Plant-Based Diets are Consistently Linked with Lower Risk of Heart Disease and Cancer

A large-scale umbrella review, published in the journal Plos One, has shown that vegetarian and vegan diets are consistently associated with significantly lower risk of heart disease and cancer – the two leading causes of death in America and globally. When assessing the specific risk factors for cardiometabolic diseases, they also found these plant-based dietary patterns beneficial for improving lipid profile, glycemic control, body weight and levels of inflammation.

The international collaboration of researchers, from Cambridge, Stanford, and Bologna universities, systematically reviewed the existing literature published over the last two decades, combining the work of 49 previous analyses. The results align with a previous umbrella review highlighting how plant-based diets improve body composition and other cardiometabolic health markers.

The authors added that "our study evaluates the different impacts of animal-free diets for cardiovascular health and cancer risk showing how a vegetarian diet can be beneficial to human health and be one of the effective preventive strategies for the two most impactful chronic diseases on human health in the 21st century."

References

Capodici, A., Mocciaro, G., Gori, D., Landry, M. J., Masini, A., Sanmarchi, F., Fiore, M., Coa, A. A., Castagna, G., Gardner, C. D., & Guaraldi, F. (2024). Cardiovascular health and cancer risk associated with plant based diets: An umbrella review. PloS one, 19(5), e0300711. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0300711

Chew, H. S. J., Heng, F. K. X., Tien, S. A., Thian, J. Y., Chou, H. S., Loong, S. S. E., Ang, W. H. D., Chew, N. W. S., & Lo, K. K. (2023). Effects of Plant-Based Diets on Anthropometric and Cardiometabolic Markers in Adults: An Umbrella Review. Nutrients, 15(10), 2331. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu15102331