By Reed Mangels, PhD, RD

Around 30 years ago, researchers in the United Kingdom started a large study that would provide a wealth of data about the health of vegans and vegetarians. The study is called EPIC-Oxford which stands for the Oxford cohort of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition. It includes 65,000 adult men and women living throughout the U.K, approximately half of whom don’t eat meat (1).  About 30% of subjects are lacto-ovo vegetarian and 4% are vegan (2).

EPIC-Oxford tracked study subjects for more than 18 years, during which the subjects answered questions about their health and food choices. One important area that the study investigated was the relationship between diet type and the risk of developing common chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer, and diabetes.

Compared to nonvegetarians, vegetarians and vegans had a 22% lower risk of heart disease (1). This appeared to be due to the generally lower body mass index (BMI), lower blood pressure, and lower LDL-cholesterol level typical of vegetarians and vegans.

Diabetes is an increasingly common condition. In EPIC-Oxford, vegetarians had a 35% lower risk of diabetes compared to nonvegetarians; vegans had a 47% lower risk. Overall cancer risk was 10% lower in vegetarians and 18% lower in vegans. Vegetarians and vegans also had a lower risk of diverticular disease and cataracts and vegetarians had a lower risk of kidney stones compared to a group characterized as “high meat eaters” (1).

In contrast to these positive results, vegetarians had a higher risk of a type of stroke, namely hemorrhagic stroke (1).  You can read more about this result here. Bone fracture risk was also higher in vegetarians and vegans. You can read more about that result here.

The results, showing a reduced risk of several common diseases in vegetarians and vegans are especially impressive when we consider that both the vegetarians and nonvegetarians in this study were considerably healthier than the average person living in the United Kingdom (1).

The scientists who conducted this important study would like to see more research done investigating changes in diets of vegetarians and vegans over recent years as more vegan convenience foods have been developed. They would like to see a study done which includes many more vegans than EPIC-Oxford did – tens of thousands of vegans in contrast to EPIC-Oxford’s approximately 2,300 vegans.

References

1. Key TJ, Papier K, Tong TYN. Plant-based diets and long-term health: findings from the EPIC-Oxford study. Proc Nutr Soc. 2022;81(2):190-198.
2. Davey GK, Spencer EA, Appleby PN, et al. EPIC-Oxford lifestyle characteristics and nutrient intake in a cohort of 33,883 meat-eaters and 31,546 non meat-eaters in the UK. Public Health Nutr. 2003;6:259-68.

To read more about EPIC-Oxford see:

Long-term Studies of Vegetarians

Adequate Calcium Important for Vegan Bone Health

EPIC-Oxford website