Veggies Are Key to Long Life

From MedPageToday.com

Veggies Are Key to Long Life
By Nancy Walsh, Staff Writer, MedPage Today
Published: June 03, 2013
Reviewed by Zalman S. Agus, MD; Emeritus Professor, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania

People who followed a vegetarian diet had a lower risk for death from any cause, and men in particular also saw benefits for cardiovascular mortality, a large prospective study found.

Among individuals who adhered to any type of vegetarian diet, the adjusted hazard ratio for all-cause mortality was 0.88 (95% CI 0.80-0.97), according to Michael J. Orlich, MD, and colleagues from Loma Linda University in California.

And for men, cardiovascular mortality was significantly lower (HR 0.71, 95% CI 0.57-0.90), as was death from ischemic heart disease (HR 0.71, 95% CI 0.51-1), the researchers reported online in JAMA Internal Medicine.

"Vegetarian dietary patterns have been associated with reductions in risk for several chronic diseases, such as hypertension, metabolic syndrome, diabetes mellitus, and ischemic heart disease, which might be expected to result in lower mortality," they wrote.

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