Proven: Vegetarians Live Longer

Wow. It must have been really surprising for the participants of this double blind study to find out they'd been vegetarians for decades.

It's crap science like this that makes people disparage lefties.

This is a great article! Now I have proof to give to my patients that are unconvinced that a vegetarian diet is of any merit! Being a vegetarian myself, and feeling more healthy than I ever did in my late teens and twenty's, I'm a huge proponent in a cruelty-free, vegetarian lifestyle, and this article certainly does help!

Gareth,

I take it you like your steaks.

Double blind is not the only statistcally valid form of study. Perhaps the mere knowledge that they practice a healthy lifestyle has some synergistic health benefit, but even if this is true it does not take away from the fact that they are simply living longer.

Epidemiological studies are a well-established tool in mainline, respectable science. The question you should be asking is if the study participant are properly randomly selected from the population of all vegetarians. Or did they find these 2000 people by advertising for volunteers at the health club?

Correlation does not equal Causation. Could it be that the vegetarians they were studying were rich white people that live in safe, clean, non-toxic areas? Could it be that they are better educated and work in less stressful and demanding jobs that leave them more free time? Correlation != Causation. That is all.

What a wonderful piece of research for the US environmentalists to use - thank you Treehugger.

I would like to provide an experience I've had recently to ask us not to be fooled into false solutions to our energy crises. Unless we insist on clean energy, geothermal, wind and solar, our water will go to cool nuclear power plants and our food will go to ethanol.

I loved White Wave tofu not imported tofu made in China that stinks when you open the package and has the consistency of plastic. I ate a tub a day of White Wave (bought out years ago by Dean Food Products)- firm organic. Well guess what?

Dean stopped making White Wave tofu in order to sell their soybeans for ethanol at much higher prices. They continue making Silk "milks" and some over processed tofu products. They will probably phase these out also. This is an insult to their consumers who now have to try to eat Wes Soy which the giant supermarkets are using as a substitute. Wes Soy is a disgusting tofu. Or we must use imported disgusting tofu which smells and really is plastic.

Think of all the people who will try this once and never eat tofu again. Dean not only exploits and tortures millions of cows but in light of all their ads about health and quality has now decided to thumb their nose at humans who depended on them in places where nothing else fresh and pure is available.

So don't buy their hype about their concern for our health. Boycott Dean Products.

Luckily I found Bountiful Bean tofu from Simple Soyman distributes in my area. And Mori Nu which is vacuum packed is pretty good. But both are much more expensive. AND companies like Dean will take over small companies like White Wave and Simple Soyman just to get their hands on the soybeans they use. FOR PROFIT - the quick influx of cash before America figures out that it can use non food leafy products for fuel.

We must begin to organize to protect our main source of protein.

I think the first step is to boycott all Dean Products - to get our friends who buy their milk or butter to switch brands - write them a letter and tell them why.

We need legislation to subsidize farmers who raise soybeans for food rather than fuel.

And we must demand that leaf and woods burned in California for no use at all - burning animals in the process, and other places instead be brush cleared for fuel instead.
When I wrote my vegan friend asking him to Boycott Dean Products and don't buy their hype about their concern for our health; he wrote back as follows:

Pressure on Dean Foods and calling people's attention to the corporate trail behind veg food is definitely a good thing. White Wave, though, was hardly a benign little company that became a pawn subsidiary of an evil giant. White Wave, which includes Horizon, owns a major dairy factory farm and contracts out with at least 6 or 7 other more minor ones in order to produce its dairy products. Peter Singer and Jim Mason chronicle some of this in their latest book I believe.

So the story's message is the same but more complex. Green and veg food must move away from the commodity impulse that industrializes agriculture, period.

Anonymous,

Sorry but Garuth is right, at least to some degree: the fact that there is a correlation between longer life and vegetarianism is not sufficient to demonstrate a cause and effect link.

It could be that people who are genetically disposed toward longer lifespans tend to not like meat as a result -- that would give the same result, no?

Most likely, even if vegetarianism does contribute to a longer life, being a vegetarian indicates a higher level of health consciousness than average, resulting in a longer lifespan than average. What the study tells us nothing about is what proportion (if any) meatlessness contributes to that.

Does everyone really want to live forever? I can understand wanting to outlive your spouse and see your kids at least graduate high school, but how long do you need on the planet? Don't forget that just existing costs money and resources.

I tried to be a vegetarian once for a few months. I'm not a big meat eater now, but I'm not afraid of eating more mainstream food. I've been healthier just eating less food and exercising more, than at any other time in my life.

I may live longer as a vegetarian, I'm just not sure I would want to if I couldn't have meat...

They can have my turkey leg when they pry it from my cold dead hands. I feel a bit of a chill coming on.

I left a comment earlier about White Wave tofu and Dean - I might have mixed up ethanol and bio fuel but it is one of them.

wait wait wait. I don't see any mention of living longer. I see something about not having an early death, but this seems to be one of the only clear statements about life expectancy:

"...as the results for moderate vegetarians was not statistically different from those for vegan or strict vegetarian diets."

and these moderate vegetarians don't seem like vegetarians at all, they seem to "like their steaks" a lot too.

Also, this is just one study. It sounds like a good one, but to be fair there have been good studies proving the opposite, I'm sure.

@Mortal and Sail: I don't know whether vegetarians live longer or not, but I have read that a veg. diet helps to minimize a lot of the debilitating diseases of old age that westerners suffer (cancers, heart disease, diabetes, et c). So many people live a long time with pain and suffering, in and out of the hospital, taking tons of medication. Eating lower on the food chain can help us live healthier during however much time we have.

Everyone should read Michael Pollans' books. Avoid crappy artificial processed foods and you will live longer whether or not you eat meat. This makes too much sense to not be true.

Did the people in the study all exercise regularly?

What about the meat eaters?

Well, duh. Here's Treehugger twisting another story to grab attention. The typical American eats absolutely horrid meat products every day. Think deli meats, hot dogs, hamburgers, tons of ground meat products from who knows where with insane fat content and great likeliness that eaten often enough will lead to early deaths from heart problems. That's a no-brainer.

Choosing not to eat meat ("vegetarian" means you physically cannot digest meat, all humans are omnivores but some choose not to eat meat) reduces those early deaths easily. I don't need a scientific study to do that. The impacts of a vegetarian lifestyle are still contestable. If someone substitutes their meat products with processed GMO soy products, I'd say they are doing just the same harm to the planet. Soy products are now the #1 thing that rainforests are being cut down to produce.

So far, neither the McDonalds meat eaters nor the soy everything eaters are going to help, but there is one lifestyle which is far better.

People who eat meat in small amounts, averaging about 2 ounces per day, from animals that were raised outside and roamed about eating grass and natural plants on the ground are doing well. A Cornell study showed that this lifestyle is the most sustainable in many climates since along with a cycle of forests, grazing, and crop rotation. I find this almost impossible to argue.

"Vegetarians" who avoid meat products and vegans who avoid all animal products are not really any causing any less impact then. If they eat a balanced diet, and are not substituting meat with other processed products like soy and wheat gluten, then their 'foodprint' is nice and small also.

In my opinion, there is only one reason not to eat meat. If you don't like the impacts of meat production, you can find local meadow-raised grass-fed animals that are raised in a quite sustainable manner as long as you aren't eating more than 2oz or so per day on average. If you don't like animals treated poorly, than that option above works too. If you don't think that animals are here to be eaten, than you simply don't understand biology since every organism (including humans) *needs to eat to survive*. The only reason I can accept is those who don't like making a profit from exploiting animals, but even that type of vegan should be fine with hunting animals in that case.

Really, it's simple. We have evolved as omnivores to digest meat. It is what we have done as a species for hundreds of thousands of years, and it is completely natural. Obviously eating meat the way most of it is raised, treated, and processed today is terrible and should not be done. But eating local meats from trusted farmers on a small scale is exactly they way it should be.

Are humans designed/evolved to eat everything and at risk of malnutrition as vegetarians?

Short answer; yes, "we are evolved to eat everything". Regardless of whether or not there is a health advantage to modern vegetarian diets, it is difficult, if not practically impossible, to obtain adequate levels of some micronutrients from non-animal food sources alone. Two examples are B-12 (of particular concern in vegan diets), and Zinc. Deficiencies can be completely mitigated for both these nutrients by taking supplements, but a vegetarian diet alone can put "humans... at risk of malnutrition as vegetarians" in ways unique from the consequences of poor quality omnivorous diets.

The research is clear and has been proven for years (google 7th Day Adventist studies). Behavioral change theory has shown that it takes approximately 3 months to change a behavior. I therefore challenge all of you readers to go vegetarian for three months and I predict that most of you will feel so much better that the change will become permanent, independent of its ability to decrease mortality. Just make sure that you have gourmet vegetarian recipes. Vegetarianism is much more than eating raw broccoli and lettuce! Real men eat lentils!

You know the people posting here about needing meat are really talking about needing protein. Your body needs protein everyday because it cannot store it. You will have insatiable cravings until you satisfy the body's need for protein. The best, cleanest source of protein is tofu - best for the environment, best for humans and best for animals.

What we do to animals, a species that shares the earth with us, is horrific. Watch the videos. You can see them at PETA's website and the Humane Society's. If you continue to be a part of that because you are too lazy to get informed about your body's basic needs, that tells you what you are in the spiral of evolution.

Check out these site: Fat-free Vegan and Chocolate Covered Vegan. Good recipes.

Unfortunately I can't read German, but it's a safe guess that comparing vegetarians to the general population is a completely bogus endeavor.

Given that female vegetarians outnumber males 2 to 1, it's not surprising at all that vegetarians outlive the general population. Women outlive men.

Not to mention that you can't just take the word of some vegetarians that they're not really interested in being health conscious, that is a completely useless piece of information. Please match up the actual lifestyle habits of vegetarians to that of the control group. Oh I forgot - there wasn't even a control group.

My guess is that vegetarians on average have less stressful jobs and a higher income, exercise more, visit the doctor a whole lot more, buy more expensive, healthier foods, and in general are much better educated about their own health. But how would they compare to a meat eater from a similar demographic? I doubt they'd do any better.

Happy to be vegan!

I have recently seen an article that mentioned that collectively scientists approximate that 35% of all cancers are based on diet. Specifically, animal based diet.

If you would like to learn more, I recommend you to get a book "The China Study" which discusses a very comprehensive study about diet and its relation to deseases.

There is also a documentary that paints a very thorough picture of the animal based diet - it is called "Eating" and comes with the book "The RAVE diet". Definitely worth your time if you want to leave healthy and longer.

Fact: by weight, broccoli and spinach have more protein than steak

Does anyone have a link to the actual paper itself?

I'd like to send this to my dad, who is mostly a vegetarian. He bases a lot of his opinions on junk-science editorials, though, so I'd like to show him what a real research paper looks like, on a topic that would interest him.

I believe ThatTallGuy said it best. It's not about vegetarians living longer due to their diet, it's that on average vegetarians have a "higher level of health consciousness than" most.

I've met some out of shape (and some obese) vegetarians and vegans, but I recognize that they are the exception, not the rule. Unfortunate for us "omnivores"... the opposite is true.

I've subscribed to something I read here on Treehugger.... "have meat be your side dish, not the main course." I'm so much happier and feel healthier as a result.

I'm with Dave,

Correlation != Causation

To the argument that it is not vegetarianism but a general interest in a healthier lifestyle which leads to such notable results, scientists reply with evidence that the majority of vegetarians do not cite health reasons for their lifestyle

Their general interest nor cited reasons do not matter, what does matter is their participation in a healthier lifestyle ie

If you are a vegetarian because of environmental concerns then I could very likely hypothesize that you are more likely to walk/bike short distance trips rather than use a gas based vehicle. These short but ( again I am hypothesizing) likely regular trips should increase your overall health.

Was the overall stress levels of the ethical vegetarians different from the main stream and if so why? I could hypothesize that living consciously within the boundaries of a chosen lifestyle is less stressful than failing to live within the boundaries of your ideals, no matter your food choices.

In general ( and as examples )
Better health --> better life expectancy
Better health --> decreased disease rates

Better diet ( vegetarian or not ) --> better health
Less stress --> better health
Regular physical activity --> better health
Decreased toxin exposure --> better health

Until the methods, data & results are examined in detail I'm going to take this study ( as well as the post and comments ) with a grain of salt .... ( here's some poor humour ) and other spices on my occasional 7 oz steak.

Before I became a vegetarian 14 years ago, I had acne, stomach aches three to four days per week, and insomnia for three years and nine months. I wanted to go veg, and when I finally did, the acne and stomach aches ceased immediately. The insomnia was the next to go, which took about two weeks. I was prone to colds in both the summer and winter, and I now experience these approxiamtely once per winter, but sometimes I skip a year. My blood pressure went down 20 points, (it ranges between 90-100 over 80), my cholesteral has remained low, even though high blood pressure and high (LDL) cholesterol runs in my family. (My HDL is higher, LDL is lower, triglycerides well below target number).

I do not come from a wealthy area or family, I am not highly educated. My part of town here in Michigan is disgustingly indifferent to healthy eating, and I am considered odd. I am 44 years old and look much younger than friends of my age. I get a perfect physical year after year which is the only time I visit my doctor. My husband is 48 and his friends look like his father! He fainted from printing ink gases at work last year, and had a barrage of tests which prompted the Doc and nurses to ask him what his diet and lifestyle included. The Doc said he had never seen cleaner coratid arteries on an adult.

When people throw in their ignorant two cents worth regarding vegetarianism, I just have to laugh. I'm not emaciated, my nutrition is perfect, just ask the Doc! My best friend has been a vegetarian for 26 years, her son is 6 years old and has never eaten meat, again, both healthier than their family members.

I don't want to live forever, but I want to live without suffering and spending every penny I have saved on meds and docs. I don't miss meat! Meat is only one food choice out of hundreds and hundreds of fruit, vegetable and grain items. I feel sorry for people who have been taken in and tricked by the fast food, "Eat Beef" and GMO culture. They are pulling the poison wool over your eyes. But - please eat at McD's three times a day if you wish, and double down in the cigarettes, too, if you prefer. It's your health to flush away.

Oh, and one last thing. I'm not a "Leftie" and neither is my husband. We just care about our bodies and treat them with respect. We also care about our Earth, and factory farming is a major contributor to greenhouse gases, not to mention twisted suffering.

yeah right. vegetarians live longer because they are nutrient deficient. get over it carnivores - your diet is inferior.

Does this include the vegetarians who have Mountain Dew and Pop Tarts for breakfast?

People who say that we shouldn't eat meat because of the travesties that factory farms inflict upon animals always confuse me. It's similar to people deciding that they hate sweatshops so they're going to become nudists. Their actions, while ethical, are not going to decrease the unwanted industry. You have to talk with your dollars!

I really don't believe that a grass-fed beef farm with a small number of ethically raised, happy cows and a diverse number of crops can be called an environmental problem. Yes, there is a lot of water used to raise the cows, but there's a lot of water involved in raising rice in California as well. And there's a lot of water used in agriculture in general. Not as much as in meat production, I'll grant you, but if there's enough water to funnel into water slides and Disneyland splash mountains and golf course maintenance, I have problems begrudging water to farmers for their livestock.

Historically people needed meat; it's allowed our ancestors to evolve more quickly than other proto-humans that weren't as adept at catching protein-rich meat. We don't need as much anymore, but I really haven't heard a convincing argument with proper scientific backing that says that meat once per week is detrimental to my health, and quite honestly I enjoy eating it. Food is one of the last cultural holdouts of Western society (think about traditional Christmas Dinners and Thanksgiving turkey).

I don't begrudge anybody their vegetarian diets, but I do get irked when people judge me on my one free-range chicken dinner per week or so.

Well, probably vegetarians live longer.. but then again: the main reason behind is to save other´s suffering not to live longer..
Total obsession with longer living is not that healthy. Just live as you live and we will see how far we will get..

"Dean stopped making White Wave tofu in order to sell their soybeans for ethanol at much higher prices."

Greenconsciousness, get your facts straight. Soybeans are not used to make ethanol. Now, if you meant soybeans became prohibitively expensive due to crops being retired in favor of corn planting due to inflated ethanol prices, then you would be technically correct.

The food for fuel issue is far too complex for one to be spreading misinformation such as this. What it does is whitewash the whole issue with half-truth sentiments and takes away from the most important aspects of the debate.

A few quick biodiesel facts:

1. Corn (and other starch crops) is used to make ethanol.
2. Soybeans (and other oil crops) are used to make biodiesel.
3. Soybean for biodiesel production lowers food prices because of the excess meal on the market.
4. Corn for ethanol production raises food prices because the nutritional component is used for fuel production and it displaces other crops such as soybeans.
5. Biofuel production has only contributed a small fraction to the rise in food prices. Underproduction due to years of overly generous farmer welfare programs and government price controls, high oil and energy prices, and commodity speculation are the major contributors.

Stick with facts and don't be careless when talking about these important issues.

Lucas

So they kept track of when veggievores died and comparing that to the death-rate of non-veggievores? Was there a control group? I'm not entirely sure I get this article... The info seems a bit vague for my liking.

I guess most of the responders read the headline and not the article. Otherwise, they would have noticed this....

"Living longer seems not to be exclusively related to eating meat, though, as the results for moderate vegetarians was not statistically different from those for vegan or strict vegetarian diets."

Why must we constantly look for the magic pill that's going to fix all of our woes? Moderation is the key....living at the extremes in virtually any aspect of life can be unhealthy. Eat red meat soaked in sticks of butter every day and you're likely to have healthy issues....eat salad and bean sprouts all your life and, likewise, you're going to have problems.

Eat meats if you like....they're good for you. But do it sensibly and mix in a healthy dose of grains, fruits, and vegetables. If you prefer vegetarianism, more power to you. However, as the study points out, a majority of participants stated that their dietary choices were not based on health concerns but rather on ethics. So, please, kindly refrain from speaking down to those of us who enjoy a good steak now and then simply because we don't share your ethical viewpoint.

Troll Patrol,

So you mean to say: "environmentalists and ethical people live longer"?

I like that conclusion.

No,

But nice -- I like your attempt :)

I almost wish it was true.

Ethical people do not always live longer. That said, if your ethics do not put you into dangerous nor confrontational situations then in general living in conjunction with your ethics should lead to less stress, lessened stress generally leads to better health.

Gist of my original comment ... again

Correlation != Causation

The hypothesized examples were included as part of the rebuttal to the quote which does not show a proper adherence to scientific rational and explanation.

Hi!
I stumbled upon this article, and since I'm from germany, I checked the original post from "die welt". It says there in the headline that vegetarians do live longer, but also that this fact has nothing to do with their abdication of meat.
They did distinguish between men and women, so that women's longer lifespans are not a factor here. The professor that did this study is quoted with the sentence: „dass sie sich aufgrund ihres insgesamt sehr gesundheitsbewussten Lebensstils deutlich von der Allgemeinbevölkerung unterschieden“. (Meaning: Vegetarians differ from the average joe through an overall more health conscious lifestyle". ) The conclusion of the article is that eating meat moderately and living life health-conciously is as good for you as a vegetarian lifestyle itself.

Thanks Tim! That should settle a lot of the arguments.

I can't believe the ignorance of people, especially carnivores, who feel the need to justify their disgusting diets by spreading untruths and denying the validity of science that contradicts their chosen damaging lifestyles. Face it: meat causes cardiovascular disease, plants do not. Meat, raised by any method, uses lots of water, pollutes the environment and is much more intensive agriculturally than plants. Meat is NOT a necessary part of ones diet in any way, shape or form, period. And anyone who tries to warn you that a vegetarian diet results in malnutrition or that it is not natural is just imposing their very biased, non-factual personal beliefs onto you. Any diet can be unhealthy, including vegetarian diets. But with the right vegetarian diet, you will be healthier, more engergetic, more environmentally friendly and, in general more AWARE.

And to all the pseudo-scientists who are asking about the "placebo group," um, the general meat-eating population, who was not subjected to the "intervention" serves as the placebo group.

Although the endpoint of the study is death, I am curious to see if there are enough data collected to perform an analysis of general health issues- mild or serious illness, the incidences of certain kinds of illnesses, the amounts of medication taken, diagnoses of hypertension and diabetes, the incidence of obesity, etc. Quantity of life may be less compelling than quality of life in justifying the health aspects of a vegetarian diet.

OK, any study that is done, that takes people that are not studied from birth... i.e. if it starts with teenagers or young adults or older. Said study will ALWAYS show that the people they are studying will live longer then the "average age" of that time. It is basic statistics, if you start with a sample of ALL people from conception to birth and average their life expectancy by factoring in the age that they die, little babies with sudden infant death syndrome or getting hit by cars.. or even early adult heart attacks, with someone that is ALREADY past their childhood, they will live longer then the "average age" even if you start having them chain smoke and drink heavy.... if you did a study of meat eaters and vegetarians all the same starting age that would be a better study... not just vege eaters and EVERYONE ELSE in the world... this is junk science, i would love to see some proof of this, but at least from this description is it definitely NOT proof.
-=tbn=-

Tim,

I'll join Anthony in his thanks for the translation and the conclusion.