, not too much. Mostly Plants”. This quote was interesting because it made me realize that we eat foods, (not specific nutrients), it also made emphasis in not eating too much, in which we can now interpret as to how we can see that over eating may cause chronic diseases, and then to eat mostly plants. This was the key point of everything, plants! This made me realize how since the beginning of the creation it was God’s intention for us to eat a plant based diet, but then after sin, He allowed us to eat meat in our diet. This made me realize than still, even though our body has degraded from the creation, our body tolerates better plant-based foods, rather than meats. For three days in the congress (ICVN) they showed scientific research of the health benefits of plant based
Reflection As future health professional, it is crucial to understand what are some nutrients that impact our health in a positive and negative way. Learning from all of these extensive studies, in which many of them took more than 10 years to have their results, I understood the positive health benefits of following a plant based diet. Moreover, in this congress, for the second symposium they evaluated if plant based diets are adequate in each life cycle, from early childhood to geriatrics. I learned that plant based diet, is adequate for anyone, at any age, and it promotes a healthier lifestyle, and longevity. In one of the lectures, the speaker ended with a quote from Michael Pollan, “Eat food, not too much. Mostly Plants”. This quote was interesting because it made me realize that we eat foods, (not specific nutrients), it also made emphasis in not eating too much, in which we can now interpret as to how we can see that over eating may cause chronic diseases, and then to eat mostly plants. This was the key point of everything, plants! This made me realize how since the beginning of the creation it was God’s intention for us to eat a plant based diet, but then after sin, He allowed us to eat meat in our diet. This made me realize than still, even though our body has degraded from the creation, our body tolerates better plant-based foods, rather than meats. For three days in the congress (ICVN) they showed scientific research of the health benefits of plant based