A whole load of identical twins went through a food experiment where they tried different diets for several weeks to see what sort of impact it has had on their body.
This wasn’t just for fun, the twins were competing on Netflix show You Are What You Eat – not to be confused with the Gillian McKeith show on British telly in the noughties of the same name where she poked through people’s poo.
Instead, viewers were promised they’d be able to witness a ‘twin experiment’ where one was put on a vegan diet and the other could eat like an omnivore, meaning they could scoff meat and other animal products.
In this big experiment, many sets of twins took part and afterwards pretty much all of those who took part decided to make a change to their lifestyle after finding that the twin on the vegan diet had a better life expectancy, lower risk of heart disease and a higher sex drive.
Among the pairs of twins were cheesemaking brothers Charlie and Michael, with Charlie going vegan for the purposes of the show.
Michael (left) and Charlie (centre) have both drastically changed their diets after the experiment. (Netflix)
Before he’d started he’d been an avowed omnivore, but afterwards he decided to go almost vegetarian as he said that meat was ‘trending off his plate’.
He does still have meat with a few Chinese dishes and soups, but reckons he’s about 90 percent of the way to wrapping up his meat consumption.
Meanwhile, Michael was already a pescatarian before the show and he’s since gone full vegetarian.
Other twins on You Are What You Eat ended up trending away from meat eating as well, with sisters Pam and Wendy staying as omnivores but eating around half the meat they usually chomped their way through in their diets.
Brothers John and Jevon decided their time eating red meat was pretty much up after being on the show, while sisters Carolyn and Rosalyn also stayed as omnivores but decided to phase some meat out of their diets.
Would you switch to a vegan diet? A bunch of identical twins did. (Netflix)
It’s not the only case where identical twins have tried the ‘meat vs vegan’ diet as twins Hugo and Ross did something similar, but stretched things out for 12 weeks and not just eight.
Hugo, who did the vegan diet, admitted he struggled early on as he got cravings for meat and cheese but once he got used to it he felt like he had higher levels of energy.
His energy levels felt more consistent too, while his brother Ross felt like he went through bursts of energy with his levels then dipping afterwards.
A study on 21 pairs of identical twins found that the person on the vegan diet ended up getting a younger biological age, but Tom Sanders, professor emeritus of Nutrition and Dietetics at King’s College London, responded to the study by saying older vegans were ‘more likely to suffer from muscle loss, low bone density and neurological disorders’.
