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While genetics plays a role in living a long life, lifestyle also has a significant impact. Your food choices hold the power to increase or decrease your lifespan. Adopting a vegan diet offers a wide range of health benefits and helps one live a longer, healthier life. In fact, vegans live longer than non-vegans.
The Western lifestyle and diet are often viewed as a big health problem. From increasing diabetes rates to rapid aging, they are held responsible for countless civilization diseases. A recent study suggests that the transition from Paleolithic nutrition to Western diets led to rapidly increasing diseases in developing countries.
On the other hand, plant-based diets have been linked to a lower risk of all-cause mortality. Do you wonder whether transitioning to a vegan lifestyle really helps live longer? Let’s delve deeper into the vegan world and search for the truth.
Vegans and Long Life: The Link
Vegan diets are known to be rich sources of nutritious compounds, which may help people increase their lifespan. However, the long life-related benefits of a vegetarian diet can be reaped only by combining a vegan diet with a healthy lifestyle, which excludes habits like smoking or drinking alcohol.
Results of a recent study – which included vegans from the US, Germany, the UK, and Japan – show that vegans and vegetarians have a lower risk of death from all causes than omnivores. In the study, researchers noticed a difference of 9%.
Another study examined the Seventh Day Adventist diet, which mostly includes plant-based foods, and found that vegans were at 12% lower risk of death than non-vegetarians.
Reasons Why Some Vegans Live Longer
Considering the results of several past studies, researchers theorize that individuals who consume a plant-based diet live longer than their meat-eating counterparts due to two significant reasons – Diet and lifestyle.
- Vegan diets have nutritious compounds
A vegan diet excludes all kinds of animal-based foods like meat, eggs, and dairy products. This makes the diet rich in nutritious compounds, such as vegetables, fruits, whole grains, nuts, and others. Also, the diet is loaded with fiber and antioxidants. As per studies, diets that come with these plant-based compounds can help people live longer.
In addition to increasing life expectancy, vegan diets can help in decreasing the risks associated with cancer, heart disease, and type 2 diabetes.
- Vegans Have Healthier Lifestyles
Vegans and vegetarians tend to follow a healthier lifestyle than people who depend on meat products for their foods. Research suggests that vegans are less likely to develop the habits of smoking and drinking. Also, they believe in participating in physical activities, doing exercise, and maintaining a normal body mass index (BMI).
Not all Vegan Diets Extend Your Lifespan
It is important to note that not all vegan diets are equally nutritious. Some may include sugary products and processed foods, which are not good for health.
A healthy vegan diet is the one that features vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, whole grains. And, it excludes sweets, processed items, and foods that are not sources of nutrients.
The Bottom Line
A great plant-based diet can significantly extend lifespan by safeguarding against various kinds of diseases. If you desire to live a healthy and long life, then replace your unhealthy foods with a vegan diet today.
