A plant-based diet seems to be the best option for human health. A team led by medical doctor Angelo Capodici of the University of Bologna in Italy has found that humans eating vegetarian(素食的) diets tend to have measurably better health outcomes in several areas.
This does not mean that you should immediately excise meat from your diet, since the diet needs of individuals can vary significantly. What it does suggest is that making dietary changes might be a much more powerful tool for improving health outcomes, if it can be done safely.
Since diet is easy to change, Capodici and his colleagues (同事) wanted to take a closer look at the impact of plant-based eating on the risk of these diseases. They studied the data collected from 48 reviews between January 2000 and June 2023, and found that vegetarian diets were associated with better health status on a number of risk factors for both cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cancer. Overall, these plant-based diets were associated with better cholesterol(胆固醇) levels and blood sugar control, a lower risk of both cancer and heart disease compared to those of plant-and-meat eaters.
The team noted, though, that vegetarian pregnant (怀 孕 的 ) women did not show a significantly lower risk of high blood pressure. They were also careful not to draw conclusions about plant-based foods being the only cause of these health improvements.
It's also worth noting that plant-based diets can result in vitamin and mineral shortage; and, of course, many different health conditions, such as allergies (过敏) require a careful, tailored approach to food. Because of these, the researchers caution against the large-scale adoption of plant-based diets. Rather, they say more targeted and more specific research should be conducted, in order to narrow down why these diets are positively correlated with better health.
