What are telomeres? Telomeres are the caps on the end of DNA strands. They maintain chromosomal stability, keep DNA from recombining together and prevent chromosomal degradation. Scientists can determine a person's biological age marker by the length of their telomeres.
In the Netflix documentary, You Are What You Eat, scientists determined that study participants who went vegan increased the length of their telomeres. Essentially, they extended their lives by omitting meat and dairy from their diets.
Other than telomeres, there are still more than a handful of reasons a person may want to stop consuming dairy and meat. A person could say animals are treated inhumanely in CAFOs (confined animal feeding operations). They could say consuming meat destroys the environment because animal farming puts toxins in the environment. The overproduction of cows is contributing to rise of global warming and cow consumption is contributing to the deforestation of the Amazon. A person could add that most animals bread for consumption are treated with antibiotics and the overuse of antibiotics in animals is causing human resistance to antibiotic treatment. However, if none of these reasons are good enough, self-interest could be a reason to go vegan. Self-interest would be better overall health.
According to the documentary going vegan reduces the risk of Alzheimer's and stroke. Study participants who went vegan lowered their LDL cholesterol. Trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) which determines inflammation levels in the body also decreased. Inflammation is the bodies defense mechanism against disease and is correlated to many diseases the body will create to protect itself.
To sum up, telomere length is increased when you go vegan and according to the National Institute for Health, "telomere length may therefore serve as a biological clock to determine the lifespan of a cell and an organism". So, go vegan for longer telomeres and longer telomeres mean you are biologically younger.