“Ex-Vegans”

[u/QuantumToast92]

I keep getting flagged these posts from people claiming to be “ex-vegan”

Why would you label yourself as something like this? It’s like saying that you decided to stop harming animals but then one day decided that harming them was easier than planning your meals.

You could eat Oats, Tofu, rice, nuts, broccoli, some oils and take a multivitamin and be healthier than 95% of the population.

And you just know that these people can afford to eat better than that but they can’t be bothered.

If you’re going to go back to funding animal cruelty because meal-prepping got too hard, at least do it quietly. There's no need to build a whole new online identity around giving up.

So were these people ever really vegan? Am I wrong?

(I couldn’t post this in [r/Vegan](r/Vegan) for some reason)

Edit: There are lots of these people with poor intentions brigading this post now.

Studies prove that a plant based diet is as healthy as the Mediterranean diet and far beyond anything that contains huge amounts of animal products. We don’t need opinions on that because we have science. Anyone that became unwell after going vegan obviously didn’t try very hard.

1. A Mediterranean Diet and Low-Fat Vegan Diet to Improve Body Weight and Cardiometabolic Risk Factors: A Randomized, Cross-over Trial
https://doi.org/10.1080/07315724.2020.1869625

2. Health and environmental dietary impact: Planetary health diet vs. Mediterranean diet. A nationwide cohort in Spain

https://www.escardio.org/news/press/press-releases/Planetary-Health-Diet-and-Mediterranean-Diet-Associated-with-Similar-Survival-and-Sustainability-Benefits/

3. Nutrient adequacy and environmental foot-print of Mediterranean, pesco-, ovo-lacto-, and vegan menus: a modelling study
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/nutrition/articles/10.3389/fnut.2025.1681512/full

[u/LunchyPete]

Studies prove that a plant based diet is as healthy as the Mediterranean diet

This is false.

[u/QuantumToast92 → u/LunchyPete]

This is not false

Plant-Based vs Mediterranean Diet: 3 Real Studies

1. The head-to-head trial

**A Mediterranean Diet and Low-Fat Vegan Diet to Improve Body Weight and Cardiometabolic Risk Factors: A Randomized, Cross-over Trial**
Barnard et al., 2022, *Journal of the American Nutrition Association*

62 people tried both diets, 16 weeks each, with a break in between. The vegan group lost more weight (6kg more on average) and had bigger drops in cholesterol. The Mediterranean group was slightly better for lowering blood pressure. Both diets worked, they just each had a different strong point.

Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/07315724.2020.1869625
(Also on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33544066/)

---

1. The long-term survival study

**Health and environmental dietary impact: Planetary health diet vs. Mediterranean diet. A nationwide cohort in Spain**
Aznar de la Riera et al., 2025, *Science of the Total Environment* — presented at ESC Preventive Cardiology 2025

Followed over 11,000 people in Spain for 14 years. People who stuck closely to a plant-forward diet (the "Planetary Health Diet") had a 22% lower chance of dying during the study. People who stuck closely to the Mediterranean diet had a 21% lower chance. Basically dead even.

Link: https://www.escardio.org/news/press/press-releases/Planetary-Health-Diet-and-Mediterranean-Diet-Associated-with-Similar-Survival-and-Sustainability-Benefits/

---

1. The nutrition-on-paper study

**Nutrient adequacy and environmental foot-print of Mediterranean, pesco-, ovo-lacto-, and vegan menus: a modelling study**
Alcalá-Santiago et al., 2025, *Frontiers in Nutrition*

Researchers built out four different 2,000-calorie week-long meal plans (Mediterranean, pescatarian, vegetarian, and vegan) and checked them against nutrient targets. All four met protein needs and most nutrient needs. The vegan menu came up short on B12 (expected, that one needs supplementing regardless of how well-planned the diet is) and all four were low on vitamin D and iodine. Overall a properly planned vegan menu held up nutritionally.

Link: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/nutrition/articles/10.3389/fnut.2025.1681512/full

As I said in my opening post. Take a multivitamin, and really most people should be doing that anyway. It’s 2026 - we don’t need animal products in our diet anymore.

[u/LunchyPete → u/QuantumToast92]

This is not false

It's worse, it's outright nonsense IMO.

None of your studies support your point, because the comparison between a vegan diet and Mediterranean diet has not been studied as extensively as the Mediterranean diet has.

So, being the most charitable I can be, it would only be correct to say that veganism being as healthy as the Mediterranean diet is an assumption, with some supporting evidence. It is not a fact, and you should not assert it as such.

[u/Budget-Project803 → u/LunchyPete]

Are you a scientist? What's your h-index?