A plant-based veggie diet may give you an edge in longevity. But you don’t have to follow a completely vegetarian eating pattern to benefit. Two studies took different approaches, but both agree that eating more vegetables is good for you.
People Eating a High-Veggie Diet Live Longer
Researchers collected data from the Nurses’ Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study. Over 100,000 adults were tracked for as many as three decades (Circulation, online, March. 1, 2021). The participants filled out questionnaires on their diets every few years. In this analysis the investigators focused primarily on fruits and vegetables. They also considered data from 26 other international studies involving nearly two million people.
People who consumed roughly five servings of produce daily were least likely to die during the study. The greatest benefit seemed to come from three servings of veggies and two servings of fruit daily.
[Circulation, online, March 1, 2020]
More Evidence on Veggie Diet Benefits
An earlier study from Loma Linda University compared mortality statistics of more than 73,000 volunteers from Seventh-day Adventist churches in North America. Nearly half were non-vegetarians, eating meat occasionally.
How Much Did a Veggie Diet Help?
During a follow-up period of almost 6 years, the vegetarians had a lower risk of dying. This included vegans, lacto-ovo vegetarians and pesco-vegetarians, those who include fish in their diet. The effects were stronger in men than in women.
What makes this study more convincing than others is that all participants were Seventh-day Adventists with low rates of alcohol and tobacco use. This study reinforces the idea that a diet based largely on plants and lower in meat is likely to have health benefits.
[JAMA Internal Medicine, online, June 3, 2013]
Learn More:
There are delicious meals with vegetables, some including fish, in our book, Recipes and Remedies From The People’s Pharmacy.
