Could a flexitarian diet help you live longer? 

Scientists have long urged people to eat lots of vegetables if they want to live longer, healthier lives. 

However, a study recently found that not eating too much meat can help as well. 

Speaking on Newstalk Breakfast, Eatwell.ie dietician Sarah Keogh said a healthy diet can reduce your chance of getting cancer by 10%.

“The study didn’t specifically look at putting people on a flexitarian diet to see what happened,” she said. 

“What they did was they went over data - which is very good, solid data - and looked at putting measures of flexitarianism [in people’s diet and] what came out of it. 

“What they did find is people who were doing the healthy eating, they lived longer - people who were eating more fruit and veg.

“People who were eating more wholegrains, more fruit and vegetables, increasing fibre and then reducing treat foods and things like, [they had] a reduction in cancer and heart disease.” 

Dairy cows feeding at a dairy feed bunk / Minnesota, USA. (Credit Image: © Steve Woit/Design Pics via ZUMA Wire)

However, the study did also caution that there are huge benefits to keeping some meat in your diet.

“They looked at the nutrition around what men required,” Ms Keogh said. 

“So, when it was reanalysed, it was found it had half the amount of iron in it that women need. 

“It was lower in zinc, it was lower in calcium. 

“So, a revaluation of that last year [concluded] we probably need to put more dairy and more meat into that than is in it if we’re actually going to hit nutrient targets.

“We need to be very careful as well because that diet is very low in calcium and we know that people who follow a fully vegan plant based diet, we do see a 30% increase in fractures.” 

Cutting out meat will reduce your carbon footprint but Ms Keogh said it is not the only change to your diet that can help the planet. 

“There are two quick things that will make a difference to carbon dioxide,” she said. 

“One, reduce your treat food; your crisps, biscuits, cakes - they produce a lot of carbon dioxide and they’re not necessary for nutrition. 

“So, before you start cutting out nutrients like iron and calcium, have a look at reducing some of the treat food. 

“The second thing is food waste; if it was a country it would be the third biggest producer of carbon dioxide in the world.” 

Food waste produces between 8 and 10% of all global carbon emissions. 

Man image: Fruit on display in a Tesco supermarket. Picture by: Doug Houghton / Alamy Stock Photo