Veganism and Aging: Do Vegans Look Younger?

Last Updated: November 3, 2024

when i first came to veganism, i thought about the health benefits of going vegan

One of the interesting discoveries I had while going vegan took place by accident about two months in. I was scrolling through a vegan Facebook group to look for recipes.

It occurred to me while I was scrolling that many of the people in this vegan group all looked younger and fitter even when in their 60s and 70s.

I turned 32 this year, and I’ve started to think about things I wouldn’t have thought about before when younger like aging and how to do it well.  

When I discovered this fact about vegans, I was fascinated. Do vegans look younger? I wanted to know why so many of them looked younger.

Key Takeaways

  • What is a "Vegan Glow" and how can you get one?
  • Take a look at the various compounds found in abundance in the plant-based diet to look younger. 
  • Does veganism reduce your risk of developing skin conditions?

What is the "Vegan Glow" and How Can You Get One?

the “vegan glow” is what happens when your skin clears up, looks brighter, and healthier due to veganism, so they call it a "vegan glow, older vegans

The “vegan glow” is what happens when your skin clears up, looks brighter, and healthier due to veganism, so they call it a "vegan glow."

Going plant-based can help you stabilize and prevent cellular damage that causes aging. 

This fact explains why when I looked at many of the vegans, I found that many looked younger. 

In knowing this, you start to understand why vegans look younger. Now, not everyone believes this, but from my own personal observations, the vegans I saw all looked younger, and there is some people who have observed the same, but not everyone agrees with that. 

To get the vegan glow, some of the following foods can help you to get it:

  • Walnuts
  • Chia seeds
  • Hemp seeds
  • Sunflower seeds
  • Avocados
  • Tomatoes
  • Sweet potatoes
  • Oranges
  • Carrots
  • Bell peppers
  • Watermelon

Going vegan won’t necessarily stop aging, nor will it automatically give you a glow. You still need to eat healthy vegan foods to see the benefits. 

One study from the American Dietic Association found that many plant-based diets modulate the inflammatory and oxidative processes, which are the main things that can cause inflammatory skin diseases. This could explain why many vegans tend to have better skin. 

The other reason I realized that so many of them looked younger was because they all tended to be skinnier than the regular meat-eating population. 

This came from just observing the people on a Facebook group, but again, one survey of 10,000 vegetarians and non-vegetarians revealed that many of the vegetarians all tended to have a much lower BMI than non-vegetarians. 

They confirmed this again later with vegans and vegetarians as having the lowest average BMI over groups that had an omnivore diet.

What are the Compounds That Can Help You Look Younger?

vegan diets are naturally anti-inflammatory, older vegans

Vegan diets are naturally anti-inflammatory.

Not only will this give you a vegan glow, but the whole body benefits from the boost in antioxidants. 

Antioxidants improve cell function and increase your collagen production.

Good collagen production is crucial for skin health and keeping it elastic and flexible.

Plants contain 60 times the antioxidants that meats contain. Dark green veggies like broccoli, kale, and spinach all have higher antioxidants. Garlic, onion, cabbage, and berries are another great source of antioxidants.

To further help this along, you might consider drinking green tea, which has high polyphenols and science has proven that it can prevent age-related disorders. 

Many grains, seeds, and nuts serve as a rich source of vitamin E, a powerful antioxidant that also helps you to keep healthy and youthful-looking skin. 

One of the keys is not just looking younger, but a vegan diet will help you to feel younger and live longer because you’ll experience fewer aches and pains. 

You also need to understand one thing—no matter how good your diet, you still won’t necessarily look like you’re in your 20s.

Even a vegan will age with time, but keeping healthy skin will help you to look younger as will controlling your weight.

Does Veganism Reduce Your Risk of Developing Skin Conditions?

I already briefly spoke about this, but I’d like to go into even greater depth here. The vegan diet includes many nutrients that can help you to reduce your risk of skin conditions.

The most common ones that they can help include:

  • Acne
  • Psoriasis
  • Atopic Dermatitis
  • Hidradenitis suppurativa
in particular, veganism helps you with inflammatory skin diseases, veganism prevent skin diseases

In particular, veganism helps you with inflammatory skin diseases.

The reason that it does this is that getting the right level of vitamin D regulates your skin’s inflammatory response, and it protects you against irritants by building your epidermal barrier.

Vitamin A and vitamin C also prevent cellular damage and keep your skin firmer for longer. 

Vitamin A and vitamin C also prevent cellular damage and keep your skin firmer for longer. 

To further back up evidence of this claim that veganism can reduce your risk of developing skin conditions, a 2022 review from Nutrients evaluated 181 studies. This would include 45 case-controlled studies. 

The goal was to find a link between diet and inflammatory skin diseases. Researchers discovered that nutrition plays a role in many skin diseases like psoriasis, vitiligo, atopic dermatitis, and alopecia. 

When researchers examined the data more, they saw a positive correlation between plant-based diets and inflammatory skin diseases.

Researchers came to the conclusion that a plant-based diet could lower your symptoms and the risks of the disease due to the positive impact that a plant-based diet has on your gut microbiome. 

Your increased fiber is another thing that improves inflammatory skin diseases. On average, vegans consume 40 to 45 grams of fiber every day.

The reason that fiber reduces your risk of inflammatory skin disease is because it stabilizes your blood sugar.

Elevated blood sugar can alter your body’s immune response to bacteria, viruses, and fungi. As a result, you increase your risk of inflammatory skin diseases. 

FINAL THOUGHTS

Before I finish here, I’d also like to balance this article’s viewpoint and point out that not everyone thinks that vegans look younger.

Some would even say that they look older, but when I first came to veganism, I had no reason to believe one way or the other about this topic—I didn’t even know it was an actual thing. 

It was just that the first thing that I personally noticed was that they looked younger and were more fit than the general population.

Looking at all the nutrients that vegans take in, it makes sense. You still need to live a healthy lifestyle, but I really believe that veganism will make you look younger if done right.

About the author, Matt

Matt Gallus has lived the plant-based lifestyle for about a year now and is relatively new to it. He focuses much of his efforts on the healthy side of veganism, but he loves the lifestyle overall. His philosophy is that veganism is not an exercise of discipline and you can find many tasty vegan recipes.

Aside from veganism, he has 13 years of experience in professional writing. He has written for established publications like The Cat, The Catster, Golfspan, and La Siesta.

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