One Month on a Vegan Diet Slowed Markers of Biological Aging in Randomised Trial

Just four weeks of vegan eating slowed two key markers of biological aging compared with a meat-rich diet, according to a randomised trial published in MedComm on August 3.

Researchers at the Medical Center, University of Freiburg in Germany and the University of California, San Diego gave 48 healthy adults a week of standardized meals, then randomly assigned 24 to a vegan diet and 24 to a diet especially high in meat for four weeks, keeping calories as steady as possible. They then analyzed around 800,000 sites on the DNA for methylation, the chemical tags that help switch genes on and off.

Two epigenetic clocks trained on health outcomes, PhenoAge and GrimAge, showed slower aging in the vegan group, though a third clock built to track chronological age moved the other way. The vegan group also had fewer inflammation-driving neutrophils and more CD4+ T cells, and quieter activity in the mTOR growth pathway and in cancer-related genes, the University of Freiburg reports.

"Our findings show that a dietary change can trigger measurable changes at the epigenetic level within just a few weeks," says Dr Maximilian Storz, one of the study's lead authors. "Now, larger and longer-term studies must show whether these changes are permanent and how they can be integrated into existing treatment regimens."

It's a small, short study, but a striking one.

It recalls the Stanford twin study, where the vegan twin had a healthier heart in just eight weeks, and the Netflix twin experiment that followed.

Younger on the inside, powered by plants.