Vegetarians less likely to reach 100 years of age

Following a vegetarian diet appears to lower an individual’s chances of becoming a centenarian when compared with an omnivore diet, according to a study.

A total of 1,459 centenarians were matched with 3,744 noncentenarians (deceased before reaching 100 years) in this study. Vegetarians exhibited a lower likelihood of becoming centenarians (odds ratio [OR], 0.81, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 0.69‒0.96) than omnivores.

This finding persisted among vegans (OR, 0.71, 95 percent CI, 0.54‒0.98), but not among pesco-vegetarians (OR, 0.84, 95 percent CI, 0.64‒1.09) and ovo-lacto vegetarians (OR, 0.86, 95 percent CI, 0.67‒1.09).

Notably, these associations were observed among individuals with BMI <18.5 kg/m² (OR, 0,72, 95 percent CI, 0.57‒0.91), but not for those with BMI ≥18.5 kg/m² (OR, 0.92, 95 percent CI, 0.73‒1.17; p_interaction=0.08).

“[W]e found that individuals following a vegetarian diet had a lower likelihood of becoming centenarians relative to omnivores, underscoring the importance of a balanced, high-quality diet with animal- and plant-derived food composition for exceptional longevity, especially in the underweight oldest-old,” the authors said.

This prospective nested case-control study analysed 5,203 Chinese aged 80+ years. The authors classified participants as vegetarians and omnivores, with the former further categorized into subgroups (vegans, pesco-vegetarians, and ovo-lacto vegetarians) based on consumption of animal-derived foods. They evaluated associations using multivariable unconditional logistic regression models.