Vegetarians Live Longer

January 23, 2012 by Dr. Michael Cutler


I don’t stick to a strict vegan diet (I eat some meat), but I embrace the health benefits of mostly raw, fresh produce. I question whether animal meat really improves health or longevity. But minimizing animal meat, eating more nutrient-rich fresh vegetarian foods and restricting calories can provide big health and longevity dividends.

Meat Shortens Longevity

The Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) Church advocates vegetarianism, and scientists have often used its members as a study population to investigate the health value of eating or avoiding animal meat. The scientific literature that has resulted offers solid data on vegetarianism’s effects.

One of the first studies¹ of SDA members was reported in the American Journal of Epidemiology in 1984. Researchers observed 27,530 adult SDA Californians for 21 years, noting their consumption of 28 specific foods. They also examined their mortality rate and compared this information to characteristics of the general California population.

The researchers discovered that green salad consumption was significantly associated with fewer deaths and consumption of eggs and meat was linked to a greater chance of dying. These findings were consistent even after they adjusted their results to account for the effects of age, sex, smoking history and other major chronic diseases.

Longevity Expectations

After that research, a large collaborative analysis² reported in Public Health Nutrition also looked at how meat and vegetables influence life expectancy. This research involved 76,000 men and women in the United States, United Kingdom and Germany, comparing the death rates of vegetarians and non-vegetarians during a 10-year period. Again, all results were adjusted for age, sex and smoking. They found that those who ate no meat had a 34 percent lower death rate from heart attack than those who ate meat regularly. Those who ate fish regularly or who ate meat less than once a week had a 22 percent lower death rate from heart disease compared to regular meat eaters.

Much of this research encompasses long periods of time: a comprehensive study³ in the British Medical Journal of 11,000 vegetarians and health-conscious people incorporated 17 years of follow-up observations. These study subjects either were vegetarian (43 percent) or ate daily servings of one or more of the following: whole-grain bread, bran cereals, nuts, dried fruit, fresh fruit and raw salad. This population, as a whole, had a death rate half that of the normal population. Furthermore, within the study group itself, those who ate fresh fruit daily had a death rate even lower than the others—24 percent fewer deaths from heart disease and 32 percent fewer deaths from stroke. In this research, not eating meat was only one factor for lowering the risk of death. Eating fresh fruit was another key element.

Making An Impression

Even more impressive is a study reported in 1992 in Epidemiology.⁴ These scientists observed 1,904 German people who were vegetarians and who were leading a health-conscious lifestyle for 11 years. Their healthy lifestyle paid off: Death rates from all causes were reduced by one-half compared with the general population. Moreover, mortality from ischemic heart diseases was reduced to one-third of other Germans. And when the researchers focused on the degrees of vegetarianism within this group, they found that scrupulously toeing the vegetarian line offered extra protection from ischemic heart disease.

Chinese Food

A look at the very large observational study reported by the authors of The China Study (2005) demonstrates the same conclusion: Meat eating is associated with increased heart disease, cancer and diabetes.⁵ Even the Framingham Heart Study,⁶ with its extremely large number of study subjects, concludes the same thing: People live longer and have significantly lower rates of all diseases, especially heart disease, when they eat very little (or no) meat; eat plentiful amounts of fish, fresh fruits, nuts and vegetables (the Mediterranean diet); and eliminate smoking.

My search for all the peer-reviewed articles on vegetarianism and longevity of life uncovered six that report clearly that low or no meat consumption increases lifespan and reduces the risk of chronic illnesses. Only two of the studies I found observed very little or no difference between meat eating and abstaining from meat. You can quickly access these six study abstracts⁷ by following these links:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12936945, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11242471,
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10466159, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12936947
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12699704,
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=Proc%20Nutr%20Soc.%202006%20Feb%3B65%281%29%3A35-41.

A search of the scientific literature has clearly shown me the benefits of minimizing animal meat consumption and maximizing fresh produce (fruits, nuts, vegetables) consumption. This is the foundation of longevity as well, and there is more I will share in my article next week.

To your best health ever,

Michael Cutler, M.D.
Author, Easy Health Options

¹ Kahn HA, Phillips RL, Snowdon DA, Choi W. Association between reported diet and all-cause mortality. Twenty-one-year follow-up on 27,530 adult Seventh-Day Adventists. Am J Epidemiol. 1984 May;119(5):775-87

² Key TJ, Fraser GE, Thorogood M, Appleby PN, Beral V, Reeves G, Burr ML, Chang-Claude J, Frentzel-Beyme R, Kuzma JW, Mann J, McPherson K. Mortality in vegetarians and non-vegetarians: a collaborative analysis of 8300 deaths among 76,000 men and women in five prospective studies. Public Health Nutr. 1998 Mar;1(1):33-41.

³ Key TJ, Thorogood M, Appleby PN, Burr ML. Dietary habits and mortality in 11,000 vegetarians and health conscious people: results of a 17 year follow up. BMJ. 1996 Sep 28;313(7060):775-9.

⁴ Chang-Claude J, Frentzel-Beyme R, Eilber U. Mortality pattern of German vegetarians after 11 years of follow-up. Epidemiology. 1992 Sep;3(5):395-401.

⁵ The China Study, Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss, and Long-term Health, 2005, Published by Benbella Books

⁶ Pryde MM, Kannel WB. Efficacy of dietary behavior modification for preserving cardiovascular health and longevity. Cardiol Res Pract. 2010 Dec 28;2011:820457. Found online at:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3021873/?tool=pubmed

⁷ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12936945, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11242471,
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10466159, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12936947,
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12699704,
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=Proc%20Nutr%20Soc.%202006%20Feb%3B65%281%29%3A35-41.

http://www.easyhealthoptions.com/alternative-medicine/vegetarians-live-longer/