In recent years, vegetarianism and veganism have gradually become trends. This new type of diet requires people to reduce or stop their meat intake in the hope of achieving improvements in health. Gradually, this also represents a new concept of life and attitude towards life. Some studies have shown that vegetarians in some populations have a longer life expectancy than non-vegetarians, but there is still a lot of controversy in the academic community.
From the Paleolithic period onwards, the intake of meat has occupied an important part of the human diet. Studies have shown that meat, as a high-quality food source, plays a role in promoting the increase in human brain capacity. At the same time, only a shorter gut is required to digest meat, which further pushes up the ratio of brain weight to body weight in humans [1]. In terms of food sources, the intake of plants or cereals is only possible after the start of agriculture (about 11,000-9,000 years ago), and it is greatly constrained by seasons and climate. Meat, on the other hand, can be obtained from hunting animals, large and small, fish, and even insects, and becomes a source of food available all year round, 7 days a week. Modern nutrition research shows that meat can provide all the nutrients that the human body needs, especially vitamins, such as vitamins B6, B12, K, etc., as well as various trace elements, such as iron, selenium, zinc, etc.
In order to "justify" the meat diet and clarify the impact of meat intake on the life expectancy of the population, the researchers mobilized data from more than 170 countries (covering 90% of the world's countries) from relevant UNITED Nations agencies and conducted a systematic statistical analysis [2].
The study, published Feb. 22 in the International Journal of General Medicine, is titled: "Total Meat Intake is Associated with Life Expectancy: A Cross-Sectional Data Analysis of 175 Contemporary Populations."
First, starting from the overall data, the researchers found that meat intake was linearly positively correlated with life expectancy and negatively correlated with child mortality at the age of 5 years. Second, the researchers divided all countries into six groups according to geographical distribution, namely Africa, the Americas, Southeast Asia, Europe, the Eastern Mediterranean Region, and the Western Pacific Region. In Africa, the Americas, Europe, the Eastern Mediterranean region, and the Western Pacific region, the positive correlation between meat intake and population life expectancy remains valid. In the Southeast Asia group, the trend of population life expectancy increasing as meat intake increased disappeared. The researchers believe that this is because people in Southeast Asian countries are quite close to each other in their dietary patterns and lifespan levels, so the correlation trend between the two cannot be tested by statistical models.
Next, the researchers added more independent variables to the model, including gross domestic product (GDP PPP), carbohydrate intake, total energy intake, urbanization levels, and population obesity. They found that after controlling these variables at the same level, meat intake remained significantly positively correlated with life expectancy in the population. When meat intake was excluded from the effects of five other variables, carbohydrate intake was not correlated with life expectancy.
To further illustrate that increasing meat intake can increase life expectancy, the researchers statistically analyzed the relationship between the two across different groups of meat intake levels, economic development levels, geographical distribution, and cultural background. They found that the idea remained true both in the low and high meat intake groups.
Overall, the study showed that meat-eating populations had higher life expectancy and lower child mortality rates, and were not related to socio-economic development levels, total energy intake, urbanization levels, and population obesity.
The researchers reason people who practice veganism stay healthy may be because they ingest additional nutrient supplements or don't fully or consistently stay vegetarian. Many vegetarians don't grow up vegetarian. While vegetarian in adulthood, the negative effects of nutrient intake restriction may be much smaller than in adolescence.
Another study of 218,000 adults in more than 50 countries showed that regular intake of untreated meat (meaning unpicked, flavored, or roasted meat) helped reduce the risk of premature death and increase life expectancy [3].
Perhaps, there is no advantage or disadvantage in meat and vegetarian food itself; how to eat it is a question worth considering.
bibliography:
1.Leonard WR, Robertson ML. Evolutionary perspectives on human nutrition: the influence of brain and body size on diet and metabolism. Am J Hum Biol. 1994;6(1):77–88. doi:10.1002/ajhb.1310060111
2.You, W., Henneberg, R., Saniotis, A., Ge, Y., & Henneberg, M. Total Meat Intake is Associated with Life Expectancy: A Cross-Sectional Data Analysis of 175 Contemporary Populations. International Journal of General Medicine. 2022;15, 1833-1851.
3.Salim Y. Components of heart healthy diet may differ from what was previously thought, in European Society for Cardiology. Munich; 2018.
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