DIETARY HABITS AND MORTALITY IN 11000 VEGETARIANS AND HEALTH CONSCIOUS PEOPLE - RESULTS OF A 17 YEAR FOLLOW-UP

Objective-To investigate the association of dietary habits with mortal ity in a cohort of vegetarians and other health conscious people. Desi gn-Observational study. Setting-United Kingdom. Subjects-4336 men and 6435 women recruited through health food shops, vegetarian societies, and magazines. Main outcome measures-Mortality ratios for vegetarianis m and for daily versus less than daily consumption of wholemeal bread, bran cereals, nuts or dried fruit, fresh fruit, and raw salad in rela tion to all cause mortality and mortality fi om ischaemic heart diseas e, cerebrovascular disease, all malignant neoplasms, lung cancer, colo rectal cancer, and breast cancer. Results-2064 (19%) subjects smoked, 4627 (43%) were vegetarian, 6699 (62%) ate wholemeal bread daily, 2948 (27%) ate bran cereals daily, 4091 (38%) ate nuts or dried fruit dail y, 8304 (77%) ate fresh fruit daily, and 4105 (38%) ate raw salad dail y. After a mean of 16.8 years follow up there were 1343 deaths before age 80. Overall the cohort had a mortality about half that of the gene ral population. Within the cohort, daily consumption of fresh fruit wa s associated with significantly reduced mortality from ischaemic heart disease (rate ratio adjusted for smoking 0.76 (95% confidence interva l 0.60 to 0.97)), cerebrovascular disease (0.68 (0.47 to 0.98)), and f or all causes combined (0.79 (0.70 to 0.90)). Conclusions-In this coho rt of health conscious individuals, daily consumption of fresh fruit i s associated with a reduced mortality from ischaemic heart disease, ce rebrovascular disease, and all causes combined.