Vegetarians Can Live Longer, Study Finds

Researchers at Loma Linda University in California, USA, have found new evidence that a vegetarian diet may be beneficial to health. The study lasted nearly six years and was attended by over 70, 000 volunteers of both sexes.

The research results were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association and reveal that vegetarians have a longer life compared to omnivores, which are those who follow a diet that includes regular meat consumption.

All participants were members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and during the survey period only 2, 570 people were killed, indicating that vegetarians are 12% less likely to die.

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“These results demonstrate a general relationship of the patterns of a vegetarian diet with a lower mortality rate compared to the patterns of a non-vegetarian diet. The numbers also show some relationships of a lower mortality rate in the vegetarian, vegan and ovolactovegetarian diets compared to a nonvegetarian diet, ”the study notes according to the Huffington Post.

All kinds of vegetarians?

Specifically, vegans (who do not consume meat and any other animal derivatives such as milk, honey and eggs) had a 15% lower death rate, while ovolactovegetarian (which excludes meat but keeps milk and eggs) reported 9% fewer deaths.

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The researchers also noted that vegetarians are more likely to be married, have better levels of education and are slimmer. The same group was also more willing to exercise, not to smoke and not to drink alcohol. Researchers point out that these habits can also contribute to a longer life.

This is not the first research conducted by Loma Linda University that seeks to reveal the health benefits of vegetarianism to us all. In 2012, another study showed that vegetarian men lived 9.5 years longer and women who followed this diet lived 6.1 years longer than other California residents.

Via TodaEla