Women Who Eat a Plant-Based Diet Age Better

The Journal of Nutrition recently published a Harvard Medical School study showing that women who eat a plant-based diet are physically healthier than their meat-eating counterparts as they age. Based on survey data from more than 54,000 women who were tracked over the course of three decades, researchers found that a diet rich in fruit, leafy greens, and nuts correlated with higher levels of physical functioning. Meanwhile, high consumption of sugar, alcohol, salt, and trans-fats more often resulted in health problems. While researchers found some foods to have especially health-promoting properties (such as oranges, apples, pears, romaine lettuce, and walnuts), researchers emphasized that it was the overall quality of the subjects’ diet that kept them healthier.