Vegans and vegetarians are still pretty rare in the United States. In a Gallup poll from 2018, only about 8% of 30- to 49-year-olds said they were vegetarians, and 4% said they were vegans.

Surprisingly, fewer young folks, 18 to 29, were off meat: 7% were vegetarian and 3% were vegan.

Go figure.

That's exactly what researchers did for a study in JAMA Internal Medicine that looked at the life-extending properties of a plant-based diet.

They reviewed data on 400,000 U.S. adults 50 and older for a 16-year period and figured out that the risk of death fell 12% for men and 14% for women for every 3 ounces of plant protein they ate per 1,000 calories consumed.

But even a smaller bump in consumption of plant protein made a difference: Swapping 3% of calories from animal to plant protein was enough to reduce the risk of death for both sexes by 10%.

The most damaging animal proteins were red meat and eggs — the best benefits came from cutting them out entirely.

That's what we've been saying for the past 12 years, based on data from Stan Hazen of the Cleveland Clinic.

Red meat and eggs (plus processed meat) are so damaging because they encourage certain intestinal bacteria to produce inflammatory mediators that promote cancer, dementia, arthritis, heart disease, and stroke.

So gobble, gobble — not turkey, but tofu, beans, nuts, seeds, 100% whole grains, and a variety of fruits and vegetables.