Research shows eating meat daily boosts your chances of reaching 100.

The findings add nuance to a complex picture. While cutting back on meat has been associated with longer life and lower risks of heart disease, meat also supplies proteins and nutrients that support muscle and bone strength—factors that may be particularly important for frail, underweight older adults. The study also found that regularly eating vegetables was linked with greater longevity overall, reinforcing the idea that balance and nutritional adequacy matter more than strictly avoiding animal foods. Experts caution that the results, drawn from older adults in China, may not directly apply to other populations and should not by themselves prompt people to overhaul their diets. Instead, they argue that both vegetarian and meat-based patterns can be healthy if they emphasise whole grains, fruits, vegetables and limited salt, sugar and saturated fat, and that more research is needed before declaring any one way of eating as the clear path to a longer life.