ABSTRACT
The hallmark of vegan diets is the absence of animal products including meat, poultry, milk, and fish. Relatively few Americans follow a vegan diet, with just 2% currently self-reporting as vegan adherents, 1 up from 1% in the 1970s. 2 However, the growing body of research reporting health and environmental benefits of vegan dietary patterns is likely to increase the number of individuals interested in adhering to a vegan dietary pattern. In particular, adherence to a vegan diet is associated with weight loss in overweight adults. 3,4 In addition, there are clear benefits of vegan eating for reduced greenhouse gas emissions and water use for food production. 5 For example, beef production uses 20 times more water than grain and root vegetable agriculture per calorie of food produced, 6 and systems modeling indicates that worldwide use of plant-based diets that align with current nutrition guidelines could reduce greenhouse gas emissions due to food by 29%–70%. 7
