Jennifer Macey reported this story on Thursday, June 6, 2013 12:50:00

ELEANOR HALL: Now to a long term study from the US which suggests that vegetarians may live longer that the meat-eaters among us.



Scientists monitored 70,000 Seventh Day Adventists over six years, to gauge the effects of following a mainly vegetarian diet as Jennifer Macey reports.



JENNIFER MACEY: The findings are a direct challenge to the prominent advertising campaign calling on Australians to eat more meat.



EXTRACT FROM ADVERTISEMENT (voiceover): So wherever you're from, don't be un-Australian. Eat lamb on international Australia Day. You know it makes sense, I'm Sam Kekovich.



JENNIFER MACEY: A new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Internal Medicine, suggests that vegetarians may live longer.



Nutritionist Dr Rosemary Stanton says this study adds to a wealth of literature showing the benefits of a vegetarian diet.



ROSEMARY STANTON: We really have a large amount of evidence showing benefits from things like vegetables, fruits, nuts, legumes and wholegrains, and if you include those foods in your diet and you don't have large amounts of red meat, that is probably the healthiest eating pattern of all.



But when we look at eating patterns, many of the people who follow that Western style eating pattern with a lot of meat and a lot of highly processed foods have a higher incidence of cardiovascular disease and some cancers, particularly bowel cancer, which is relevant in Australia.



JENNIFER MACEY: The researchers from Loma Linda University - a Seventh Day Adventist institution in California - studied more than 70,000 Seventh Day Adventists and compared their diets.



They were split into groups - vegans who eat no animal products, vegetarians who eat milk and eggs, vegetarians who eat fish and compared them to meat eaters.



Rosemary Stanton says Seventh Day Adventists generally follow a healthier lifestyle and so other risk factors such as smoking and drinking were eliminated.



ROSEMARY STANTON: The more plant-based eating pattern, the advantages were not huge, it was a 12 per cent reduction in this particular study. That's not massive. It is certainly significant and it certainly indicates that we need to look very carefully at the problems inherent in having a high intake of meat.



JENNIFER MACEY: What about the popularity of so-called Palaeolithic or caveman meat-based diets? Does this study counter that?



ROSEMARY STANTON: Look, I think it does and we don't have any studies on the benefits of that so-called Palaeolithic diet. What we do have and in fact I think in this week's Scientific American there's a very good example of how the Palaeolithic diet is a bit of a faddy sort of thing but there are no studies showing that it's beneficial.



JENNIFER MACEY: But she says this study doesn't mean all meat-eaters should convert to vegetarianism and that including small amounts of meat or fish in the diet is beneficial.



Shawn Somerset, Associate Professor of Public Health at the Australian Catholic University, says this is reflected in this study.



SHAWN SOMERSET: It seems as though that you had a 20 per cent less chance of dying younger if for example you're a pesco-vegetarian which is someone who eats vegetarian plus fish. That was the lowest risk of the lot in fact.



It's well established that high intakes of vegetables are associated with lower risk of a range of chronic diseases and put on the top of that, the health benefits of eating seafood regularly, it's a double win.



JENNIFER MACEY: So does that skew the study in a sense because these people are naturally going to be healthier and live a healthier lifestyle and…



SHAWN SOMERSET: In fact, it's the whole point of the study is that if you follow a healthful diet, if you eat plenty of vegetables and fruits and minimise your intake of saturated fats then you're likely to live longer and healthier.



JENNIFER MACEY: Nutritionist Dr Rosemary Stanton also adds that doctors and nutritionists can be less worried about the risks of a vegetarian diet.



ROSEMARY STANTON: And I think we can stop always giving a warning about vegetarian diets. People often say a vegetarian diet has problems. Now if it's a totally vegan diet, it will lack Vitamin B12 but when we look at things like iron deficiency, we don't find any more iron deficiency in vegetarians that we do in meat eaters.



ELEANOR HALL: That's nutritionist Dr Rosemary Stanton ending that report by Jennifer Macey.