Vs other diets
A vegan diet beat the Mediterranean diet head to head
By WhyStopHarmingAnimals.com
The Mediterranean diet is the usual alternative offered to people weighing a vegan one. When researchers have put it directly against a vegan diet, the vegan diet did better on weight and LDL cholesterol[1].
The same people, both diets
In a 16-week crossover trial (Journal of the American Nutrition Association, 2021), the same 62 adults ate a vegan diet for one period and a Mediterranean diet for the other[1]. Because each person was compared with themselves, differences in genes, habits and starting health were taken out of the comparison. On the vegan diet they lost 6 kg and their LDL cholesterol fell 15 mg/dL[1]. On the Mediterranean diet, neither weight nor LDL changed[1].
Blood pressure went the other way[1]. It fell further on the Mediterranean diet[1], which was that diet's win in the trial.
A later analysis published in BMJ Nutrition, Prevention & Health in 2026 added further head-to-head support for a vegan advantage on key outcomes[2].
Calories matched
The CARDIVEG crossover took a different approach, holding calories down on both diets (Circulation, 2018)[3]. Among 118 overweight adults, a low-calorie vegetarian diet and a low-calorie Mediterranean diet took off the same weight, 1.9 against 1.8 kg[3]. The vegetarian diet lowered LDL cholesterol more[3], and the Mediterranean diet lowered triglycerides more[3].
The two trials asked different questions. CARDIVEG restricted calories on purpose[3], so matching weight loss is what you'd expect; the vegan crossover set no such limit, and weight came off only on the vegan diet[1]. On LDL cholesterol, both trials found the diet with fewer animal products did better[1][3].
The wider evidence
Beyond single trials, reviews of vegetarian and vegan diets and major chronic disease (Nutrition Journal) place these patterns at the lowest combined risk of heart disease, diabetes, cancers and mortality[4]. That matches the direction of the head-to-head trials.
The trials are small and short, and each diet won something: the Mediterranean diet did better on blood pressure in one trial[1] and triglycerides in the other[3]. But on the two numbers people most often choose the Mediterranean diet for, weight and cholesterol, it didn't come out ahead[1][3]. A diet with no animals in it matched or beat it on both[1], so the animal foods the Mediterranean diet keeps aren't what makes it healthy, and the animals on those plates were never needed.