Vegetarians May Live Longer

A five year study of people's eating habits suggests that people who limit or eliminate meat from their diets are less likely to die over time. Researchers at Loma Linda University in California studied data from over 70,000 participants and found that people who eat mostly fruits and vegetables enjoyed a reduced risk of heart disease and other diet-related causes of death. In the test group, 8 percent of subjects described themselves as vegans who didn't eat any animal products, 29 percent were lacto-ovo-vegetarians who didn't eat fish or meat but did eat dairy and egg products, and 15 percent occasionally ate meat and fish. The researchers found that while seven out of 1000 individuals died in any given period of time, the death rate among vegetarians and occasional meat-eaters dropped to five or six individuals in the same time period. However, the researchers were reluctant to attribute the effect solely to the test subject's diet choices. They pointed out that the vegetarians also generally worked out more, were better educated, less likely to smoke and weighed less, all of which contributed to their decreased mortality rate. Still, they concluded that the data suggests that reducing or eliminating animal products from your diet could lead to healthier overall outcomes.