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 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."
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:
Why Do Vegans Look Younger? Here’s Why According to Science
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 health 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 people eating meat.
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 Compounds Help Vegans Look Younger?
Healthy 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 balanced 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:
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 rich in vitamin A and C 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.
Frequently Asked Questions
The answer is, it is possible. In a study involving identical twins, it was found that following a short term vegan diet in just eight weeks can reduce estimate biological age, which is an indicator of overall health and risks for age related diseases, such as cardiovascular disease. The results are consistent with previous research that a vegan diet offers anti-aging benefits, especially at a genetic level.
Is it possible to stay young forever on a vegan diet? Unfortunately, no. However, vegan diets have been proven to slow down and prevent cellular damage. Cellular damage occurs naturally as part of the aging process. According to dietitians, following a vegan diet supports aging better than other dietary patterns due to its focus on nutrient-dense, plant foods and higher intake of fruits, veggies and healthy fats. These foods decrease inflammation and oxidative stress, which are primary contributors to aging. Vegan diets are also free from processed foods which contain harmful substances.
Moreover, the key to aging well is more about healthy eating and achieving adequate nutrient intake, preventing nutritional deficiencies, and consuming nutrient dense foods. Forgoing animal products and dairy products also help you look and feel better.
You can eat as often as you want to, but the frequency of how often you should eat depends on your caloric intake and how often you feel the need to eat. Because you consume fewer calories (plant based foods have a lower caloric density), you may notice that you have to eat more frequently than non-vegans. Listen to your body’s hunger cues and eat accordingly. Aim to consume nutrient-dense, whole foods, and adequate protein and fiber from fruits, vegetables and fortified foods regularly to avoid hunger pangs.
