Photo: Timothy A. Gonsalves via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped. This adapted image is also licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
People who eat a healthy plant-based diet have a lower risk of developing two or more serious chronic diseases, such as cancer, heart disease and type 2 diabetes, according to a study of 407,618 adults published in The Lancet Healthy Longevity on August 19.
Researchers from the University of Vienna, the International Agency for Research on Cancer and Kyung Hee University in South Korea analyzed two big cohorts, EPIC and UK Biobank, covering six European countries and following people for about 11 years. Every 10-point rise in the healthful plant-based diet score was linked to an 11% lower risk of this kind of multimorbidity in EPIC and 19% lower in UK Biobank. In UK Biobank the link was strongest in the under-60s, at 29% lower risk per 10 points, but it held in older adults too.
A healthy plant-based pattern meant more fruit, vegetables, whole grains and legumes, and less meat, the University of Vienna explains. An unhealthy plant-based pattern was linked to higher risk in UK Biobank, though not in EPIC.
"You don't have to cut out animal products entirely," said study lead and nutritional epidemiologist Reynalda Córdova. "Shifting towards a more plant-based diet can already have a positive impact."
The good news, then, is that every extra plate of beans and greens counts.
It adds to the largest study to link meat with disease and to research showing a global shift to plant-based diets could save more than 8 million lives by 2050.
Healthier for longer, one meal at a time.