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If you want to live longer, give up meat
Last reviewed: 02.07.2025
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The American Osteopathic Association conducted an interesting study, which found that meat lovers live less than those who, for one reason or another, gave up eating meat products.
According to experts, the risk of early death increases among those who consume meat and processed meat products (sausages, ham, cold cuts, etc.) every day. Scientists came to such conclusions after a large-scale study involving more than 1.5 million people.
Experts note that a vegetarian diet helps to prolong life by several years, but the effect is observed only with long-term adherence to such a diet - over several years.
A group of specialists recently published an article in one of the journals, in which the authors analyzed several studies that assessed the impact of diet on life expectancy. The specialists noted that the main goal of the analysis is to provide doctors with factual data on the basis of which they can recommend a vegetarian menu to their patients or, in extreme cases, maximum restriction of meat consumption, especially red meat, and meat products.
This study confirms the long-known fact that our diet and the foods we eat are very important for our health and can directly affect our life expectancy. Clinically proven data will help doctors to convey to their patients the important role of dietary nutrition and the advisability of a vegetarian diet.
It is worth noting that osteopathic medicine is an alternative medicine; osteopaths believe that the primary cause of disease development is a violation of the structural and anatomical relationships between body parts and organs.
During the analysis of data on population and life expectancy, scientists noted that when meat and meat products were included in the diet, the mortality rate began to rise sharply - such data were obtained by scientists in 2014, after the study participants added processed meat products (beef, lamb, salami, bacon, sausages, hot dogs, etc.) to their diet.
According to some data from 2014, consumption of meat and meat products increases the risk of early death from vascular and heart disease.
In the course of a large-scale study, it was established that it is processed meat products that are the cause of a sharp increase in mortality among the population, since they can be the cause of the development of a number of diseases. For example, in 2003, mortality among the population was almost half as much and scientists assume that the main reason for the increase in life was the decrease in the amount of meat and meat products in the subjects' diet. According to the scientific group that analyzed the studies, all the results have statistical similarity.
Analysts note that a vegetarian menu can increase average life expectancy by 3.6 years, but to achieve such a result, you need to give up meat for 17 years.
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