A vegan diet can increase life expectancy by more than 10 years

If the future of the planet is being played on our plates, so is our longevity. For the first time, researchers have calculated how many years of life can be gained depending on an approved diet. Bottom line: A 20-year-old European can increase his life expectancy by more than ten years by eating less red meat and more plant foods. Even at the age of 80, a healthy diet leads to a longer life, according to the study. explanations.

Five fruits and vegetables a day! This dietary recommendation, everyone has already heard. And for good reason, the content of our dishes has a huge impact on our health, which is even more beneficial because it is vegetarian and unprocessed. For the first time, Norwegian researchers wanted to accurately determine the impact of changes in eating habits on quality of life, according to reports France information. they study It was just published in the journal PLOS Medicine.

A plant-based diet contributes to longevity

To determine their estimates, the four researchers identified three types of diets:

• A “Western” diet with large amounts of meat, sugar and refined grains. This is still the majority in Europe, China and the United States.
• An intermediate diet that includes more fruits, vegetables, whole grains and nuts, and less red meat, processed meat, and sugary drinks.
• An “ideal” diet in which the intake of plants is increased and red and processed meats are excluded.

The team of scientists then based their calculations on data from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD), a global epidemiology research program at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation in Seattle, US. Cross-referencing this data with other meta-analyses made it possible to make projections for populations living in the United States, China and Europe, with similar results. And these are amazing things: a 20-year-old European person who adopts the “optimal” diet can gain up to 13 years of life expectancy. For a 20-year-old European, the gain is 10 years with the same diet. The median regimen increases life expectancy by 7 years for men and 5 years for women.

In detail, researchers for example evaluated that increasing the daily ration of legumes to 200 grams per day would allow a 20-year-old to gain two years of life. Same note for whole grains and nuts.

Even at the age of eighty, these dietary changes have effects

If these dietary changes aren’t adopted by your twenties, don’t panic! Norwegian researchers have shown that a healthy diet has a beneficial effect on quality of life throughout life. If a European changed from his classic Western diet to the “optimal” diet at the age of 40, he could gain an additional six years of life. It would be the fifth for a 40-year-old European. At the age of sixty the gain is nine years for men and eight years for women. Finally, 80-year-olds who adopt the optimal diet can expect to extend their lives by another three years (men and women together).

“If we start from zero consumption of fruits and vegetables, with every serving added, we have a health benefit”says Mathilde Toffer, director of the Nutritional Epidemiology (EREN) Research Team, citing Top Health.

For the planet or your health, it’s never too late to change your eating habits.