To what extent does consuming certain foods and excluding others from our diet influence the risk of death?
Different studies have shown that people who exclude foods of animal origin totally (as in the vegan diet) or partially (as in the lacto-ovo-vegetarian diet) have a lower risk of dying compared to people with a habitual consumption of these foods; For this reason, attempts have been made to promote the consumption of plant-based foods among the population.
But an obvious and powerful obstacle has prevented this from becoming a reality, “giving up the consumption of foods of animal origin is simply not to everyone’s taste,” says Mario Delgado-Velandia, a doctoral student in Epidemiology and Public Health at the Autonomous University de Madrid (UAM) in Spain and co-author of a new study.
In the recent study, carried out on more than 11,000 Spaniards over the age of 18 who are part of the ENRICA cohort, it has been concluded that the quality of foods of plant origin (and not only the exclusion of foods of animal origin ) is a crucial aspect to reduce the risk of death at 10 years.
“In this study we have evaluated the diet of the participants using two novel plant-based indices,” explains Mercedes Sotos-Prieto, an epidemiologist at the UAM, a researcher at the Center for Biomedical Research in the Epidemiology and Public Health Network (CIBERESP) in Spain and at the Madrid Institute for Advanced Studies – Food (IMDEA-Food), and adjunct professor at the T. Chan School of Public Health at Harvard University in the United States.
“Previous studies on vegetarian diets focused on the presence or absence of foods of animal origin. On the contrary, these new indices gradually evaluate the consumption of these foods and, in addition, take into account the quality of the foods of vegetable origin that are consumed, something that had not been considered before in our field” details Dr. Sotos-Prieto.
In this way, researchers have shown that a diet with a high proportion of plant foods of high nutritional quality —for example, whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts or legumes— and with a lower proportion of low-quality plant foods ( sugary drinks, pastries) and foods of animal origin is associated with a 14% lower risk of dying and up to 37% lower risk of dying from a cardiovascular cause.
Conversely, a diet with a high proportion of low-quality plant foods, even if few animal foods are consumed, offers no benefit.
Kiwi, a fruit with a high nutritional value. (Photo: Amazings/NCYT)
These results are highly relevant not only for our health, but also for the health of the planet and that of future generations. “Due to climate change, food production with large water and land requirements will put great pressure on the limited natural resources we have available, threatening the food security of millions of people,” explains Dr. Sotos-Prieto. “Therefore, diets rich in foods with lower requirements for these resources —for example, those of plant origin— will mean less pressure on the planet, helping present and future generations not suffer from food insecurity,” she concludes.
The study is titled “Plant-Based Diets and All-cause and Cardiovascular Mortality in a Nationwide Cohort in Spain: The ENRICA Study”. And it has been published in the academic journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings. (Source: UAM / CIBERESP / IMDEA FOOD)