A new meta-analysis has found that vegan diets are associated with better health outcomes when it comes to cardiovascular disease and cancer.
Scientists conducted an umbrella review of more than 20 years of data before publishing their paper titled Cardiovascular health and cancer risk associated with plant based diets: An umbrella review.
The research team, which was led by medical doctor Angelo Capodici of the University of Bologna in Italy, looked at scientific literature published between 2000 and 2023.
Their study comes as the number of people following plant-based diets has increased significantly over the last decade.
As a result, there has been a corresponding increase in data available on vegetarian and vegan nutritional intake.
Capitalising on this, Dr Capodici and his team looked at the impact of vegan diets on Cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cancer – two of the world’s leading causes of death and disability.
After analysing 48 reviews and meta-analyses conducted between January 2000 and June 2023, they found that both veggie and vegan diets are associated with better health outcomes when it comes to the risk factors for both diseases.
Vegan diet and health
Vegan diets were associated with a lower body mass index, less inflammation, better cholesterol levels and better blood sugar control compared to omnivorous diets.
However, the researchers were cautious when it came to crediting the plant-based diets entirely with the improved health outcomes.
Commenting on the findings, the research team said: “It has also been described that vegetarians, in addition to reduced meat intake, ate less refined grains, added fats, sweets, snacks foods, and caloric beverages than did non-vegetarians and had increased consumption of a wide variety of plant foods.”
They also noted that because they conducted a review of the literature, their findings are subject to the limitations of the original studies.
With this in mind, they recommended further research is carried out which specifically addresses why vegan diets are positively correlated with better health.
They added: “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.”
