A pescatarian diet may protect elderly people from neurological diseases such as strokes, dementia and Parkinson’s Disease, according to scientists from Loma Linda University (LLU).
The scientists classed all non-meat diets as ‘vegetarian’—including pescatarian and vegan diets—and compared it with data from people on ‘non-vegetarian’ or ‘semi-vegetarian’ diets.
They concluded that ‘vegetarian’ diets help people live longer, and the inclusion of fish offers the most benefits—especially in those around the age of 85.
“Overall, this is some of the clearest data that American vegetarians are greater protected from premature death than non-vegetarians,” said principal investigator Professor Gary Frazer.
Analyzing data from 88,400 Seventh-Day Adventist subjects recruited from the U.S. and Canada, the study found that vegetarians overall had approximately 12 percent less risk of dying during the study period (2002-2015) compared to non-vegetarians.
Participants who followed a pescatarian diet specifically had 18 percent less risk of death, those on a traditional vegetarian diet—excluding meat and fish but including eggs and milk—had 15 less percent risk, and vegans had a less than 3 percent decreased risk of dying during the study period.
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There was also a gender difference. Male vegans appeared to fare much better than male meat eaters, but the opposite was true for female subjects, who seemed more at risk if they were vegan.
Middle-aged subjects seemed to benefit from following a vegetarian diet, but elderly vegetarians who did not eat fish were found to be more at risk of developing stroke, dementia and Parkinson’s Disease than those who did.
“These increased risks of neurological conditions among vegetarians in their 80s weren’t huge, but something is going on there that we shouldn’t ignore if we wish the vegetarian advantage to continue for all vegetarians in their later years,” said Fraser.
The protective effects of fish could be due to the high quantities of beneficial fatty acids in fish and seafood—called omega-3 DHA and EPA—which have been shown to have health benefits for the brain.
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Reference
Abris, G. P., Shavlik, D. J., Mathew, R. O., Butler, F. M., Oh, J., Sirirat, R., Sveen, L. E., Fraser, G. E. (2024). Cause-specific and all-cause mortalities in vegetarians compared with those in nonvegetarian participants from the Adventist Health Study-2 cohort, The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (n/a)n/a.
