A Swedish study found people with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) could cut their risk of heart attacks and strokes by excluding meat, dairy products and gluten from their diets.
Some 66 RA sufferers were assigned at random to either a vegan diet that was free of gluten or a well-balanced non-vegan diet for a year. The result showed that the vegan group had lower body mass index and levels of bad cholesterol than the non-vegan group. Levels of antibodies associated with protection against cardiovascular disease was also increased in the vegan group.
Some limitations of the trial - the sample size was very small and almost half of the people assigned to the gluten-free vegan diet dropped out of the study before one year elapsed.
Source: "Gluten-free vegan diet induces decreased LDL and oxidized LDL levels and raised atheroprotective natural antibodies against phosphorylcholine in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: a randomized study" Arthritis Research & Therapy 2008 (free open access)
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