Vegan Diet Reduces Risk Of Early Death In Older Women: Study

A novel study by the American Heart Association looked at premature deaths of post-menopausal women and discovered that switching to veganism could help them live longer.

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The study brought onboard 102,521 post-menopausal women with an average age of 63 years between the years 1993 and 1998 and tracked their lives and health for 18 years. Throughout this period, 26,000 women died due to cardiovascular-related conditions, 7,516 women died of cancer and 2,734 women died due to dementia.

With regular follow-ups and questionnaires, researchers discovered that one-sixth of the diet of the women involves protein. They further investigated to find where the protein originated from and discovered that more than two-thirds originated from animals in the form of meat, eggs or dairy products.

The analysis shed light on some other data such as these people were also more likely to be past smokers, drinkers while also living a sedentary lifestyle with minimal physical activity.

This led to most of the women in the study to possess Type-2 diabetes along with higher BMIs -- both of which affect the optimal cardiovascular function and are risk factors for cardiovascular diseases.

On the other hand, researchers saw women who consumed protein from plant-based sources also consumed fewer calories in a day and less saturated fats, with a more fibre-rich diet.

Researchers claim that even small amounts of changes in one's diet could have a considerable impact -- for instance, replacing meat with plant-based alternatives reduces the risk of early death by 14 percent.

Lead author Dr Wei Bao, of Iowa University, explains, ¡°Our findings support the need to consider dietary protein sources in future dietary guidelines. Current dietary guidelines mainly focus on the total amount of protein. Our findings show there may be different health influences associated with different types of protein foods.¡±

Even people who love eating eggs are 24 percent more likely to die of cardiovascular disease and ten percent more likely to die of cancer, the study highlighted. Surprisingly, people who ate more eggs are 14 percent less likely to die from dementia.

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Bao further explained, ¡°'It is unclear in our study why eggs were associated with a higher risk of cardiovascular and cancer death. It might be related to the way people cook and eat eggs. Eggs can be boiled, scrambled, poached, baked, basted, fried, shirred, coddled or pickled or in combinations with other foods. In the United States, people usually eat eggs in the form of fried eggs and often with other foods such as bacon.¡±

Bao added, ¡°Although we have carefully accounted for many potential confounding factors in the analysis, it is still difficult to completely tease out whether eggs, other foods usually consumed with eggs, or even non-dietary factors related to egg consumption, may lead to the increased risk of cardiovascular and cancer death.¡±