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*Plant-based diets include:

• Semi-vegetarian - eat only small amounts of animal flesh.
• Vegetarian
• Lacto-ovo-vegetarian - eat no animal flesh, but sometimes eats eggs and dairy products.
• Vegan - eat no animal flesh, eggs, or dairy products.

Vegan Outreach promotes a vegan diet to prevent the suffering of animals. Since the average American consumes thousands of animals over the course of a lifetime, each person who eats a vegan diet makes a difference by removing their support from the factory farming and slaughtering of these animals.

This site includes a summary of the long-term, scientific studies on vegetarians and vegans. The few studies that included vegans have not supported the idea that a vegan diet is vastly superior to a diet that includes some meat or a lacto-ovo vegetarian diet. Some vegans have found this to contradict what they have always heard. This can be explained by a few things:

• Popular vegan literature has often extrapolated rates of heart disease and some cancers, in cultures that eat little meat or among people who eat a lot of fruits and vegetables, as indications of the health status of vegans. This cannot substitute for studying true vegans.
   
• Risk factors such as cholesterol levels have been used to make projections about the health of vegans, but these do not necessarily tell the whole story. For example, while vegans' cholesterol levels are on average lower than meat-eaters, vegans who neglect vitamin B12 and omega 3's are possibly counteracting their low cholesterol levels.
   
• Many groups promoting veganism do not want to bring attention to any nutritional concerns. While this might initially attract more people, getting people to stay vegan is the harder and more important task, and addressing concerns is a more sustainable way to promote the diet.

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