Health Effects of Vegan Diets by Winston Craig - Essay Example

"Health Effects of Vegan Diets by Winston Craig" is a remarkable example of a paper on food and nutrition.
My research paper thesis statement argues that a vegan diet can reduce the severe health factors that face Americans from different diversities and the nutritional benefit that is accompanied by a vegan diet is associated with significant health benefits. In relation to my thesis, I found the journal article, “Health Effects of Vegan Diets”, written by Winston J. Craig to be very relevant. Aside from the fact that it is a peer-reviewed scholarly article from the Google Scholar database, the wealth of information it contained made me immediately settle on it as one of my best sources. The statistics, data, and information contained in this source were beneficial to me as they helped me come up with very relevant and substantial arguments for my research paper.

 It is evident that Winston did extensive research on the issue of veganism in the United States. The facts and figures spread across this source are very interesting and backed by other sources as well. For example, in his article, Winston provides the fact that a nationwide poll conducted in the country in 2006 confirmed that about 1.4% of the American population is vegan (Craig, 2009). Besides, a tone of other facts and figures helps to narrow down the main topic that the author is talking about. Throughout the article, Winston has made sure to indicate the source behind his facts and figures concerning a certain relevant point.

One issue that concerned me, however, is its date of publication, since the article was published in 2009, which to be quite frank, is a little bit old. However, this was the only downside I found with this source. That notwithstanding, the article was published by Oxford Publishers, which is a very well-known publisher. This fact makes the source even more credible. I was also impressed by the way the author divided his work into strong subtopics, all of which argued in favor and against the vegan diet, proving that the source is very credible since it presents two sides to the argument.

The author covered in great detail, his arguments in favor of people adopting a vegan diet and went on ahead to list the potential downsides of adopting this lifestyle. He also pointed out that vegans should find alternative supplements to make sure they are not deficient in essential minerals and vitamins such as calcium, zinc, n-3 fatty acid ALA, and vitamin D, and also vitamin B-12 (Craig, 2009). This type of information presents the author's counterargument, thereby strengthening his overall argument. On top of this, the author also puts out different questions across his article and answers them effectively. For example, Winston asked the question of “what is the health and nutritional status of vegans” and followed these questions with a wealth of information to answer this question (Craig, 2009).

Last but not least, what made me determine this source as a credible source is the fact the author remains unbiased throughout his work and on top of that backs up his facts with relevant evidence. The author acknowledges that adopting a vegan diet has numerous health benefits, but also acknowledges that this type of diet has significant shortcomings. The author backs the fact that a vegan diet has been established to reduce an individual’s chances of developing Cardiovascular Disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity, and even cancer using substantial evidence. “According to the evidence criteria of the World Health Organization and Food and Agriculture Organization (WHO/FAO), cancer risk reduction associated with a high intake of fruit and vegetables was assessed as probable or possible, risk of CVD reduction as convincing, whereas the lower risk of osteoporosis was assessed as probable (10)” (Craig, 2009).

In conclusion, I deemed this source to be very helpful and reliable. The information put therein is backed by sufficient evidence from other sources. The way the author presented sides to the argument of veganism is very appealing, and this source will help me to come up with very strong arguments for my research paper. The source helped to corroborate my research question and thesis statement, and I believe it will continue to be vital to the rest of my research.