There has over been much controversy of whether a vegan diet is better than one full of meat products. Aside from the environmental impact one could spare if he/she adopted a vegan diet, a new study has published in the JAMA Internal Medicine Journal, reveals that not having any kind of animal products may lower the death rates.
Before telling you more about this study, let us just mention that if you adopt a vegan diet, you will:
1- Save your money and your health
2- You will reduce CO2 emissions by 1.5 tons per year
3- You will save around 3,000 gallons of water
Scientists at Massachusetts General Hospital, conducted the research, and monitored health and diet records of more than 130,000 people over the course of thirty years.
This is what they found:
- Every three percent increase in calories from plant protein reduces risk of death by 10 percent.
- The figure rises to 12 percent for risk of dying from heart disease
- By contrast, raising the share of animal protein in one’s diet by 10 percent led to a two percent higher risk of death from all causes.
- This increased to an eight percent higher chance of dying from heart disease.
- Substituting eggs for plant protein led to a 19 percent reduction in death risk and eliminating unprocessed red meat saw a drop of 12 percent.
‘Overall, our findings support the importance of the sources of dietary protein for long-term health outcomes. While previous studies have primarily focused on the overall amount of protein intake – which is important – from a broad dietary perspective, the particular foods people consume to get protein are equally important,” lead scientist Mingyang Song said.
He added: “Our findings suggest people should consider eating more plant proteins than animal proteins, and when they do choose among sources of animal protein, fish and chicken are probably better choices.”
Personally, I am not yet a vegan, despite knowing all its environmental and health benefits. However, I try to reduce my consumption of meat products as much as possible, until becoming completely vegan one day.
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