The Number One Undeniable Reason To Go Plant-Based
- Crystal Williams
- Jun 12, 2023
- 4 min read
Plant-based diets have been getting a lot of hype these days. What does it even mean to be plant-based? It really is pretty simple, it means a person eats a lot of plants! In other words, plants are the base of their diet, not the side.
The list of current popular diets seems endless. Low-carb, low-fat, raw, Paleolithic, Mediterranean, ketogenic, carnivore...and that's just a few! What makes the plant-based approach stand out among the crowd? Longevity.
That's right, the number one undeniable reason to go plant-based is that populations of people who eat plant-based live longer.
Did you know that replacing just three percent of calories that come from animal sources with plant-based protein can decrease overall mortality risk by 10 percent? This little fact is based on a 16 year study of over 400,000 people! In a 12 year study following 96,000 people, the longest lived were those who chose to follow the vegan diet and the pesco-vegetarian diet.
One proposed mechanism behind this is the effect that different types of foods have on our genes. Ever heard of telomeres and telomerase? Each of our chromosomes have telomeres at the end of them, kind of like a protective cap made up of DNA protein. As we age, our telomeres shorten. Here's the catch, not everyone's telomeres shorten at the same rate, and it just so happens that the speed at which they shorten can be affected by what we eat! In a recent study, there were two foods associated with faster shortening of telomeres: processed meat and fish. Just three months, however, on a plant-based diet, and you can get a measurable increase in the activity of an enzyme called telomerase, whose job it is to lengthen telomeres.
And to cap it all off (pun intended), we have the insights from Dan Butner, who took a fascinating deep dive into the worlds longest living populations. He traveled to what he calls "hot spots" of longevity, where a larger than normal amount of the population lives to be 100 years old. After identifying five of these hot spots, Dan spent time researching and getting to know their centenarians. He then tried to find the things that these groups have in common. He discovered several key factors, but the one that he considers to have the most impact is the food they eat. You guessed it, plants! The diet of centenarians centers around whole, plant foods. The Okinawans, for example, eat 96 percent plant-based and center their diet around the humble sweet potato. Possibly the longest living population in the world, the Adventists in Loma Linda, California emphasize whole grains, fruits and vegetables, and nuts and seeds.
The Adventists are a particularly interesting population to study, because they can be divided into subgroups, such as vegetarians vs non-vegetarians. In the Adventist Health Study 1, those who chose to eat vegetarian lived 6-9 years longer than the general population in California.
There are a lot of reasons to love whole, plant foods. They have a positive impact on basically every health-related outcome. A lot of diets will get you weight loss, but then might give you some added plaque in your arteries. Plant foods can actually reverse that plaque. Some diets may lower your blood sugar and even your A1C, but not actually decrease insulin resistance. Plant foods could actually help your body restore its ability to utilize insulin and maintain blood sugar levels the way it's supposed to. The point is, some diets might give you immediate results, but don't forget to look at the long term data!
That's the beauty of it, plants don't just give you short term results. You get the best of both worlds: more years to live and less disease!
With that, here are three tips to give you an even greater edge on longevity:
ONE Eat a variety of whole, plant foods. Each food has its own superpower, if you will. Most of us learned in school that vitamin C is good for immunity and is found in oranges, and that vitamin A is good for the eyes and is found in carrots. You may have also learned in school that "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts." This apples to vitamins, antioxidants and polyphenols as well. Plants have components in them that are good on their own, but great when they work together.
TWO Eat beans! There's a little bit of controversy about beans/legumes these days. But again, the lifespan thing. It turns out that bean consumption can predict a longer lifespan and might even be the most important element! Just look up the study actually entitled, "Legumes: the most important dietary predictor of survival in older people of different ethnicities." In fact, the study
goes even further, to say that eating just two tablespoons of beans per day led to an eight percent lower risk of dying. The opposite is also true, cut beans out of your diet and you increase your risk of all-cause mortality.
THREE Try not to stuff yourself. Eat slowly (or at least, not fast) until you are almost full. Easier said than done, I know. The journal of "Nature Aging," however, has the reason why. In a two year study, they asked participants to eat around 500 calories less per day. Participants didn't quite hit that mark, but ended up decreasing their calorie intake by about 12 percent or about 250 calories (this is based on a 2000 calorie diet). Their resulting bloodwork showed a 10-15 percent reduced likelihood of dying early. Take a cue from the Okinawans (one of the five blue zones), who choose to eat until they are 80 percent full. They actually have a phrase that they say before meals to remind themselves of this: "Hara Hachi Bu."
So in summary, plants.
In all seriousness, though, the more of them you can get, the better. That's why to me, a plant-based diet isn't really a diet, it's a shift of focus. It can be found in the longevity hot spots of Japan, Italy, Costa Rica, Greece and the United States because it's adaptable to every region. Want to increase your chances of living longer with less disease? Aim to eat vegetables, fruits, whole grains, nuts and seeds as the majority of your food, and keep processed foods to a minimum.
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