I have my doubts, though I do believe the propaganda that vegans are much less likely to go down the T2 path in the first place. The reason for the lower incidence of T2 in vegans isn't clear, though it may just be that because they are vegan they have to avoid most of the processed food in the supermarkets, which tend to be full of excess carbs (and other rubbish). Is it just the excess sugar in modern processed food that messes us up?
They don't all proselytize, by the way, my son moved from vegetarian to vegan a couple of years ago and has never pushed his eating habits on others.
The trouble is that it's really really hard to work out the benefits and disadvantages of different dietary choices (other than macdonalds is bad
). It's very hard to do double blind trials on people eating low carb or vegan, and though long term studies of different populations are available, it's incredibly easy for researchers to see what they want to see rather than look at the evidence objectively. Yes, it seems likely that going low carb is an effective way to control the metabolic disorder known as T2 diabetes. I certainly recommend it to any new T2s that I meet.
But I feel uncomfortable when people start to regard dietary choices with a religious fervour, whether it's veganism or HFLC or the NHS eatwell plate. There can be good reasons for doing any of them. And I don't think that there is one ideal diet that suits everyone, though as said before, I'm pretty sure that macdonalds is bad...