Switching To Plant-Based Diet Could Help You Live Longer

You are what you eat, and to science it is true. People live longer based on what they choose to eat. With such a thought, Canadians took on to a UK-based challenge of eating vegan for a month. The challenge is called Veganuary (Vegan + January). For many, it is not a hidden fact that eating less meat and more plants is good for our health and it can cut food-related emissions, which make up to a third of the greenhouse causing climate change. However, going vegan isn't really a smooth change, rather a big step. It means to revamp our entire diet.

The good news is, that there have been researches that prove that even relatively small substitutions of red meat with plant-based proteins like tofu, lentils and beans can add months, sometimes years to our expected lifespan. It can also make a noticeable dent in our carbon footprint.

The Rise Of Vegetarianism

As per 2018, only 7.1% of Canadians were vegetarian and 2.3% were vegan. Olivia Auclair, a research fellow at the University of Oxford, who researched on Canadian's eating habits told CBC that Canadians get 65% of their protein from animal sources. Only 5% of the protein comes from the high-protein plant-based sources. Some of these are also included in Canada's Food Guide.

It is true that eating habits, along with shopping habits are hard to change, this is why Auclair's research tried to bring people more in line with the food guide. The Canada Food Guide recommends lots of fruits, vegetables and whole grain, along with protein from both animal and plant sources.

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What is the study all about?

Her research was published last year in the journal Nature Food, titled Partial substitutions of animal with plant protein foods in Canadian diets have synergies and trade-offs among nutrition, health and climate outcomes, found that replacing half their red and processed meat would increase people's life expectancy an average of nine months, while cutting their diet-related carbon footprint by 25%.

For her research, she analyzed what 13,600 Canadians ate based on the Statistics Canada data from "food diaries" recorded by them in 2015. After that, she modelled what could happen if the same people substituted 25 to 50% of the red and processed meat they had been consuming with plant-based proteins. However, they did not change their poultry, fish or seafood intake.

The results were great, as mentioned above. In fact, there was more. The health benefits were double for men compared to women!

Men gained one full year of increased life expectancy, on average. This is also because men eat more red and processed meats and the climate benefits were also higher for men cutting down on the meat.

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Plant-based Diets

In 2019, an international group of scientist recommended a planetary health diet, a plant-based diet rich in fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts and whole grain, with small amounts of meat, dairy and fish, similar to what is recommended by the Canada Food Guide. The reason for such a recommendation was also to prevent 11 million deaths per year from processed meats and help keep greenhouse gas emission from food.

Another US study that looked at 200,000 US healthcare workers found that eating a plant-based diet could reduce a person's risk of dying by 30% from heart diseases, cancers, and respiratory diseases. Another 2021 Swedish study found a similar benefit, where it saw a 25% drop in mortality for those who adhere to a plant-based diets.