A vegan diet offers a range of health benefits. For those who want to lose weight, a vegan diet can be helpful. A vegan diet can also help keep your heart healthy.

What's more, this diet may offer protection against certain types of type 2 diabetes and other cancers.

Switching from a typical Western diet to a vegan diet means you'll be eliminating meat and animal products. This will cause you to become more dependent on other foods. In the case of a vegan diet, the alternatives are as follows:

-whole grains

-fruit

-vegetable

-beans

-pea

-nut

-seed

Here are the benefits of a vegan diet.

1. Eating vegetarian food can help you lose unwanted pounds

More and more people are turning to plant-based diets in hopes of shedding unwanted pounds. While there's no guarantee that a vegan diet will lead to weight loss, there may be some good reasons to give it a try.

Numerous observational studies have shown that vegetarians tend to be leaner and have a lower body mass index (BMI) than nonvegetarians. A vegan diet was more effective at losing weight than the diets it was compared to.

What's more, vegetarian and vegan diets are as widely accepted as semi-vegetarian and standard Western diets. Those in the vegetarian and vegan groups who didn't follow the diet completely still lost more weight than those on a standard Western diet.

2. A vegan diet appears to lower blood sugar levels and improve kidney function

A vegan diet may also offer benefits for type 2 diabetes and decreased kidney function. In fact, vegetarians tend to have lower blood sugar levels, and higher insulin sensitivity and may have a lower risk of type 2 diabetes.

Even if you're not a complete vegetarian, increasing your intake of healthy plant foods and reducing your intake of meat and dairy may lower your risk of type 2 diabetes.

3. Reduce the risk of diabetic complications

In general, a vegan diet is thought to reduce the risk of complications in people with type 2 diabetes.

Diabetics who substituted plant protein for meat might have a reduced risk of poor kidney function, and what's more, a vegan diet might help relieve pain from peripheral neuropathy, a common condition among people with diabetes.

4. Becoming a vegan may prevent some cancers

According to the World Health Organization, at least one-third of all cancers can be prevented through factors you can control, including diet. Vegetarians generally eat more legumes, fruits, and vegetables than non-vegetarians.

This could explain why vegetarians may benefit from a 15% lower cancer risk.

5. A vegan diet is linked to a lower risk of heart disease

Eating fresh fruits and vegetables, legumes, and fiber has been linked to a lower risk of heart disease. A well-planned vegan diet often includes all of these foods in higher amounts than a standard Western diet.

Observational studies comparing vegans, vegetarians, and nonvegetarians reported a 75% lower risk of high blood pressure among vegans. Vegetarians may also have a lower risk of dying from heart disease.

The vegan diets were more effective at lowering blood sugar, LDL (bad) cholesterol, and total cholesterol levels than the diets they were compared to.

This may be especially beneficial for heart health, as lowering high blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar levels can reduce the risk of heart disease by as much as 46%. A balanced vegan diet includes plenty of whole grains and nuts, both of which are good for your heart.

6. A vegan diet can reduce pain from arthritis

A vegan diet has positive effects on people with different types of arthritis. People with arthritis either continued on an omnivorous diet or switched to a whole-food, plant-based vegan diet for 6 weeks.

People on a vegan diet reported higher energy levels and generally functioned better than those who didn't change their diet. A vegan diet may help improve symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis, including pain, joint swelling, and morning stiffness, but this relationship requires further investigation.

The higher antioxidant, probiotic, and fiber content of the vegan diet, as well as the absence of certain trigger foods, may account for these benefits.