How long do vegans live

This study is considered the gold standard in the world of nutrition because it is a comprehensive, long-term study that involves a large number of people. For 14 years, Loma Linda researchers tracked the diets, lifestyle and diseases among 34, Seventh-day Adventists. This Christian religion encourages a vegetarian diet and abstaining from alcohol and smoking.

This makes it easier to see how their other lifestyle choices, particularly dietary choices, impact their health and longevity. Maintaining 5 healthy habits eating a healthy diet, exercising, being a healthy weight, not smoking, and moderate or not drinking may add a decade or more to life expectancy.

The combination of all 5 was linked with the most additional years, but experts believe the most important one is healthy eating, particularly a whole food plant-based diet. The power of plant-based diets is linked to the nutrients they provide beyond their important vitamins and minerals. They are a key source of dietary fibre, resistance starch, and potent plant compounds including antioxidants and phytochemicals. Think bountiful veggies featured in traditional Mediterranean eating or the wholefoods focus of customary Okinawan Japanese.

Dan Buettner, a researcher with National Geographic, found and studied 5 communities where people generally lived an active lifestyle well into their nineties. If you regularly eat meat and three veg for dinner, switching to a plant-based diet can seem a little daunting and potentially hard to stick to.

Try going meat free for 1 day a week, for example, Meat Free Mondays. The most important thing to remember, when reducing the amount of meat you eat, is to switch it for veggies, legumes, wholegrains, fruits, nuts and seeds and avoid filling the gap left on your plate with highly processed carbs.

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View all Nutrition. Everyone is different and has different experiences, lifestyles, and genetics. But the growing body of high quality scientific evidence of the health benefits of a plant-based diet, as well as reports of so many vegan athletes surpassing their competitors, is a pretty compelling reason to at least give a plant-based diet a go.

TJ is a registered nutritionist specialising in plant-based nutrition, and founder of meatfreefitness. He helps vegan and vegetarian clients reach their weight, fitness and health goals by providing the most trustworthy advice based on the best available research, alongside some amazing recipes.

Designed and built by bopgun. We use cookies to give you a better experience on veganfoodandliving. By continuing to use our site, you are agreeing to the use of cookies as set in our Cookie Policy. Why do vegans live longer? Nearly a decade of extra life -- that's what you get when you move away from eating animal foods and toward a plant-based diet. This is really exciting science for anyone seeking healthy longevity and who isn't?

According to a recent report on the largest study of vegetarians and vegans to date, those eating plant-based diets appear to have a significantly longer life expectancy. Vegetarians live on average almost eight years longer than the general population, which is similar to the gap between smokers and nonsmokers. This is not surprising, given the reasons most of us are dying.

Let's take a closer look at what the good doctor has pulled together Heart disease is our leading cause of death. The year follow-up of the Harvard Nurses Health Study was recently published, now the most definitive long-term study on older women's health. Dietary cholesterol intake -- only found in animal foods -- was associated with living a significantly shorter life and fiber intake -- only found in plant foods -- was associated with living a significantly longer life. Consuming the amount of cholesterol found in just a single egg a day may cut a woman's life short as much as smoking five cigarettes daily for 15 years, whereas eating a daily cup of oatmeal's worth of fiber appears to extend a woman's life as much as four hours of jogging a week.

But there's no reason we can't do both! What if your cholesterol's normal, though? I hear that a lot. But here's the thing: having a "normal" cholesterol in a society where it's "normal" to drop dead of a heart attack is not necessarily a good thing. According to the editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Cardiology , "For the build-up of plaque in our arteries to cease, it appears that the serum total cholesterol needs to be lowered to the area.

In other words the serum total cholesterol must be lowered to that of the average pure vegetarian. More than 20 years ago, Dr. Dean Ornish showed that heart disease could not just be stopped but actually reversed with a vegan diet , arteries opened up without drugs or surgery. Since this lifestyle cure was discovered, hundreds of thousands have died unnecessary deaths.

What more does one have to know about a diet that reverses our deadliest disease? Cancer is killer number two. Ah, the dreaded "C" word -- but look at this hopeful science.

According to the largest forward-looking study on diet and cancer so far performed, "the incidence of all cancers combined is lower among vegetarians. Some good-seeming actions can achieve very little , and some can even backfire. Promoting the health benefits of vegetarianism might be one. By providing your email, you agree to the Quartz Privacy Policy.

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