Americans are often told to reduce meat consumption to avoid heart disease and diabetes.
Meanwhile, tens of thousands continue to turn to veganism in the hope that it will help them live better, healthier lives.
But now a growing number of studies seem to reach the same consensus. Despite anti-meat scare stories, eating meat increases your chances of living longer. Specifically, you may have a better chance of living to be 100 years old.
The most recent paper to reach this conclusion studied the diets of 5,200 people, including 1,500 centenarians, from across China.
It found that those who ate a more diverse weekly diet, including meat, were 23 percent more likely to become centenarians than their peers who ate a more restrictive diet.
It adds to other recent evidence, including a 2022 Australian paper on meat consumption and life expectancy by country, which found that life expectancy is higher in nations that, on average, consume more meat.
The graph above shows how the number of centenarians in the United States is expected to increase. This comes amid improvements in diet, healthcare and other factors.
Scientists identified a diverse diet as one of the factors behind longer lifespan (stock)
About 81 percent of Americans eat meat, and meat is considered a great source of muscle-building protein and a host of other essential nutrients.
These include vitamin B12, which is not found in plants and is used by the body to help extract energy from food and keep blood cells healthy.
Experts say meat is also a rich source of iron, which helps red blood cells carry oxygen around the body.
The USDA dietary guidelines recommend two to three servings of meat per day, with daily servings equivalent to one small steak or chicken breast.
In the 2022 Australian study, researchers compared life expectancy in 170 countries with the amount of meat consumed in the diet according to surveys.
Lead researcher Dr Arthur Saniotis said: “While this comes as no surprise to many of us, it still needs to be pointed out.”
“It highlights that meat has its own components that contribute to our overall health beyond the number of calories consumed, and that without meat in our diet, we may not be able to thrive.”
And, in another 2015 paper, researchers found that those who live in a The “blue zone” (regions with a higher than average number of centenarians) ate more meat than their coastal neighbors.
Meats are packed with protein and vital nutrients. But some studies have also linked them to an increased risk of diseases such as heart disease and colon cancer.
The study was based on people living in the mountainous blue zone of Sardinia, compared to the coastal areas of the region.
And in a third meta-analysis from November last year, researchers found that people who had been vegetarians for 10 years had a 20 percent higher risk of death from any cause than those who ate meat.
Scientists warn about the risks of excessive meat consumption, specifically red meat.
Previous studies have linked eating servings of red meat every day to an increased risk of colon cancer, while separate articles have also linked red meat consumption to an increased risk of heart disease and stroke.
Scientists say that it is also important to consume vegetables and whole carbohydrates because they contain fiber and essential nutrients for the body, such as magnesium, which is involved in muscle movements.
Many say that a balanced diet, including meat, fish, fruits and vegetables, is best to ensure a long and healthy life.
In the Chinese study, published today in Open JAMA NetworkScientists found that those who ate the most diverse diets were more likely to live longer.
The study was based on data from the Chinese Longitudinal Survey of Healthy Longevity.
Participants were recruited in 1998 at ages 80 or older and then surveyed every few years.
For the analysis, each centenarian in the database was compared to at least two people who had died before reaching centenarian status.
The participants were an average of 94 years old, mostly women, and lived in almost all provinces in China.
To measure dietary diversity, participants were asked how often they ate nine food groups: cereals, vegetables, fruits, soybeans and their products, eggs, meat, fish, milk and dairy products and oil.
The results showed that those who ate all nine food groups at least weekly were more likely to live to be 100 years old.
The analysis also found that never smoking and exercising more increased the odds that someone would live to be a centenarian.
But that education, marital status, and late-life alcohol consumption made little or no difference in the length of a person’s life.
