A major new review of the past 20 years of scientific research presents some of the strongest evidence yet that plant-based diets can help prevent the two leading causes of death worldwide: cardiovascular disease and cancer.
A joint undertaking between researchers at the University of Bologna in Italy and the Stanford University School of Medicine, the comprehensive review, published last week in PLOS One, looked at meta-analyses from 2000 to 2023 to evaluate the impact of vegetarian and vegan diets on the risk of cancer and cardiometabolic diseases. After pooling data from 48 meta-analyses involving hundreds of thousands of participants across a range of demographics (including children), the researchers noted some overarching trends: Vegetarians and vegans were significantly less likely to develop cardiovascular disease and cancer. They also tended to have better cardiometabolic…