Eating a vegan diet for one month may help slow aging.

Key Takeaways

A month-long vegan diet may lead to epigenomic changes linked to reduced cancer risk and slower biological aging.
Eating a vegan diet for one month may decrease pro-inflammatory white blood cells and increase CD4+ T cells, which help regulate immune responses.
While the findings are promising, more research is needed.

Plant-based diets have been linked to a range of health benefits, from better heart health to a lower risk of some chronic diseases. A new study suggests that a vegan diet may reduce inflammation and slow biological aging, and that these effects may happen after just one month.

How a Vegan Diet May Affect Inflammation and Aging

In the new study, researchers found that people following a vegan diet showed improvements in some markers of lower inflammation and slower biological aging over one month.

Participants in the vegan group had lower levels of certain white blood cells that promote inflammation, although the difference was not statistically significant. They also had significantly higher levels of CD4+ T immune cells, which help regulate the body’s immune response.

However, not all of the findings were statistically significant, and it’s not yet clear whether these short-term changes could reduce the risk of age-related diseases.

“The findings of the study suggest that dietary interventions may influence immune responses and inflammation, but whether these changes reduce the risk of aging-related diseases remains unclear,” said Heewon L. Gray, PhD, RDN, an associate professor of nutrition and dietetics at the University of South Florida, who was not affiliated with the study.

The Study Was Small and Short-Term

While the findings are promising, the study was small and short. It included just 48 healthy participants and lasted one month.

“That would be trying to make guesses about a large population with varying health conditions based on a small, healthy sample size. The information coming out of this very limited study could merit longer, more in-depth studies to confirm some of this data,” said Kalyn True, RD, a registered dietitian at the Memorial Hermann Health System.

Gray said that the original study was designed to examine the short-term effects of a vegan diet on vitamin B12 levels in healthy people, rather than long-term aging or disease outcomes. She noted that the vegan diet was also designed to provide a similar caloric intake across participants, which meant that some participants ate more nuts, oils, or granola bars to meet the daily energy target.

“The vegan diet focused on excluding animal products rather than maximizing the intake of minimally processed or whole plant foods, so the findings should not be generalized to all vegan or whole-food plant-based diets,” Gray said.

You Can Eat More Plants Without Going Fully Vegan

While it’s unclear whether the changes seen in this study would lead to long-term health benefits, True said the findings support existing evidence linking high-quality diets rich in plant-based foods with better health and increased longevity.

You also don’t have to overhaul your entire diet to reap the benefits. True recommends starting by adding more plant-based whole foods to your diet while cutting back on meat and processed foods.

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1 Month of Eating Vegan May Reduce Inflammation and Slow Aging, Study Shows