On this day in vegan history · November 30, 2023
The Twin Study That Cornered Genetics
Stanford put 22 sets of identical twins on the same clean diet except for one variable, and in eight weeks the vegan twin's cholesterol pulled away from their genetically identical sibling.
The facts
- Published
- November 30, 2023, in JAMA Network Open
- Subjects
- 22 pairs of identical twins (44 people), recruited via the Stanford Twin Registry
- Duration
- 8 weeks: 4 weeks of delivered meals, then 4 weeks self-prepared
- LDL cholesterol
- Vegan twins: 110.7 to 95.5 mg/dL. Omnivore twins: 118.5 to 116.1 mg/dL
Stanford Medicine researchers recruited 22 pairs of identical twins through the Stanford Twin Registry and split each pair onto a healthy vegan diet or a healthy omnivore diet for eight weeks, four weeks of delivered meals followed by four weeks cooking the same plan at home. Because identical twins share their genome, any gap between the two diets could not be blamed on genetics. The results, published November 30, 2023 in JAMA Network Open, showed the vegan twins pulling ahead on LDL cholesterol, fasting insulin, and body weight in just two months. Senior author Christopher Gardner called it a rare, generalizable test of a diet regular people could actually stick to: 21 of the 22 assigned vegans followed through.
In their words
The day in the words of the people who were there. Every quote is verbatim, and every source links out so you can check it.
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Our study used a generalizable diet that is accessible to anyone, because 21 out of the 22 vegans followed through with the diet
Christopher Gardner, PhD, Stanford Prevention Research Center, quoted by Stanford Medicine, November 30, 2023
Source: Stanford Medicine -
This suggests that anyone who chooses a vegan diet can improve their long-term health in two months, with the most change seen in the first month.
Christopher Gardner, PhD, Stanford Prevention Research Center, quoted by Stanford Medicine, November 30, 2023
Source: Stanford Medicine
Why it still matters
Twin studies are the closest nutrition science gets to controlling for genetics, and this one gave the vegan side a clean, short-term win on markers doctors actually track. It reframed the standard identical-twins-raised-apart thought experiment into a real trial, run on people who share a genome and, for eight weeks, nothing else.
Sources
This history is still being written.
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