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  • Hello, you're listening to CrowdScience from the BBC World Service, and this week

  • we're coming to you from a festival in London. A vegan festival. The Sun is out,

  • people are having a good time and feeling great. But is that because of

  • the lively atmosphere or because of their diet?

  • The WHO did find that red meats can put you at risk for cancer, but I just

  • find it a better kind of energy source for me personally for my body.

  • So from Bahrain, so we're an island and there's a lot of fish there, so usually

  • pescetarian is the choice for a lot of people, so it wasn't a hard transition

  • for me to cut out red meat and then all meats.

  • Do you think being vegan is a good thing?

  • Yes, it saves animals from being eaten. Do you think being vegan is healthier or not

  • Do you think being vegan is healthier or not healthier?

  • Healthier, cause you're not eating animals.

  • You can live a healthy life being vegan and actually if you look back

  • through history, a lot of cultures especially like you know African cultures,

  • they consumed a lot of vegan food because meat is quite expensive.

  • The reason why we have headed out to this plant-based party is because this week

  • we've come to meet our listener in person. Hello Sam, how are you?

  • Hello! Very hot.

  • Yeah it's a really sweltering day in London and you brought us to a festival, a vegan festival in

  • east London. The Sun is just going down there's lots of people drinking, having a

  • good time. Why have you brought us here?

  • Because I have a question for you: is being vegan better for your health?

  • So why do you want to know the answer to that question? Are you vegan?

  • No I'm not. I guess that's why I'm asking because I'm,

  • I've been moving towards a vegan diet but haven't quite got there. Answering this

  • question might help me decide.

  • Help you decide okay. So Sam wants to know whether

  • it's healthier to cut out all meat and animal products from her diet. The people

  • at the vegan festival would certainly say it is but what does the evidence say?

  • Does sticking to plants make you live longer? is it better for your heart or

  • your immune system? And are you less likely to get certain diseases? There's a

  • lot of information out there about the health impacts - good and bad - of a vegan

  • diet. So CrowdScience is here to trawl through the facts and figures for you.

  • To start things off with me here in the studio is producer Caroline, hello Caroline!

  • Hello I'm good how are you? I'm very well. So Caroline you are a vegan.

  • I am. Well I'd call myself plant-based. Okay, what's the difference?

  • well it basically gives me wiggle room when I mess up and eat cheese. I can be like, oh I'm only

  • plant-based, I'm not vegan! Okay so most of what you eat comes from plants but

  • occasionally you might eat dairy products or something like that.

  • Yeah, basically I'll eat dairy if i'm at someone's house and they've cooked for

  • me. I don't be annoying and be like, no I won't eat that.

  • Or it if you're a bit sad or happy... ... or I'm feeling a bit down, or want a reason to celebrate..

  • Or if I'm a bit hungry or a Tuesday (laughing). Okay cool and so are you mostly a vegan then for health reasons?

  • No not for health reasons for environmental reasons and animal welfare reasons.

  • Okay so how long have you been a vegan?

  • For years now, yeah for years. I've been veggie most of my life and basically...

  • So you've grown up as a vegetarian? So I wanted to be vegetarian pretty much as

  • soon as I realised that meat was animals, but my mum was really worried that I

  • wasn't going to get enough protein, so she used to hide meat in my food, so that

  • is how worried she was for my health. Okay and I mean does she still do that if you

  • go round for dinner? I mean I hope not who knows? But no she doesn't. She actually

  • doesn't know that I'm vegan because I know that she'll worry. So when I go

  • around for dinner I just kind of pick out the vegetables and look really rude

  • and like I don't eat much. But like surely your mum would understand now

  • because veganism is really common. I mean you only have to walk out of the office

  • and there's like about three new vegan food chains before we came to the studio.

  • I had a look online - so the number of vegans in America grew from 4 million in

  • 2014 to nearly 20 million in 2017. And here in the UK,

  • nearly half of vegans cite health as one of their reasons for their food choices.

  • So there are obviously lots of other reasons for deciding to be a vegan:

  • environmental reasons animal welfare considerations. We're not going to get

  • into that on this show. We are going to focus on the health impacts. Yes but if

  • any one listening does have questions about any of those other reasons, then do

  • send them in because maybe we can look into it in the future. So Anand - last time

  • we worked together we made a programme about motivation and I signed you up for

  • a 200 metre open water swim. Yeah proudest achievement probably so far

  • clocked up on CrowdScience. So what do you think your challenge is going to be this week?

  • I mean I'm gonna take a punt and say that I have to become vegan for

  • the rest of my life or something ridiculous like that.

  • Not quite the rest of your life, just two weeks. Will you do it? I guess, yeah, I

  • don't really have a choice! Okay so two weeks sounds manageable. I'm a little bit

  • wary because I do enjoy cheese and butter and eggs and honey - all the things

  • that you're not allowed to eat on a vegan diet. I suppose I would be a bit

  • worried about potentially getting enough of everything.

  • Okay well don't worry we're going to get all the information in this programme to

  • make sure you're doing it properly and to make it easy I've arranged for your

  • first meal to be a bit of a treat. So you're going to go for a burger at a

  • vegan restaurant around the corner called Eat By Chloe to meet CrowdScience

  • friend and nutrition expert Dr Giles Yeo who's going to give you some tips on how to adjust to the diet.

  • So I think our food is here. That looks like a

  • burger and that definitely looks like a sub. Giles, can I get you any ketchup? Or aioli? Oh yes,

  • ketchup and aioli. It's terrible, oh my god, if my wife... actually she might

  • be listening. She thinks that I murder food because I like a little bit of food

  • with my ketchup. And aioli. This is a pesto meatball. I'm gonna - I'm gonna take

  • a bite all right. First impressions. Sorry? Haha

  • The thing is I went for the sub because meatballs, pretty much, it's meat that's

  • been completely blitzed up and it's actually quite suitable for for the

  • vegan treatment. It's easy, it is very, it's very easy to get a texture and then

  • when you put it in something like the meatball sub it's all about the sauce, you can cover it up.

  • It's very good! Okay, I'm gonna go in for my "bacon cheeseburger" so there

  • are some little bits of - where's the bacon? - I don't know it's... maybe these

  • little brown shavings? There's pickles which is good. Okay I

  • think for the purposes of radio, I'm gonna need to take another bite. For sure.

  • So in terms of the nutrients that you need to get in a diet and the things

  • that you might be wary of missing out on if you become vegan, you have to watch

  • out when you're being vegan and there are few things you have to replace, okay

  • So let's start with the things you gotta watch out. You have to make sure that you

  • get a full range of the type of protein that you're actually gonna need. The

  • proteins are put together by these things called amino acids and not all

  • proteins have all of the amino acids and so you need to make sure that you

  • actually cover this. Now this is actually relatively easy to do so if you eat

  • something like tofu, that's pretty that's pretty complete. The second thing you've

  • got to worry about probably is iron. Now once again it's... you are gonna be able to

  • do this completely and particularly tofu eaters, okay?

  • I think you're gonna quite a lot of iron in that but if

  • you're particularly a picky vegan, then you need to watch as well, your iron

  • intake and make sure that you actually have enough iron. And then calcium. So

  • obviously if you're going vegan and suddenly all the dairy products

  • disappear, then you're gonna want to make sure that you have enough calcium as

  • well. You're going to be able to get that from really quite a number of different

  • types of vegetables and also from the beans. But you just need to make sure

  • you watch it. Right so a vegan diet can become a bit

  • low on protein, iron and also calcium. But if I'm careful and watch what I eat I

  • should be able to get enough of everything.

  • Are there other nutrients though, that I might need to take supplements for? There

  • are certain things that you will need to replace, the first and most important of (these)

  • is actually vitamin B12. Now the interesting thing about B12 is, B12 tends

  • to come from animal-based products. It's critical for brain development for

  • example and finally iodine, or depending on which part of the world you

  • actually come from. Now why? So famously things like seafood are high in iodine.

  • It's important for our development and also our maintaining our metabolism and

  • so there we go. You've got things like protein, iron and calcium in which you

  • need to watch, but you easily get, as long as you're careful. B12 and iodine are

  • things if you've made the decision to go vegan, you really have to supplement in

  • order to maintain healthy. Okay Caroline so a vegan diet isn't healthy and can

  • actually become quite unhealthy unless you take supplements because you might

  • get deficiencies in B12 or in iodine? So doesn't that technically mean that a

  • vegan diet isn't healthier for you because it doesn't have everything built

  • into it that we need? Yeah I see what you're saying, so I take B12 and iodine

  • every day and that doesn't bother me. I guess some people might say that's not

  • natural but then vaccines and antibiotics aren't natural either and we

  • need them for our health. Yeah, no, okay, I see where you're coming from, yeah that's a

  • good point. Okay well the next step is to start the

  • diet for real. You're not going to be in it alone. You and listener Sam are both

  • going to be sticking to the diet and we're going to do this properly. You're

  • gonna meet a dietician, she's known as the London nutritionist, her name is

  • Jo Travers and she's just around the corner and she's going to help construct

  • a meal plan for both of you. Brilliant, bring on the veganism.

  • So the reason why we're here really Jo is because we are interested about

  • veganism. I mean do you get a lot of people that come to your kind of

  • practice asking about veganism? I do now yeah, so in the last couple of years it's

  • become very very common with the rise of sort of more proprietary products so

  • things that are alternatives. So when you go now into any kind of high street cafe

  • particularly in London where we are, you know, you can get any vegan products you

  • like. Whereas before, people used to have to

  • carry a loaf of bread and a jar of peanut butter around with them, just in

  • case. Okay so I think the idea is that we're gonna have to go on a vegan... well, we

  • want to go on a vegan diet, so I've been keeping a little meal plan, have you Sam?

  • yeah. Why don't you go first? What have you been eating? I was surprised that this week...

  • At this point Sam ran through what she'd eaten over the last week - lots

  • of whole grains and vegetables while my ears burned in shame as I recounted a

  • few late-night fast food trips. But Jo had some words of wisdom about how to

  • approach our new diet in the weeks ahead. Alot of cheese... I have seen people follow

  • a vegan diet and be completely unhealthy and miss all of the main nutrients, but

  • I've also seen people do it really well. So if you're just trying to get through

  • a couple of weeks without eating animal foods, that's one thing, but if you

  • want to do in a healthy way, we have to see where we can make a few changes, does

  • that make sense? Yeah yeah. Two weeks isn't long but you can notice almost

  • immediately when you eat well, how much better you feel. You should measure your

  • energy level and then you can measure your progress and adjust it accordingly.

  • So if you feel tired maybe having a bit more carbohydrate and a little bit more

  • protein or getting some good balance to your meals.

  • If you feel constipated you probably need to drink a bit more water, being

  • aware of how you feel and being really mindful about how you feel is a really

  • good way to learn. Right good luck with it! Any problems just give me a

  • shout. Brilliant thank you so much. Thank you very much. How you feeling Sam?

  • Erm, actually motivated, because I think knowing that Joe's there

  • in the background and I'm doing it for a reason, I'm hoping that will motivate me.

  • I'll admit right now that I am not feeling motivated.

  • Although dietitian Jo says that switching to a vegan diet might make me

  • feel better now, that could be true. But CrowdScience is not about feelings - it's

  • about data. So what do the facts say? Well normally researchers would find a large

  • group of people and study their diet over time while measuring their health.

  • This is called epidemiology. Tt's been done for drinking and smoking in the

  • population but there's actually surprisingly little work done on vegans

  • and it is particularly tricky to study vegans in the wild, as it were, because

  • there are lots of other factors that might also play a role in their health.

  • So for example people who are vegan are likely to be wealthier and so that might

  • have an impact on the things that you're measuring. Someone who's been wrestling

  • with these issues for a while is Professor Tim Key an epidemiologist at

  • the University of Oxford in the UK. He's currently studying a huge group of some

  • 30,000 vegans and vegetarians. On average the vegans have a lower body mass index,

  • meaning they're sort of, not as fat as the meat-eaters, yeah, they're

  • thinner, they have a slightly lower blood pressure but not not a marked difference.

  • But they on average have a quite substantially lower level of cholesterol

  • in their blood. So all those differences you know - thinner, lower cholesterol, slightly

  • lower blood pressure are in the favorable direction and you would expect them to

  • lead to a lower risk of some diseases, particularly heart disease and diabetes.

  • What about cancer? I mean presumably if vegans aren't eating things like

  • sausages or steak are they less likely to get cancer? So these have found a low

  • risk for prostate cancer in vegans which is just statistically significant, so

  • that's interesting but not enough to say it's definitely true, you know,

  • it's in that direction. The studies I mentioned have also looked at the total

  • of all cancers added up and have found the significantly lower risk in vegans

  • than in meat-eaters, but I'm very cautious about it. I don't normally like

  • adding up all cancers because we know some types of cancers have probably got

  • nothing to do with diet or little so yeah lung cancer is mostly caused by

  • smoking and you know, there are other examples. Okay so vegans are thinner, they tend to

  • have lower cholesterol and lower blood pressure which probably means they're

  • less likely to get diabetes and heart disease and there's also some evidence

  • that they may be a lower risk from certain types of cancers.These all seem

  • like pretty big ticks but surely it can't all be good news for the vegans? So

  • far the one disease or condition we found where the risk was higher in

  • vegans than the other diet groups, was the risk of fractures of the bones which

  • suggests you know maybe their bones were just slightly weaker, so you

  • know that's an example of something where there could be a hazard by

  • following a vegan diet, where you're just not quite getting enough of some of the

  • nutrients. But I think there could be other things, because for many conditions

  • we just don't have the data yet. We've talked about about specific diseases but

  • what about like lifespan? I mean do vegans live longer? Well we've looked at

  • overall mortality in our study and people in America did the same and

  • neither found a significant difference. I think the best we can say at the moment

  • is that you can choose a vegan diet that will be good for your health but I don't

  • think you can argue that it would be better than a sensibly chosen non vegan

  • diet. What's your diet? Well yeah I've actually been a vegan since 1976 because

  • I used to be a vet. Oh wow. And I was concerned about the treatment of animals

  • and farming in slaughterhouses. Have you noticed a change in you and your health

  • since you switched or is it kind of just too too messy, you know, a

  • set of factors to try and... I don't think so, no.

  • It's a long time ago. I've got older, but I probably would have got older so...!

  • There you have it Professor Tim Key who has been a vegan for 43 years,is still

  • 43 years older. I'm about one week into my vegan diet and producer Caroline has

  • kindly invited me around to her flat for breakfast. So we're gonna be eating vegan

  • bacon butties. They sort of look like pink worms. Yeah. What's it actually made from?

  • Let's have a look. Okay it's got added iron and B12 so that's good.

  • Charles will be pleased, and it's made from rehydrated soya protein. Tastes

  • delicious. Yeah, okay so while the oil heats up and

  • and you're about a week into your diet, how's it going? It's been pretty

  • difficult actually. So I think in the first week I have just been forgetting

  • that I'm supposed to be vegan so I keep you know making tea and putting milk in

  • it and just kind of not realising. But the last few days I've been much more -

  • determined to actually try and be vegan. I'm always hungry and I know that this

  • is supposed to be breakfast but I've already eaten a breakfast, so this is

  • gonna be my second one.

  • You're going to spoil your appetite!

  • I could eat a horse. Okay. I'm not going to because I'm vegan.

  • And would you like a cup of tea? Oh I definitely would yes, what kind of milk

  • have you got going on in that fridge? I'm afraid there's only oat milk, probably enough

  • for a cup and speaking of milk we are about to do a bit of seamless cross

  • promotion because CrowdScience has literally got milk. We did a show

  • previously, a whole episode on dairy alternatives called which milk is best

  • for me and for the planet? Which actually helped me to decide which milk to buy so

  • you can download that and the whole of our back catalogue wherever you get your

  • podcasts. That was very smooth. Thank you, ooh there's milk.

  • I think the bacon is ready to go on the heat - okay let's stick that in there.

  • Oh that's on fire, okay so we're back at Caroline's and managed to set fire to

  • the packaging. Luckily Anand's here to save the day

  • as per... Shall I do that? You'll be pleased to hear that Caroline

  • successfully managed to put out the fire and that the sandwich of bacon worms was

  • actually pretty tasty. But enough about me. I wanted to hear how Sam was getting

  • on and whether she was holding up her end of the bargain. Hello! hi Sam! How is

  • the vegan diet going? Not bad actually, I've stuck to it. I've probably deviated from the

  • exact meal plan but predominantly you know, I've stayed. vegan. So no slip-ups? I had a glass of wine,

  • and someone said that might not be vegan, and I thought oh I

  • didn't, I didn't think about that. But I think if that's the worst of your

  • slip-ups mate, I think you're doing pretty well. I've maybe gone more simple, maybe really,

  • less like tofu, more like pasta and pesto. Pesto's not vegan! Yeah I know, you can make vegan pesto!

  • Okay good just checking. I'm just trying to kind of catch you out.

  • I haven't felt particularly different in the last week. Okay yeah me neither but

  • then again I haven't really been sticking to the diet that well...

  • All right well yeah, so good luck with the rest of the plan. You're putting

  • me to shame really ,but I've got a new kind of a newfound sense of

  • determination to stick to it. So I think I'm gonna keep going.

  • Good alright bye. So perhaps no surprises that Sam has been sticking to her vegan

  • diet plan better than I have. Now so far we've been looking at veganism from a

  • fairly narrow point of view, mainly my struggles to deal with an existence

  • without cheese. But a big component of veganism and health is the switch from

  • meat to alternative sources of protein things like micro protein, which comes from fungus and tofu

  • which comes from soy. At the start of this year (2019) the

  • World Economic Forum published a report about the future of meat substitutes

  • like this, where they modeled the health impacts of replacing meat with

  • alternatives. I spoke to Susan Jebb from the University

  • of Oxford in the UK about what health effects the model considered. So we were

  • basically looking at the effects on blood cholesterol levels, so that's

  • largely down to how much saturated fat there is in the product. We were looking

  • at the effects on blood pressure and then we were looking at the health

  • effects which we know were attributable to two dietary fibre or things like

  • potassium which is rich in in plant-based products. And yeah, what did

  • you find broadly? Broadly we found that anything's better than beef but if you

  • look at everything else there, the health improvements are all you know really

  • quite quite considerable. Susan's model found that overall, alternative proteins

  • lowered cholesterol blood pressure, increased fibre intake and decreased

  • intake of saturated fats. And by adding up the effects of all of these

  • individual components was able to measure the combined impact on health.

  • Well in the end you know it all ends in death and so we used that as our kind of

  • final, you know, overarching outcome. And what you see for some products is

  • because they are perhaps quite high in, say cholesterol it may be that you

  • get slightly adverse effects but overall the meat alternatives were better than

  • meat when you integrate all the different effects of sodium and and

  • cholesterol and fat and so forth. Did you look at how they would apply to people

  • depending on where they live in the world? Yes we did and that's a really

  • important thing to consider because if we look at meat consumption at present

  • it's incredibly variable. We've got some countries which are almost entirely

  • vegetarian whereas we've got countries like the UK, the US, Australia some parts

  • of Latin America with very very high meat intakes and whilst it's not

  • absolutely true, in general, high income countries consume a lot of meat and

  • lower-income countries consume less meat. But what's absolutely clear is that

  • High income, high meat-eating countries would

  • benefit their health if they ate considerably less meat whereas there may

  • be some countries, mostly low income countries, who are really developing

  • quickly now, where it may actually be good for their health if they were able

  • to eat a little bit more meat, because it is such a good source of of important

  • nutrients, which shows that it's important to have a global outlook on

  • this issue/ Because for many people in the West veganism is a choice. But of

  • course not everyone has that choice. This World Economic Forum report modeled the

  • health impacts of alternative meats but are there any real experiments done on

  • actual people? Well luckily for Crowd Science Andrew Salter from the

  • University of Nottingham has just done a study which is the first of its kind to

  • intervene in participants' diets rather than just measuring what people eat and

  • it confirmed Susan's predictions. And you've got a

  • group of meat-eaters to halve their meat intake and increase their consumption of

  • meat substitutes - things like vegetarian burgers and vegetarian sausages for

  • three months. And just like Susan's model predicted Andrew found a decrease in the

  • group's cholesterol by about ten percent which lowers their risk of heart disease.

  • But that's not all they found. There was also a rather unexpected result which

  • didn't appear in the World Economic Forum model. There was just one thing

  • that we found which surprised us, which we haven't really been able to explain

  • in terms of the changes in their diet, but it seems to be quite consistent, and

  • that was in the level of white blood cells in their blood. Now white blood

  • cells were involved in protecting us from infection and there was a

  • significant drop in the number of white blood cells. It still remained within

  • what we'd call a normal range but it went down and in one or two it actually

  • dipped just below the normal range and that was a complete surprise to us and

  • it really needs exploring a little bit more, but it was one potential adverse

  • effect so the people in the study they reduced the amount of meat they were

  • eating and then they kind of replaced it with these meat alternatives and it

  • seemed that you you're able to measure some some positive health outcomes.

  • But how are you able to separate out the fact that they were just eating less

  • meat from the fact that they were eating more of these meat alternatives? That's

  • always very difficult to know whether it's what you've taken out of the diet

  • or what's going into the diet which is having the positive effects. All I would

  • say is that we did, through doing diet diaries, look at their individual

  • nutrient intakes and most of the people involved in the study

  • significantly reduced their intake of saturated fat which is often associated

  • with meat products and we know, we've known for a long time, saturated

  • fat tends to put up LDL cholesterol - the cholesterol which increases your risk of

  • heart disease - so that's one factor I think which probably contributed to the

  • benefits. Whether there's an any additional benefit from physically

  • eating the meat alternatives I think you'd have to probe a little bit deeper

  • and do a slightly different sort of study to be able to assure that so a

  • potential cause for concern a decreased white blood cell count suggests that the

  • participants might be a greater risk of infection although we should say that

  • this is just one study and so more research is needed into this particular

  • issue and you also emphasize that this study was based on meat eaters in the UK

  • and that reducing meat consumption is it necessarily going to be healthier for

  • everyone in the West? We have an almost limitless supply of a whole range of

  • different types of food different types of vegetables, pulses, beans. We import

  • what we need. When you go into poorer parts of the world where they're

  • essentially often still dependent on what they can produce themselves, that

  • maybe one or two crops, and we know there's certain crops which particularly

  • that the protein for example isn't digestible or available, and they are at

  • considerable risk and introducing some meat and/or dairy products into those

  • diets can often take them out of that risk of malnutrition. I think we've just got

  • to be a little bit careful of preaching to these people. Just because we have to

  • change what we're doing it doesn't mean just at this moment we should be

  • eliminating meat from their diets. Thanks Andrew and we'll be putting a link to

  • that research up on the CrowdScience web page. Right so we are getting towards

  • the end of the show but Sam we've got you into the studio - thanks so much for

  • coming in, especially because as I understand it you're leaving tomorrow

  • for your wedding. Yeah flying tomorrow. Wow that is commitment. Well we're really

  • glad we managed to get a hold of you. As a thank you, we've brought some vegan

  • half-eaten treats. So this is a packet of bacon flavored snacks that is now empty

  • because Caroline ate them all on the way to the studio. There are also some cashew

  • nuts, some chewy fruity rainbow flakes wheats and some vegan chocolate.

  • Thank you especially for the eaten crisps. So the one thing we should

  • probably do is talk about the diet and maybe check in with Jo and see how it's

  • gone. Sure sounds good hmm Why don't you go first then? It's gone

  • quite well actually, surprisingly and that I've stuck to the whole vegan diet

  • but maybe not the meal plan as such and I'm still struggling with having a

  • breakfast in the morning. Yeah what about you Anand, have you... go on yeah. So the

  • first week wasn't great I'm gonna admit I've kind of kept forgetting I was

  • supposed to be vegan and I'm making tea and putting milk in there and stuff. Okay

  • but then the second week actually has been really good. So I think for the last

  • week I have been maybe 99% vegan so, it's just I'm hungry all the time, like I went,

  • I was driving the other day I had to pull over it's like a petrol station,

  • just buy some nuts and I was just shoveling nuts, it's just so... today,

  • I've just been eating non-stop. Yeah. What about your energy levels? They've

  • been yeah like it's hard to tell, like pretty pretty good, I think, while I was

  • gonna say it's meant that I've eaten less junk food but actually we just before we came

  • into the studio, actually, we were just all gorging ourselves on dark chocolate

  • and sweets, which is all technically vegan, yeah, so unless it's been sort of

  • either super healthy or super unhealthy. So after doing it for a couple of weeks

  • what do you think do you think you're gonna continue doing it? Are you gonna

  • sort of be a bit more flexitarian, what do you think? I think I like the

  • idea of being flexitarian so predominantly vegan, but I have to say, I

  • think I kept to it because I thought well it's just two weeks and then I can

  • have, like you know, yeah I can not worry too much if that packet of crisps

  • is not vega.n I think I like the concept of flexitarian a bit more. Yeah I think

  • that's interesting. What about you? And yeah I think I again I was just thinking

  • of it like I've just got to do this get it out of the way for a week. But I think

  • actually, more for environmental reasons, I have thought about becoming a

  • bit more vegan. And so yeah just things like you know I've never bought oat milk

  • before but actually I might just keep doing that and just cut down on animal

  • stuff you know, a little bit here and there. Yeah oh that's good that's

  • interesting well keep me updated, let me know how you get on and if you've got

  • any questions you can just give me a shout. Brilliant thanks so much. Sure

  • Okay and Caroline what are your thoughts

  • on this? I don't think you really thought I was going to be able to stick

  • to this diet but are you proud of what I managed?

  • I mean you didn't, you weren't vegan for two weeks but you tried, and I'm proud of

  • you for trying and towards the end you improved, so I'll give you a medal for

  • most improved vegan. That's all I want - medals. But yeah I am pleased you're gonna make

  • some vegan swaps and if you ever persuade me to make you a cup of tea I

  • will be making it with oat milk. So last question Sam, have we answered your

  • question, are you satisfied with the services that CrowdScience has provided?

  • Yeah I think you have I think. What's been encouraging for me is it's

  • not black and white - you must be vegan or you know you must follow this diet. It's

  • more about having a varied diet and you know, not always constraining yourself

  • If you do want to have a bit of a treat do that but if you're predominantly

  • plant-based then that's going to be better for your health which i think is

  • more attainable than just saying I must be vegan. That's it for this week's show

  • and I'm going to hand over to Sam to read out the credits but before I do

  • that I just wanted to ask you listeners a favour - if you liked our show please can

  • you consider leaving us a review wherever you get your podcast. It really

  • does make a difference - it helps more people to find out about CrowdScience

  • and it means that we can make more programs and also that Caroline can set

  • increasingly zany challenges for me to take part in. So Sam over to you.

  • That's it for this week's CrowdScience on the BBC World Service. Rhe question

  • this week was from me Sam Dawood. Today's episode was produced by Caroline Steel

  • and presented by Anand Jagatia. If you have your own question you'd like to

  • send in, like I did, you can email CrowdScience@bbc.co.uk

  • Thanks for listening. Bye!

Hello, you're listening to CrowdScience from the BBC World Service, and this week

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