Abstaining from meat could cut premature deaths in the U.S. by a third each year, according to a recent study from Harvard University.
Researchers from the university have suggested that moving to a plant-based diet could save at least 200,000 lives each year.
"We have just been doing some calculations looking at the question of how much could we reduce mortality shifting towards a healthy, more plant based diet, not necessarily totally vegan, and our estimates are about one third of deaths could be prevented," Dr. Walter Willett, professor of epidemiology and nutrition at Harvard Medical School, said, according to The Telegraph.
"That's not even talking about physical activity or not smoking, and that's all deaths, not just cancer deaths. That's probably an underestimate as well as that doesn't take into account the fact that obesity is important and we control for obesity," he continued.
Willett presented the report this week at the Unite to Cure Fourth International Vatican Conference in Vatican City.
He shared that he and his colleagues have found that having a healthy diet correlates to a lower risk of almost all the health problems that they checked. "Perhaps not too surprising because everything in the body is connected by the same underlying processes," he remarked.
Professor David Jenkins of the University of Toronto recommends a "simian" diet - usually seen in lowland gorillas who eat stems, leaves, fruits and vines - in place of a "paleo" or caveman diet, which allows meat while reducing intake of carbohydrates.
The researchers studied the eating habits of gorillas at The Bronx Zoo before testing it on human subjects.
When humans tried the diet of 63 servings of fruit and vegetables each day, their cholesterol dropped by 35 percent in just two weeks.
Jenkins, who is known for developing the glycemic index which explains how carbohydrates impact blood sugar, said that the drop in cholesterol was similar to the effect of taking statins, a commonly used medication to stave off heart disease.
Previous studies have indicated that vegetarian diets can potentially lower the risk of chronic disease, because those who abstain from meat usually consume less saturated fat and cholesterol that are known to cause heart and other health problems.
Dr. Neal Barnard, president of the Committee for Responsible Medicine, bemoaned that people are underestimating the health benefits of a plant-based diet.
He said that a low-fat vegan diet has produced better results in reducing the effects of diabetes and that it could also potentially help in alleviating inflammatory diseases like rheumatoid arthritis.
He remarked that the positive effect of a vegan diet was not only due to the reduction of cholesterol but also because of "because of the magical things that are in vegetables and fruits which just aren't in spam."
