It's a new year, and with it, many of you are probably well on the way to making or breaking your New Year resolutions. Whether it be quitting smoking, stopping drinking, or hitting the gym, there are any number of resolutions we can fool ourselves into thinking we'll uphold. Still, when it comes to Yes Theory's Matt Dahlia, he actually went vegan for 30 days to see what effect it would have on his body.
Doing 'Veganuary' is a popular trend, and like we already covered a pair of twins trying out separate meat and vegan diets to see the differences, Dahlia wanted to see what would happen to his own body.
Noting that the trend of vegan diets has 'skyrocketed' in the past decade, Dahlia says documentaries like The Game Changers and Cowspiracy have fuelled the vegan movement. Alongside stats on environmental and animal cruelty benefits, some suggest that a vegan diet can have some serious health advantages. Dahlia mentions how he previously tried to go vegan but quit after six days, saying he felt 'exhausted'.
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With the help of athletes, doctors, and nutritionists, he hoped to take things a little more seriously this time around. Going shopping with noted nutritionist Matthew Lederman, Dahlia showed off a shopping trolley that was bulging with the likes of carrots, peppers, mushrooms, and even seaweed.
He also met with a vegan bodybuilder to show that you can do more than just survive on being vegan, but become a top-level athlete.
Admitting that it's not a simple experiment, Dahlia said: "The one thing about this is I feel like I'm constantly thinking about food and what I need to consume. It's like almost like a job to make sure that you're on top of your nutrition.
"I hope that this is just temporary because if it's always like this, and you always have to think about what you're eating next and all that, then it's just like, 'Yeah, I think i'm gonna go crazy."
A week into his new vegan lifestyle, Matt said he felt amazing but then met with Max Lugavere - author of Genius Foods. Lugavere warned that there's a lot of misinformation about which diets are good for you, and while a vegan lifestyle is billed as 'healthy', properly raised animal products can be an important part of what you consume. His advice is to do your research.
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As for the results, Dahlia had his blood work done again, finding out that his B12 and testosterone went up - although the B12 was largely due to supplements. Speaking to Megan Retterath, director of nursing at Better Health, she noted how there was also improvement to his thyroid and production of T4, as well as his protein levels.
It wasn't all perfect, as Retterath concluded that he'd lost the amount of good cholesterol in his body. This was presumably due to not eating healthy fish like salmon and tuna.
Dahlia concluded: "I did not expect the results to be that good, it's actually quite shocking. I kind of feel like I don't have a choice but to go majority plant-based now the results were better after they were before." Saying that while he might have the odd animal-based product, it looked like a vegan lifestyle was the one for him.
Although it seemed to have a pretty positive impact on Dahlia's diet, professionals warn a change to only eating vegan might not be for everyone.