Vegetarians live longer, another study confirms

Yet another study has determined that going vegetarian can lower your risk of early death.

A report published in JAMA Internal Medicine found that vegetarian diets were associated with longer lives – a finding that came from analyzing the diets of more than 70,000 Seventh-day Adventists.

Reduced risk for chronic disease

The reason that vegetarian eating is associated with lower death rates hasn't been clearly established quite yet, but the study notes that meatless diets tend to help reduce risk for chronic diseases like diabetes, hypertension and metabolic syndrome.

Overall, the study found that vegetarians have a 12 percent lower mortality rate than non-vegetarians – and individuals in the former group tend to be older, more educated and married, researchers said.

What about fish, dairy and eggs?

Another encouraging finding in the study was that even vegetarians who ate fish (pesco-vegetarian), dairy products (lacto-vegetarian) or eggs (ovo-vegetarian) – or a combination of these food groups – still showed lower mortality rates than meat-eaters.

Men, in particular, seem to benefit the most from adopting a vegetarian diet, which can reduce their risk for early death from cardiovascular disease and ischemic heart disease.

"These results demonstrate an overall association of vegetarian dietary patterns with lower mortality compared with the non-vegetarian dietary pattern," the researchers concluded.

Source: JAMA Network

Photo of onions by John Nyboer