User:KA9812/sandbox

Health Effects
Cardiovascular Disease

The consumption of a plant-based diet may be beneficial in mitigating factors related to atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. A collection of evidence has shown that plant-based diets can lower risk of heart disease in various randomized-controlled trials and cohort studies. Under these conditions, plant-based diets were shown to lead to improvements in weight loss, LDL cholesterol, HbA1C levels and glycated hemoglobin. A diet composed of plant-based sources as opposed to animal products is associated with a greater occurrence of heart disease. Other factors that may improve with a plant-based diet include blood pressure, obesity and glycemic control. More research needs to be done in order to further evaluate this increasing body of evidence relating to an inverse relationship between plant-based diet consumption and cardiovascular disease risk.

Protective properties of a diet predominantly derived from plant sources could originate from the inherent differences between animal products and plant-based food. In many studies, a plant-based diet is associated with an overall decrease in LDL cholesterol, HDL cholesterol and total cholesterol. A reduction in LDL cholesterol is beneficial for preventing or reversing atherosclerosis, a key risk factor for cardiovascular disease. This type of lipoprotein is more likely to become trapped in Apo-B receptors of the arterial wall. Once trapped, LDL cholesterol are prone to oxidation, which can lead to the proliferation of fatty streaks and plaque. In addition, a plant-based diet may be higher in anti-oxidant properties compared to a diet containing more animal-based sources. A higher presence of anti-oxidants within a diet would decrease the rate of oxidation of LDL cholesterol, mitigating the onset of the atherosclerotic process. Plant-based diets may also contain a lower amount of trimethylamine-containing dietary compounds, which are primarily found in meat and dairy. These compounds can undergo conversion to toxic trimethylamine N-oxide that is associated with the development of heart disease, among many other complications. Other factors that plant-based diets can improve include inflammation and C reactive protein levels.

Political and Social Implications

The adoption of a plant-based diet for preventing or treating heart disease provides many challenges for individuals. A lack of public receptiveness towards policies that promote plant-based diets makes it very controversial to recommend these diets in lowering cardiovascular disease risk. Despite growing evidence, there is still relative uncertainty around which exact properties of plant-based diets contribute to combatting heart disease and other health issues. While the health effects of smoking and alcohol consumption have years of established evidence, the relationship between plant-based diets and cardiovascular disease requires further exploration. In addition to the protection against the atherosclerotic process, many people opt for a plant-based diet for many other reasons such as animal welfare and environmental wellbeing. The willingness for an individual to undergo these modifications in their diet may depend on various social and structural influences unique to each person.

Annotated Bibliography
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:KA9812/sandboxannotatedbib

Articles of Interest
Vegan nutrition

Plant-based diet

Veganism

I chose the three articles above because I knew I wanted to further research veganism through a nutritional perspective as I entered this course. As someone who has followed a vegan diet for 7 months, I'm very invested in exploring both possible health benefits and risks associated with this particular diet. Thus, I think the fact that this topic is heavily ingrained within my life makes it very suitable for my Wikipedia article assignment. I know that a vegan diet really encompasses the essence of a nutritional controversy, so I didn't have a difficult time finding suitable articles.

After looking over all three articles, I conducted my preliminary research by looking over the various popular and scholarly articles that were listed with in-text citations within the Wikipedia articles. I ultimately found that while there are some scholarly articles and studies that investigated the nutritional benefits and risks of veganism, they all produced conflicting results depending on the particular subject. For instance, one clinical trial reported that a low-fat vegan diet improves glycemic control and cardiovascular risk factors. On the other hand, another study showed that vegans had higher rates of bone fractures due to allegedly low intake of Vitamin D and Calcium. Overall, it seems that veganism in a nutritional context is a very controversial topic and the literature definitely exhibits this through the variety of results and conclusions that have arisen depending on the given topic.

Overall, I didn't really find any surprises as I knew going in, the scholarly articles would greatly vary from one another in terms of their results. While there is a lot of uncertainty surrounding the nutritional benefits of a vegan diet, this interests me even more in taking on this topic for my Wikipedia article assignment. I'm predicting that I won't really be able to write about any certainties related to a vegan diet, which I think is totally reasonable given its complexity. I hope to make a genuine contribution to the discussion around veganism through this in-depth assignment. While I didn't have to make any changes to my topic of interest, I'm open to any suggestions in order to facilitate the process even more.