Well, we have dueling anecdotes, I went vegetarian (not vegan) 5 years ago and never looked back. I am in my 50s, and three seasons out of four I cycle at least 35 miles a week, run about 5K twice a week, and otherwise walk that distance every day. (During the winter I exercise indoors, and harder.)
My cholesterol is much improved, and despite being a type 1 diabetic for almost 40 years all the evidence indicates my cardiac health is terrific.
I’m not trying to boast, just provide readers a different experience. I’m glad you’ve found a regimen that works for you.
I’m 52, eat a Paelo diet, I do Brazilain Jui Jitsu, bike 30 miles a week, run a 5k here or there and I can guarantee my health metrics are better than yours across the board. Not to mention probably have you on the ground unconscious in 30 seconds in embarrassing fashion. You may have decent cholesterol, but what kind of cholesterol, what type, what size molecule. Vegan diets in men will raise your risk factors in a number of ways, vegan diets are high in estrogen(soy) enhancing chemicals, which causes a cascade of health issues. Sorry you are entitled to your opinion, not your facts, A vegan diet is against your biology and will kill you. Humans are naturally omnivores. Not a single primitive society, not a one, was vegan. Not any place on earth. Why is that? Keep eating a high carb diet(vegan diets by definition get their nutrition mostly from carbohydrate) with your diabetes, you’ll be a burden someday in the next couple of years. The sores, the organ failure, etc.
And with that one statement you underscore the obvious difference between the two.
‘Nuff said.
Anecdotes are us. I cut out carbs, ate more green vegetables, meat, and animal fat and lost 40 pounds and lowered my cholesterol drastically.