Flere vitenskaelige studier viser at vegetariske kostholdsmønstre kan redusere risiko for å dø for tidlig (er assosiert med lavere dødelighet), spesielt med dødelighet av hjerte- og karsykdommer og kreft.
Michael J. Orlich et al.: Vegetarian Dietary Patterns and Mortality in Adventist Health Study 2. JAMA Intern Med. 2013;173(13):1230-1238. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.6473. http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1710093
“Significant associations with vegetarian diets were detected for cardiovascular mortality, noncardiovascular noncancer mortality, renal mortality, and endocrine mortality. Associations in men were larger and more often significant than were those in women.
Conclusions and Relevance. Vegetarian diets are associated with lower all-cause mortality and with some reductions in cause-specific mortality. Results appeared to be more robust in males.”
Rohrmann et al. J. BMC Med. 2013 Mar 7;11:63. doi: 10.1186/1741-7015-11-63. Meat consumption and mortality–results from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23497300
«The results of our analysis support a moderate positive association between processed meat consumption and mortality, in particular due to cardiovascular diseases, but also to cancer.»
Huang T, Yang B, Zheng J, Li G, Wahlqvist ML, Li D.: Cardiovascular disease mortality and cancer incidence in vegetarians: a meta-analysis and systematic review. Ann Nutr Metab. 2012;60(4):233-40. doi: 10.1159/000337301. Epub 2012 Jun 1.
«Our results suggest that vegetarians have a significantly lower ischemic heart disease mortality (29%) and overall cancer incidence (18%) than nonvegetarians.»
Key, Appleby, Spencer, Travis, Roddam, Allen. Mortality in British vegetarians: results from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC-Oxford) Am J Clin Nutr 2009 89(5):1613S-1619S; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19297458
«The mortality of both the vegetarians and the nonvegetarians in this study is low compared with national rates. Within the study, mortality from circulatory diseases and all causes is not significantly different between vegetarians and meat eaters, but the study is not large enough to exclude small or moderate differences for specific causes of death, and more research on this topic is required.»
Key TJ et al.: Mortality in vegetarians and nonvegetarians: detailed findings from a collaborative analysis of 5 prospective studies. Am J Clin Nutr 1999, 70(3 Suppl):516S-524S; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10479225
«Death rate ratios at ages 16-89 y were calculated by Poisson regression and all results were adjusted for age, sex, and smoking status. A random-effects model was used to calculate pooled estimates of effect for all studies combined. There were 8330 deaths after a mean of 10.6 y of follow-up. Mortality from ischemic heart disease was 24% lower in vegetarians than in nonvegetarians.»
Chang-Claude J, Frentzel-Beyme R, Eilber U: Mortality pattern of German vegetarians after 11 years of follow-up. Epidemiology 1992, 3(5):395-401; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1391130
En 11-års lang oppfølgingsstudie av 1,904 vegetarianere og helsebevisste personer i Tyskland.
«After a follow-up of 11 years, mortality from all causes was reduced by one-half compared with the general population [the standardized mortality ratio (SMR) was 0.44 for men, 0.53 for women]. (…) When the strict and the moderate vegetarians were analyzed separately, the strongest differential was found for ischemic heart diseases, which were much less frequent among strict vegetarians for both sexes. Some nondietary factors, such as higher socioeconomic status, virtual absence of smoking, and lower body mass index, may also have contributed to the lower mortality of the study participants.»
Thorogood M, Mann J, Appleby P, McPherson K: Risk of death from cancer and ischaemic heart disease in meat and non-meat eaters. BMJ 1994, 308(6945):1667-1670; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2540657/
«After adjustment for the effects of smoking, body mass index, and socioeconomic status death rate ratios in non-meat eaters compared with meat eaters were 0.72 (0.47 to 1.10) for ischaemic heart disease and 0.61 (0.44 to 0.84) for all cancers. CONCLUSIONS–The reduced mortality from cancer among those not eating meat is not explained by lifestyle related risk factors, which have a low prevalence among vegetarians. No firm conclusion can be made about deaths from ischaemic heart disease. These data do not justify advice to exclude meat from the diet since there are several attributes of a vegetarian diet apart from not eating meat which might reduce the risk.»
Frentzel-Beyme R, Claude J, Eilber U: Mortality among German vegetarians: first results after five years of follow-up. Nutr Cancer 1988, 11(2):117-126; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3362722
«In both sexes, the mortality was lowest from cardiovascular diseases [standardized mortality ratio (SMR) for ischemic heart disease about 20] and from cancer (SMR 58 for men, 54 for women). Deaths from diseases of the respiratory and digestive system were also reduced.»
Fung, T. T., van Dam, R. M., Hankinson, S. E., Stampfer, M., Willett, W. C., og Hu, F. B. Low-carbohydrate diets and all-cause and cause-specific mortality: two cohort studies (2010) Ann.Intern.Med. (153), 5, 289-298. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20820038 Sjogren, P., Becker, W., Warensjo, E., Olsson, E., Byberg, L., Gustafsson, I. B., Karlstrom, B., og Cederholm, T. Mediterranean and carbohydrate-restricted diets and mortality among elderly men: a cohort study in Sweden (2010) Am.J.Clin.Nutr. (92), 4, 967-974. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20826627
Nasjonalt råd for ernæring (side 69, «Kostråd for å fremme folkehelsen og forebygge kroniske sykdommer», Nasjonalt råd for ernæring, 2011, http://helsedirektoratet.no/publikasjoner/kostrad-for-a-fremme-folkehelsen-og-forebygge-kroniske-sykdommer/Publikasjoner/kostrad-for-a-fremme-folkehelsen-2011.pdf):
«I en studie av Fung og medarbeidere (85 168 kvinner og 44 548 menn som ble fulgt over 26 år) fant man at lav-karbohydratkosthold basert på animalske matvarer var assosiert med økt total dødelighet, mens grønnsaksbasert lav-karbohydrat kosthold var assosiert med redusert dødelighet (15). Sjögren og medarbeidere fant også at lav-karbohydrat kosthold øker risiko for total dødelighet sammenlignet med et middelhavskosthold blant eldre svenske menn (16)»