Highlights
- •Vegetarians/vegans have lower mortality rates than people whose diet regularly includes meat.
- •Plant-based diets are associated with an improved metabolic and inflammatory profile.
- •Insights into the specific mechanisms of the effect of plant-based diets on longevity are missing.
- •The health effects of plant-based diets are possibly limited in older age, as adults over 65 require larger amounts of protein.
Abstract
Western-style obesity-promoting diets are associated with increased inflammation,
higher disease incidence and mortality. In contrast, plant-based diets (PBDs), which
incorporate large amounts of vegetables and fruit, legumes, whole grains and only
a small amount of meat, are generally associated with better health and lower mortality.
This narrative review summarizes the evidence on health and life span in adults adhering
to PBDs and discusses the potentially longevity-promoting mechanism of PBDs as well
as limitations due to nutrient deficiencies.
Epidemiologic studies consistently report lower mortality rates in adults who adhering
to PBDs when compared with people whose diet regularly includes meat. PBDs are associated
with many health benefits, such as improved metabolic and inflammatory profile. In
turn, the incidence of cardiovascular disease is lower in adults consuming PBDs, which
contributes to their better health. The health-promoting effects of PBDs are still
not entirely clear but most likely multifactorial and include modulation of the gut
microbiome. The interest in possible longevity-promoting mechanisms of PBDs has increased
in recent years, as many characteristics of PBDs such as protein restriction and restriction
of certain amino acids are known to extend the life span. While there is ample evidence
from animal studies, large-scale human studies, which also provide insight into the
specific mechanisms of the effect of PBDs on longevity, are missing. However, due
to the lower protein content of PBDs, there appears to be an age limit for the anticipated
health effects, as adults over 65 require larger amounts of protein.
Keywords
To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
Purchase one-time access:
Academic & Personal: 24 hour online accessCorporate R&D Professionals: 24 hour online accessOne-time access price info
- For academic or personal research use, select 'Academic and Personal'
- For corporate R&D use, select 'Corporate R&D Professionals'
Subscribe:
Subscribe to MaturitasAlready a print subscriber? Claim online access
Already an online subscriber? Sign in
Register: Create an account
Institutional Access: Sign in to ScienceDirect
References
- Western diet and the immune system: an inflammatory connection.Immunity. 2019; 51: 794-811
- Obesity and the Western diet: how we got here.Mo. Med. 2020; 117: 536-538
- Plant-based diets and their impact on health, sustainability and the environment: a review of the evidence.in: WHO European Office for the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases. WHO Regional Office for Europe, Copenhagen2021
- Vegetarian, vegan diets and multiple health outcomes: a systematic review with meta-analysis of observational studies.Crit. Rev. Food Sci. Nutr. 2017; 57: 3640-3649
- Plant-based diets for personal, population, and planetary health.Adv. Nutr. 2019; 10: S275-S283
- Plant-based diets for cardiovascular disease prevention: all plant foods are not created equal.Curr. Atheroscler. Rep. 2019; 21: 18
- Regulation of metabolic health and aging by nutrient-sensitive signaling pathways.Mol. Cell. Endocrinol. 2017; 455: 13-22
- Low protein intake is associated with a major reduction in IGF-1, cancer, and overall mortality in the 65 and younger but not older population.Cell Metab. 2014; 19: 407-417
- Decreased consumption of branched-chain amino acids improves metabolic health.Cell Rep. 2016; 16: 520-530
- Pleiotropic responses to methionine restriction.Exp. Gerontol. 2017; 94: 83-88
- Veganism, aging and longevity: new insight into old concepts.Curr. Opin. Clin. Nutr. Metab. Care. 2020; 23: 145-150
- Nutrition, longevity and disease: from molecular mechanisms to interventions.Cell. 2022; 185: 1455-1470
- Correction: estimating impact of food choices on life expectancy: a modeling study.PLoS Med. 2022; 19e1003962
- Plant-based diets and risk of disease mortality: a systematic review and meta-analysis of cohort studies.Crit. Rev. Food Sci. Nutr. 2021; 1–13
- Plant-based diets are associated with a lower risk of incident cardiovascular disease, cardiovascular disease mortality, and all-cause mortality in a general population of middle-aged adults.J. Am. Heart Assoc. 2019; 8e012865
- Mortality in vegetarians and nonvegetarians: detailed findings from a collaborative analysis of 5 prospective studies.Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 1999; 70: 516S-524S
- Mortality in vegetarians and comparable nonvegetarians in the United Kingdom.Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 2016; 103: 218-230
- Vegetarian diets in the Adventist Health Study 2: a review of initial published findings.Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 2014; 100: 353S-358S
- Evidence of a vegan diet for health benefits and risks - an umbrella review of meta-analyses of observational and clinical studies.Crit. Rev. Food Sci. 2022;
- Vegetarianism and breast, colorectal and prostate cancer risk: an overview and meta-analysis of cohort studies.J. Hum. Nutr. Diet. 2017; 30: 349-359
- Vegetarian-based dietary patterns and their relation with inflammatory and immune biomarkers: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Adv. Nutr. 2019; 10: 433-451
- Relation of vegetarian dietary patterns with major cardiovascular outcomes: a systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies.Front. Nutr. 2019; 6: 80
- Vegetarian diet and the risk of depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms: a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies.Crit. Rev. Food Sci. Nutr. 2022; 62: 261-271
- Vegetarianism and veganism compared with mental health and cognitive outcomes: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Nutr. Rev. 2021; 79: 361-381
- The association of plant-based diet with cardiovascular disease and mortality: a meta-analysis and systematic review of prospect cohort studies.Front. Cardiovasc. Med. 2021; 8756810
- The impact of plant-based diets on female bone mineral density: evidence based on seventeen studies.Medicine (Baltimore). 2021; 100e27480
- Risk of incident stroke among vegetarians compared to nonvegetarians: a systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies.Nutrients. 2021; 13
- Changes in plant-based diet indices and subsequent risk of type 2 diabetes in women and men: three U.S. prospective cohorts.Diabetes Care. 2021; 44: 663-671
- The effect of plant-based dietary patterns on blood pressure: a systematic review and meta-analysis of controlled intervention trials.J. Hypertens. 2021; 39: 23-37
- Vegetarian diet reduces the risk of hypertension independent of abdominal obesity and inflammation: a prospective study.J. Hypertens. 2016; 34: 2164-2171
- Vegetarian diets in the prevention and treatment of type 2 diabetes.J. Am. Coll. Nutr. 2015; 34: 448-458
- Effects of vegetarian diets on blood lipids: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.J. Am. Heart Assoc. 2015; 4e002408
- Dietary patterns and incident heart failure in U.S. adults without known coronary disease.J. Am. Coll. Cardiol. 2019; 73: 2036-2045
- The effects of plant-based diets on the body and the brain: a systematic review.Transl. Psychiatry. 2019; 9: 226
- Influence of food patterns on endothelial biomarkers: a systematic review.J. Clin. Hypertens. (Greenwich). 2014; 16: 907-913
- Anti-inflammatory effects of a vegan diet versus the American Heart Association-recommended diet in coronary artery disease trial.J. Am. Heart Assoc. 2018; 7e011367
- Cardiovascular inflammaging:mechanisms and translational aspects.Cells. 2022; 11
- The effects of vegetarian and vegan diets on gut microbiota.Front. Nutr. 2019; 6: 47
- Dietary fiber intake, the gut microbiome, and chronic systemic inflammation in a cohort of adult men.Genome Med. 2021; 13: 102
- Influence of diet on the gut microbiome and implications for human health.J. Transl. Med. 2017; 15: 73
- The long-term health of vegetarians and vegans.Proc. Nutr. Soc. 2016; 75: 287-293
- Bioavailability of minerals in legumes.Br. J. Nutr. 2002; 88: S281-S285
- EPIC-Oxford: lifestyle characteristics and nutrient intakes in a cohort of 33 883 meat-eaters and 31 546 non meat-eaters in the UK.Public Health Nutr. 2003; 6: 259-269
- Intake and adequacy of the vegan diet. A systematic review of the evidence.Clin. Nutr. 2021; 40: 3503-3521
- Comparative fracture risk in vegetarians and nonvegetarians in EPIC-Oxford.Eur. J. Clin. Nutr. 2007; 61: 1400-1406
- Plant-based diets and bone health: sorting through the evidence.Curr. Opin. Endocrinol. Diabetes Obes. 2020; 27: 248-252
- The conserved role of protein restriction in aging and disease.Curr. Opin. Clin. Nutr. Metab. Care. 2016; 19: 74-79
- Protein intake and exercise for optimal muscle function with aging: recommendations from the ESPEN Expert Group.Clin. Nutr. 2014; 33: 929-936
- Malnutrition in older adults-recent advances and remaining challenges.Nutrients. 2021; 13
- Plant-based diet: is it as good as an animal-based diet when it comes to protein?.Curr. Nutr. Rep. 2022; 11: 337-346
- The skeletal muscle anabolic response to plant- versus animal-based protein consumption.J. Nutr. 2015; 145: 1981-1991
- Animal protein intake is inversely associated with mortality in older adults: the InCHIANTI study.J. Gerontol. A Biol. Sci. Med. Sci. 2021; glab334
- Estimated dietary exposure to pesticide residues based on organic and conventional data in omnivores, pesco-vegetarians, vegetarians and vegans.Food Chem. Toxicol. 2021; 153112179
- Estimated dietary pesticide exposure from plant-based foods using NMF-derived profiles in a large sample of French adults.Eur. J. Nutr. 2021; 60: 1475-1488
Article info
Publication history
Published online: July 22, 2022
Accepted:
July 5,
2022
Received in revised form:
July 1,
2022
Received:
April 29,
2022
Identification
Copyright
© 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
