Sunday June 9, 2013 (foodconsumer.org) -- A study in JAMA Internal Medicine suggests that people particularly men following a vegetarian diet can live a longer life or are less likely to die prematurely.

Vegetarian diets have already been associated with reduced risk for several chronic disease including hypertension, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes mellitus and ischemic heart disease.  Because of this, vegetarians were expected to live longer.

Michael J. Orlich, M.D., of Loma Linda University in California, and colleagues examined data on all-cause and cause-specific mortality from 73,308 men and women Seventh-day Adventists. Five diets considered in the study included non-vegetarian, semi-vegetarian, pesco-vegetarian (seafood included), lacto-ovo-vegeterian (dairy and eggs allowed) and vegan (no animal foods).

Compared with non-vegetarians, vegetarians tended to be "older, more highly educated and more likely to be married, to drink less alcohol, to smoke less, to exercise more and to be thinner.", according to the study.

During six years of follow-up, 2,570 deaths were recorded.  The all-cause mortality rate among all vegetarians combined was 12% lower, compared with that among non-vegetarians.  The associations between use of vegetarian diets and mortality from cardiovascular disease and ischemic heart disease were more significant among men than women.  In women, no such associations were found.

"These results demonstrate an overall association of vegetarian dietary patterns with lower mortality compared with the nonvegetarian dietary pattern. They also demonstrate some associations with lower mortality of the pesco-vegetarian, vegan and lacto-ovo-vegetarian diets specifically compared with the nonvegetarian diet," the authors concluded. (reporting by David Liu, PHD)