Key articles supporting plant-based nutrition:

• Dewell, A., Weidner, G., Sumner, M. D., Chi, C. S., & Ornish, D. (2008). A very-low-fat vegan diet increases intake of protective dietary factors and decreases intake of pathogenic dietary factors. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 108(2), 347-356.
• Melina, V., Craig, W., & Levin, S. (2016). Position of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics: Vegetarian Diets. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 116(12), 1970-1980.
• Rohrmann, S., Overvad, K., Bueno-de-Mesquita, H. B., . . . Linseisen, J. (2013). Meat consumption and mortality–results from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition. BMC Medicine, 11, 63.
• Song, M., Fung, T. T., Hu, F. B., Willett, W. C., Longo, V. D., Chan, A. T., & Giovannucci, E. L. (2016). Association of Animal and Plant Protein Intake With All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality. JAMA Internal Medicine, 176(10), 1453-1463. Nurses’ Health Study data.
• Tuso, P. J., Ismail, M. H., Ha, B. P., & Bartolotto, C. (2013). Nutritional update for physicians: plant-based diets. Permanente Journal, 17(2), 61-66.
• Yang, Y., Zhao, L. G., Wu, Q. J., Ma, X., & Xiang, Y. B. (2015). Association between dietary fiber and lower risk of all-cause mortality: a meta-analysis of cohort studies. American Journal of Epidemiology, 181(2), 83-91.

Key articles and further resources by disease:

Autoimmune diseases

• Barnard, N. D., Levin, S., Crosby, L., Flores, R., Holubkov, R., & Kahleova, H. (2022). A Randomized, Crossover Trial of a Nutritional Intervention for Rheumatoid Arthritis. American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine.
• McDougall, J., Bruce, B., Spiller, G., Westerdahl, J., & McDougall, M. (2002). Effects of a very low-fat, vegan diet in subjects with rheumatoid arthritis. Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 8(1), 71-75.

Cancer

• Barnard, R. J., Gonzalez, J. H., Liva, M. E., & Ngo, T. H. (2006). Effects of a low-fat, high-fiber diet and exercise program on breast cancer risk factors in vivo and tumor cell growth and apoptosis in vitro. Nutrition and Cancer, 55(1), 28–34.
• Ornish, D., Weidner, G., Fair, W. R., . . .  Carroll, PR (2005), Intensive lifestyle changes may affect the progression of prostate cancer, Journal of Urology, vol. 174, no. 3, pp. 1065-9; discussion 9-70. **RCT**
• Ornish, D., Lin, J., Chan, J. M., . . . Blackburn, E. H. (2013). Effect of comprehensive lifestyle changes on telomerase activity and telomere length in men with biopsy-proven low-risk prostate cancer: 5-year follow-up of a descriptive pilot study. The Lancet Oncology, 14(11), 1112-1120. **RCT**
• Tantamango-Bartley, Y., Jaceldo-Siegl, K., Fan, J., & Fraser, G. (2013). Vegetarian Diets and the Incidence of Cancer in a Low-risk Population. Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, 22(2), 286-294 – Based on data from the Adventist Health Study 2.
• More Cancer resources

Diabetes

• Barnard, N. D., Cohen, J., Jenkins, D. J. A., Turner-McGrievy, G., Gloede, L., Green, A., & Ferdowsian, H. (2009). A low-fat vegan diet and a conventional diabetes diet in the treatment of type 2 diabetes: a randomized, controlled, 74-wk clinical trial. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 89(5), S1588-S1596. **RCT**
• Kahleova, H., Znayenko-Miller, T., Smith, K., Khambatta, C., Barbaro, R., Sutton, M., . . . Barnard, N. D. (2024). Effect of a Dietary Intervention on Insulin Requirements and Glycemic Control in Type 1 Diabetes: A 12-Week Randomized Clinical Trial. Clinical Diabetes. **RCT**
• More Diabetes resources

Gut health

• David, L.A. et al. (2014). Diet rapidly and reproducibly alters the human gut microbiome. Nature, 505(7484), 559-63.
• Levine, A., Sigall Boneh, R., & Wine, E. (2018). Evolving role of diet in the pathogenesis and treatment of inflammatory bowel diseases. Gut, 67(9), 1726-1738.
• More Gut health resources

Heart health

• Esselstyn C. B., Gendy, G., Doyle, J., Golubic, M., & Roizen, M. F.
  (2014). A way to reverse CAD? Journal of Family Practice, 63(7), 356-364b.
• Esselstyn, C. B. (1999). Updating a 12-year experience with arrest and reversal therapy for coronary heart disease (an overdue requiem for palliative cardiology). American Journal of Cardiology, 84(3), 339-341, A338.
• Krenek, A. M., Mathews, A., Guo, J., Courville, A. B., Pepine, C. J., Chung, S. T., & Aggarwal, M. (2024). Recipe for Heart Health: A Randomized Crossover Trial on Cardiometabolic Effects of Extra Virgin Olive Oil Within a Whole-Food Plant-Based Vegan Diet. Journal of the American Heart Association, 13(15), e035034.
• Landry, M. J., Ward, C. P., Cunanan, K. M., Durand, L. R., Perelman, D., Robinson, J. L., . . . Gardner, C. D. (2023). Cardiometabolic Effects of Omnivorous vs Vegan Diets in Identical Twins: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Network Open, 6(11), e2344457. **RCT**
• Ornish, D., Brown, S. E., Scherwitz, L. W., . . . Gould, K. L. (1990). Can lifestyle changes reverse coronary heart disease? The Lifestyle Heart Trial. Lancet, 336(8708), 129-133. **RCT**
• Satija, A., Bhupathiraju, S. N., Spiegelman, D., Chiuve, S. E., Manson, J. E., Willett, W., . . . Hu, F. B. (2017). Healthful and Unhealthful Plant-Based Diets and the Risk of Coronary Heart Disease in U.S. Adults. Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 70(4), 411–422. More Heart health resources

Obesity

• Barnard, N. D., Alwarith, J., Rembert, E., Brandon, L., Nguyen, M., Goergen, A., . . . Kahleova, H. (2022). A Mediterranean Diet and Low-Fat Vegan Diet to Improve Body Weight and Cardiometabolic Risk Factors: A Randomized, Cross-over Trial. J Am Nutr Assoc, 41(2), 127–139.
• Wright, N., Wilson, L., Smith, M., Duncan, B., & McHugh, P. (2017). The BROAD study: A randomised controlled trial using a whole food plant-based diet in the community for obesity, ischaemic heart disease or diabetes. Nutrition & Diabetes, 7(3), e256. **RCT**
• See Weight Management resources

Women’s health

• Kahleova, H., Holtz, D. N., Strom, N., La Reau, A., Kolipaka, S., Schmidt, N., . . . Barnard, N. D. (2023). A dietary intervention for postmenopausal hot flashes: A potential role of gut microbiome. An exploratory analysis. Complementary Therapies in Medicine, 79, 103002.

Websites dedicated to nutrition research:

• NutritionFacts.Org – developed by Dr Michael Greger. He has developed thousands of short videos presenting the science of nutrition. Each video lists the peer-reviewed articles referred to with links to PubMed so you can track down the original article.
• Plant Based Research
• Plant Positive: Making the Case for Plant-Based Nutrition – takes a very detailed look at the evidence behind articles promoting high-protein and high-fat diets.