There are three factors that can increase your life expectancy: Eating fewer bad fats, more antioxidants and maintaining a low body weight. Vegetarians excel at those three factors. So how can being a vegetarian increase your life expectancy? We will go into that, but first we must define what we mean by vegetarian.
Some vegetarians are really “junk food vegetarians.” They eat a lot of junk food – foods like ice cream and cheese pizza, and they tend to eat all day long. This type of diet does not improve life expectancy or help them live a healthier life. By contrast, “whole foods vegetarians” eat lots of vegetables in high variety. Also, they prepare them in healthy fats such as olive oil. They also limit animal products like milk and cheese.
The No. 1 factor that shortens life expectancy and is the leading cause of death is heart disease. As you age, your heart ages and there can be a buildup of cholesterol or fat in the arteries that causes them to harden. This in turn causes your blood pressure to rise, and your heart to pump harder, which leaves you at risk for heart disease. Vegetarians (whole food vegetarians) have excellent arteries because they avoid bad fats and unhealthy foods and eat a lot of vegetables. Vegetables have a lot of antioxidants, thus people who eat a lot of vegetables reap the benefits of that entire antioxidant intake. Antioxidants can help reverse the signs of aging and even help your body repair some of the damage caused by aging. The greater variety of plants and the more of them you eat the more raw materials your body can use to make those repairs. Finally, vegetables are great fillers without a lot of calories, as long as you don’t make them with tons of butter, cheese, and creams. Eating a healthy vegetarian diet will help maintain or even lose weight. So really, it’s the healthy diet that is tied to a longer life expectancy.
So to answer the question. Do vegetarians live longer than meat eaters? The answer is yes. Someone who eats meat can still have a long life expectancy if they watch what they eat, maintain a healthy weight, and consume plenty antioxidants. Thus, the key to a longer life expectancy is eating healthier and following a vegetarian type of lifestyle.