Good for you, good for the planet

umerous studies have demonstrated the benefits of a vegan diet for humans, animals and the planet. When it comes to your health, studies have linked vegan diets with lower blood pressure and cholesterol, and lower rates of heart disease, type 2 diabetes), studies have shown that vegetarians and vegans have a lower risk of cancer than meat-eaters – in the UK, vegetarians have an 8-11 per cent lower risk and vegans 16-19 per cent lower. Vegan women have 34 per cent fewer female-specific cancers. Vegans are also less at risk of heart disease and have up to 50 per cent less chance of dying from it. If everyone in the UK ditched animal products, Viva! estimate at least 40,000 human lives a year would be saved.