Healthy Vegan Gut Flora Recognized as Gold Transplant Standard for Those Suffering From C. difficile, Other Serious Digestive Complaints

For Immediate Release:

September 6, 2017

Contact:

Megan Wiltsie 202-483-7382

Norfolk, Va. – PETA has found a nifty way of making new vegans: Since fecal microbiota transplants are becoming more popular as a treatment for patients suffering from C. difficile (C. diff), Crohn’s disease, and other serious and debilitating stomach ailments—and since fecal transplants from healthy vegan donors are considered the gold standard—it posted a call on its website this morning urging vegans to sign up to become “super fecal donors” through stool banks OpenBiome and Advancing Bio. PETA hopes that by helping people beat serious stomach complaints, vegan fecal donations will help recipients see the value of going vegan themselves in order to save lives—those of animals and, potentially, their own.

“Eating a whole food plant-based diet leads to the growth of good gut bacteria, which in turn leads to the improvement of overall health,” Dr. Angie Sadeghi says. “As a gastroenterologist, I love the idea of PETA calling on healthy vegans to extend their lifesaving work by donating fecal matter to humans suffering from C. Diff and other treatable ailments.”

As Dr. Sadeghi discusses on her website, gut flora can even have psychological effects. High-fiber plant-based foods such as vegetables, nuts, seeds, fruits, and legumes can increase the growth of beneficial bacteria in the colon and decrease inflammation, which has been linked to anxiety and depression.

“Vegan kitchens save 100 animals a year, and now, vegan bathrooms can be used to save some of our fellow human beings,” PETA President Ingrid Newkirk says. “PETA is betting the farm that after meat-eaters experience the health and mood benefits of vegan stool, they’ll go vegan themselves.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—notes that in addition to boasting healthy gut flora, vegans are, on average, 10 to 20 pounds lighter than meat-eaters are, and they’re less prone to suffer from heart attacks, strokes, obesity, diabetes, or cancer.

For more information, please visit PETA’s blog.