Macro partitioning
Substituting 3% of total energy intake from plant protein for animal protein (specifically processed or unprocessed red meat) is associated with significantly lower all-cause and cardiovascular mortality.
To lower your risk of dying from heart disease or other causes, swap 3% of your daily calories from animal protein (especially processed and unprocessed red meat) with plant protein (beans, nuts, legumes). This swap is most beneficial if you have other unhealthy lifestyle habits like smoking, being overweight, or being inactive. You do not need to change your total protein amount, just the source.
In particular, the HRs for all-cause mortality were 0.66 (95% CI, 0.59-0.75) when 3% of energy from plant protein was substituted for an equivalent amount of protein from processed red meat, 0.88 (95% CI, 0.84-0.92) from unprocessed red meat, and 0.81 (95% CI, 0.75-0.88) from egg.
Why this rating
Large prospective cohort study (n=131,342) with long follow-up (up to 32 years) and repeated dietary assessments, though observational design limits causal inference.
Source
Association of Animal and Plant Protein Intake With All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality
Mingyang Song et al. · JAMA Internal Medicine · 2016
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