Eating more plants doesn't lower endometriosis risk, study finds
Mitsunami M, Soria-Contreras DC, Harris HR, Missmer SA, Chavarro JE
Plant Based Diet
If you've been loading your plate with garden vegetables partly to ward off reproductive disease, this three-decade study of over 82,000 women says that particular hope doesn't hold up, so keep growing your greens for flavor and nutrition, not as medical insurance.
Scientists tracked more than 82,000 women for thirty years, scoring their diets on how plant-heavy versus animal-heavy they were, and further splitting plant foods into healthy types like vegetables, whole grains, and legumes versus less healthy types like refined carbs and sugary drinks. Women who ate the most plant foods ended up with almost the same rate of confirmed endometriosis as those who ate the least, no matter which plant-based diet score they used. The takeaway: shifting the balance of your plate toward plants, on its own, doesn't seem to change this particular disease risk.
Key Findings
82,084 premenopausal women followed for 30 years across the Nurses' Health Study II, with 3,829 confirmed cases of endometriosis
No meaningful association between plant-based diet scores and endometriosis risk: HR 1.01 for overall plant diet, 1.07 for healthful plant diet, 1.05 for unhealthful plant diet (highest vs lowest intake quintile)
Findings were consistent regardless of participants' infertility status
chevron_right Technical Summary
A 30-year study of over 82,000 women found no link between eating more plant-based foods and the risk of developing endometriosis, a painful reproductive condition, regardless of whether the diet leaned toward healthy or less healthy plant choices.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Greater intake of plant-based foods is unrelated to the risk of endometriosis among predominantly omnivorous women in the United States.
Longitudinal studies suggest that diets encouraging higher intake of fruits and vegetables and lower intake of red meat are associated with a lower risk of laparoscopically-confirmed endometriosis....
open_in_new Read full abstractAbstract copyright held by the original publisher.
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