Plant-Based Diets and Longevity

Harvard researchers have recently published findings from the Million Veterans Program, a newly launched prospective cohort study designed to examine the effects of genetics, diet and lifestyle on the health of US military veterans. Of the 300,000+ men and women who took part in the research for an average of four years, those eating the most plant-based diets were 25% less likely to die during the study period than those consuming the most animal-based diets.

Significant reductions in risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer were noted. These findings are in line with previous research assessing the effects of plant-centered eating on longevity.

The fascinating part of this study was that the researchers also assessed the difference it made when these veterans focused on some of the healthiest plant foods, such as whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts and legumes. They found that those who included the most of these whole plant foods, while limiting or avoiding animal-based products, did even better: they were 36% less likely to have died by the end of the study.

At the same time, perhaps unsurprisingly, those who consumed the most heavily processed foods such as sugar-sweetened beverages, refined grains, and sweets/desserts, had higher mortality rates during the study.

The results show that plant-focused diets in general help to increase longevity, but those centering their diet around the healthiest, mostly unrefined plant foods do even better. These findings align with the words of Dr. David Katz in The Game Changers film: “There really is incontrovertible, massive, diverse evidence supporting the fundamentals of a health-promoting diet, and it's (…) rich in vegetables, fruits, usually whole grains, beans, lentils, nuts, seeds. Every time.”

References

1. Wang, D., Li, Y., Nguyen, X., Song, R., Ho, Y., Hu, F., Willett, W., Wilson, P., Cho, K., Gaziano, J. and Djousse, L. (2022). Degree of Adherence to Plant-Based Diet and Total and Cause-Specific Mortality: Prospective Cohort Study in the Million Veterans Program. Public Health Nutrition, 1-38. Doi:10.1017/S1368980022000659

2. Kim, H., Caulfield, L. E., Garcia-Larsen, V., Steffen, L. M., Coresh, J., & Rebholz, C. M. (2019). Plant-Based Diets Are Associated With a Lower Risk of Incident Cardiovascular Disease, Cardiovascular Disease Mortality, and All-Cause Mortality in a General Population of Middle-Aged Adults. Journal of the American Heart Association, 8(16), e012865. https://doi.org/10.1161/JAHA.119.012865