Is talk about vegan diets being more healthy is mostly just confirmation bias and tribal thinking? A vegan diet can be very healthy or very unhealthy, and a non-vegan diet can also be very healthy or very unhealthy. The simplistic comparisons that I tend to see are contrasting vegans who put a lot of care and attention toward their food choices and the health consequences, versus people who aren’t really paying attention to what they eat (something like the standard American diet or some similar diet without much intentionality). I suppose in a statistics class we would talk about non representativeness.
Does the actual causal factor for health tend to be something more like cares about diet, or pays attention to what they eat, or socio-economic status? If we controlled for factors like these, would a vegan diet still be healthier than a non-vegan diet?
Is talk about vegan diets being more healthy is mostly just confirmation bias and tribal thinking?
I also think if often is. I find discussions for and against veganism surprisingly divisive and emotionally-charged (see e.g. r/AntiVegan and r/exvegans )
That said, my understanding is that many studies do control for things like socio-economic status, and they mostly find positive results for many diets (including, but not exclusively, plant-based ones). You can see some mentioned in a previous discussion here.
In general, I think it’s very reasonable when deciding whether something is “more healthy” to compare it to a “standard”. As an extreme example, I would expect a typical chocolate-based diet to be less healthy than the standard American diet. So, while it would be healthier than a cyanide-based diet, it would still be true and useful to say that a chocolate-based diet is unhealthy.
I’d also guess, without much evidence, that there’s a halo effect-like thing going on where if someone really care about averting animal suffering a vegan diet starts seeming more virtuous, which spills over into their assessment of its health benefits.
Is talk about vegan diets being more healthy is mostly just confirmation bias and tribal thinking? A vegan diet can be very healthy or very unhealthy, and a non-vegan diet can also be very healthy or very unhealthy. The simplistic comparisons that I tend to see are contrasting vegans who put a lot of care and attention toward their food choices and the health consequences, versus people who aren’t really paying attention to what they eat (something like the standard American diet or some similar diet without much intentionality). I suppose in a statistics class we would talk about non representativeness.
Does the actual causal factor for health tend to be something more like cares about diet, or pays attention to what they eat, or socio-economic status? If we controlled for factors like these, would a vegan diet still be healthier than a non-vegan diet?
I also think if often is. I find discussions for and against veganism surprisingly divisive and emotionally-charged (see e.g. r/AntiVegan and r/exvegans )
That said, my understanding is that many studies do control for things like socio-economic status, and they mostly find positive results for many diets (including, but not exclusively, plant-based ones). You can see some mentioned in a previous discussion here.
In general, I think it’s very reasonable when deciding whether something is “more healthy” to compare it to a “standard”. As an extreme example, I would expect a typical chocolate-based diet to be less healthy than the standard American diet. So, while it would be healthier than a cyanide-based diet, it would still be true and useful to say that a chocolate-based diet is unhealthy.
You choose great examples! 😂
Strong upvote for the attempted mirth—I think I’m one of the few that appreciates it around here :D.
I think your confounders are on the money.
You might be interested in Elizabeth’s Change my mind: Veganism entails trade-offs, and health is one of the axes. I especially appreciated her long list of cruxes, the pointer to Faunalytics’ study of nutritional issues in ex-vegans & ex-vegetarians, and her analysis of that study attempting to adjust for its limitations which basically strengthens its findings (to my reading).
I’d also guess, without much evidence, that there’s a halo effect-like thing going on where if someone really care about averting animal suffering a vegan diet starts seeming more virtuous, which spills over into their assessment of its health benefits.