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Today’s newsletter addresses those people who are smug about being vegetarian or vegan. Actually, I was kidding about the smug part. But people who are vegetarian seem to be especially proud of that fact.

Is it true that vegetarians and vegans live longer than the rest of us?

To find out, we are going to look at two different studies. Neither of these studies is particularly good, but they are all that we have. Some of them were done over a long period of time and they all sort of say the same thing.

First to define our terms. Vegetarians do not eat meat, poultry, or fish. Vegans do not eat eggs or dairy products either.
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The German study is interesting, because it compares about 1200 vegetarians to almost 700 health-conscious people.

And their follow-up was over 21 years which is long enough to start seeing some major differences in sickness or in death rates.

The first finding is quite striking:

vegetarian compared with nonvegetarian diet had no effect on overall mortality

However, moderate physical activity beat sedentary lifestyles. Engaging in moderate physical activity or very active physical activity resulted in about a one-third reduction in deaths over the 21-year study period.

Vegetarians had fewer heart attacks, but they died from other things in greater numbers. So they didn’t out-survive or outlive the health-conscious non-vegetarians at all.

Now here is a look at the other study on vegetarian and vegan diets:

This is a review paper shows that, though vegetarians are less likely to be obese than meat eaters, there is no real difference in cancer rates between vegetarians and non-vegetarians.

This review also found that there is no real difference in bone health, provided vegetarians consume enough leafy green vegetables to get enough calcium. Getting enough calcium is very important, but it seems to make no difference whether you get your calcium from milk or from leafy greens.

Finally, this review found that overall mortality is about the same for vegetarians, vegans, and meat eaters.

Total mortality appears to be similar in vegetarians and comparable non-vegetarians.

So the important thing is to maintain good calcium levels, good nutrition, and eat healthy foods that are low in bad fats (or have no bad fats). Nutrient-dense foods are best, and meat is certainly dense in nutrients.

It’s very difficult to put together a properly balanced diet if you are a vegetarian or a vegan, compared with being someone who eats meat. For everybody, it is essential to be very conscious and careful about what you eat. If you are, it really makes no difference whether you eat meat or not.

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Matt Cook is editor-in-chief of Daily Medical Discoveries. Matt has been a full time health researcher for 26 years. ABC News interviewed Matt on sexual health issues not long ago. Matt is widely quoted on over 1,000,000 websites. He has over 300,000 daily newsletter readers. Daily Medical Discoveries finds hidden, buried or ignored medical studies through the lens of 100 years of proven science. Matt heads up the editorial team of scientists and health researchers. Each discovery is based upon primary studies from peer reviewed science sources following the Daily Medical Discoveries 7 Step Process to ensure accuracy.