Does it mean that you can have unhealthy habits if you’re a vegetarian and not worry about them being a problem? A new study has revealed that not only are vegetarians healthier than their meat-eating counterparts, but their diet is still effective regardless of how often they smoke or how much they drink.
University of Glasgow researchers examined over 175,000 adult Britons. Their findings showed that people that lived on plant-based dietary plans appeared much healthier than their counterparts who ate meat. Moreover, these people also came out ahead regardless of their alcohol consumption levels, smoking habits, weight, and age.
This Scottish team of researchers examined the biomarkers that could negatively or positively impact health, such as preventing or promoting age and heart-related diseases, cancer, and other chronic medical conditions. Previous research studies have also tried to analyze these biomarkers to determine how effective certain dietary plans actually are.
Going green is good for your cholesterol.
Even after the addition of potentially influential factors such as alcohol intake, smoking, obesity, ethnicity, education, sex, and age, the analysis shows that vegetarians have much lower levels of the thirteen critical biomarkers compared to their meat-eating counters. These include low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, total cholesterol, and a particular hormone that encourages both the proliferation as well as the growth of cancer cells.
Vegetarians were also found to have lower beneficial biomarker levels, including high-density lipoprotein cholesterol. Dr. Carlos Celis-Morales, the study leader, said that what they found offered real food for thought. He said that vegetarians were much healthier because of the more nuts, fruits, and vegetables they tend to consume. In addition, he said that these foodstuffs are better because they have more fiber, nutrients, and other beneficial components.
