( MENAFN - The Conversation) What's the difference? is a new editorial product that explains the similarities and differences between commonly confused health and medical terms, and why they matter. Vegan and vegetarian diets are plant-based diets . Both include plant foods, such as fruits, vegetables, legumes and whole grains.
But there are important differences, and knowing what you can and can't eat when it comes to a vegan and vegetarian diet can be confusing. So, what's the main difference? A vegan diet is an entirely plant-based diet. It doesn't include any meat and animal products.
So, no meat, poultry, fish, seafood, eggs, dairy or honey. A vegetarian diet is a plant-based diet that generally excludes meat, poultry, fish and seafood, but can include animal products. So, unlike a vegan diet, a vegetarian diet can include eggs, dairy and honey.
But you may be wondering why you've heard of vegetarians who eat fish, vegetarians who don't eat eggs, vegetarians who don't eat dairy, and even vegetarians who eat some meat. Well, it's because there are variations on a vegetarian diet: A 2023 review looked at the health effects of vegetarian and vegan diets from two types of study. Observational studies followed people over the years to see how their diets were linked to their health.
In these studies, eating a vegetarian diet was associated with a lower risk of developing cardiovascular disease (such as heart disease or a stroke), diabetes, hypertension (high blood pressure), .
