Researchers at the Milken Institute School of Public Health found that South Asians living in the United States had a lower risk of heart disease and diabetes when they ate a vegetarian diet, according to a press release Monday.

Sameera Talegawkar, an associate professor of exercise and nutritional sciences, led a team that found South Asians who didn’t eat meat generally had a lower body mass index, cholesterol level and blood sugar level than a similar group that did eat meat.

The research mounts on similar studies that associate plant-based diets with health benefits.

Brazilian researchers found recently that people who regularly ate plant-based protein were roughly 60 percent less likely than meat-eaters to accumulate plaque in the heart’s arteries, according to the release.

Another study from Dutch researchers showed that vegetarians exemplified a lower risk of developing coronary heart disease than their meat-eating counterparts, the release states.

All three findings were presented Sunday at a national nutrition conference.