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Plant-Based Diet Protects Against Multiple Chronic Illnesses
- August 29, 2025
- Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
Shifting to a plant-based diet can help keep people from being plagued by multiple health problems as they age, a new study says.
People whose diets included more veggies, fruits, whole grains, legumes and plant-based foods had 32% lower odds of developing two or more chronic illnesses, researchers report in The Lancet Healthy Longevity.
Specifically, people who adhered more strongly to a healthy plant-based diet had a lower risk of cancer, heart disease and type 2 diabetes, researchers said.
“You don’t have to cut out animal products entirely,” lead researcher Reynalda Córdova, a nutritional epidemiologist at the University of Vienna, said in a news release. “Shifting towards a more plant-based diet can already have a positive impact.”
For the study, researchers analyzed data on more than 400,000 people between 37 and 70 years of age from six European countries who were participating in two large-scale health research projects.
During a follow-up of around 11 years, more than 6,600 participants fell ill with cancer, heart disease or diabetes.
Results showed that a person’s risk for multiple chronic illnesses fell by 11% to 18% for every 10-point increase in a score assessing healthy plant-based eating.
Middle-aged folks younger than 60 got more benefit from shifting toward a plant-based diet, researchers said. Their risk of developing multiple chronic ailments fell 29% for every 10-point increase in their plant-based diet score.
By comparison, seniors 60 and older had 14% lower odds for multiple illnesses for every 10-point increase in their diet score.
“Our study highlights that a healthy, plant-based diet not only influences individual chronic diseases but can also reduce the risk of developing multiple chronic diseases at the same time, in both middle-aged and older people," Córdova said.
A diet consisting mainly of healthy plant foods and small amounts of meat and meat products can contribute to maintaining good health into old age, researchers concluded.
“A higher adherence to a healthy plant-based diet is associated with lower bodyweight, lower inflammation, and better insulin sensitivity than a lower adherence to a healthy plant-based diet, all of which have a role in the development of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer,” researchers wrote in their paper.
These foods also are rich in fiber, which improves immune function and reduces intestinal inflammation, researchers wrote.
More information
The Cleveland Clinic has more on healthy plant-based diets.
SOURCES: University of Vienna, news release, Aug. 20, 2025; The Lancet Healthy Longevity, Aug. 19, 2025
