Why Do Vegetarians Live Longer?

Nearly a decade of extra life -- that's what you get when you move away from eating animal foods and toward a plant-based diet. This is really exciting science for anyone seeking healthy longevity (and who isn't?)!

According to a recent report on the largest study of vegetarians and vegans to date, those eating plant-based diets appear to have a significantly longer life expectancy. Vegetarians live on average almost eight years longer than the general population, which is similar to the gap between smokers and nonsmokers. This is not surprising, given the reasons most of us are dying. In an online video, "Uprooting the Leading Causes of Death," Michael Greger, M.D. explores the role a healthy diet can play in preventing, treating, and even reversing the top 15 killers in the United States. Let's take a closer look at what the good doctor has pulled together...

Heart disease is our leading cause of death. The 35-year follow-up of the Harvard Nurses Health Study was recently published, now the most definitive long-term study on older women's health. Dietary cholesterol intake -- only found in animal foods -- was associated with living a significantly shorter life and fiber intake -- only found in plant foods -- was associated with living a significantly longer life. Consuming the amount of cholesterol found in just a single egg a day may cut a woman's life short as much as smoking five cigarettes daily for 15 years, whereas eating a daily cup of oatmeal's worth of fiber appears to extend a woman's life as much as four hours of jogging a week. (But there's no reason we can't do both!)

What if your cholesterol's normal, though? I hear that a lot. But here's the thing: having a "normal" cholesterol in a society where it's "normal" to drop dead of a heart attack is not necessarily a good thing. According to the editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Cardiology, "For the build-up of plaque in our arteries to cease, it appears that the serum total cholesterol needs to be lowered to the 150 area. In other words the serum total cholesterol must be lowered to that of the average pure vegetarian."

More than 20 years ago, Dr. Dean Ornish showed that heart disease could not just be stopped but actually reversed with a vegan diet, arteries opened up without drugs or surgery. Since this lifestyle cure was discovered, hundreds of thousands have died unnecessary deaths. What more does one have to know about a diet that reverses our deadliest disease?

Cancer is killer number two. Ah, the dreaded "C" word -- but look at this hopeful science. According to the largest forward-looking study on diet and cancer so far performed, "the incidence of all cancers combined is lower among vegetarians." The link between meat and cancer is such that even a paper published in the journal Meat Science recently asked, "Should we become vegetarians, or can we make meat safer?" There are a bunch of additives under investigation to suppress the toxic effects the blood-based "heme" iron, for example, which could provide what they called an "acceptable" way to prevent cancer. Why not just reduce meat consumption? The meat science researchers noted that if such public health guidance were adhered to, "Cancer incidence may be reduced, but farmers and [the] meat industry would suffer important economical problems..." Hmmm, so Big Ag chooses profit over health; what a surprise.

After Dr. Ornish's team showed that the bloodstreams of men eating vegan for a year had nearly eight times the cancer-stopping power, a series of elegant experiments showed that women could boost their defenses against breast cancer after just two weeks on a plant-based diet. See the before and after here. If you or anyone you know has ever had a cancer scare, this research will make your heart soar. Because there is real, true hope -- something you can do to stave off "the big C."

So, the top three leading causes of death used to be heart disease, cancer, then stroke, but the latest CDC stats place COPD third -- lung diseases such as emphysema. Surprisingly, COPD can be prevented with the help of a plant-based diet, and can even be treated with plants. Of course, the tobacco industry viewed these landmark findings a little differently. Instead of adding plants to one's diet to prevent emphysema, wouldn't it be simpler to just add them to the cigarettes? Hence the study "Addition of Açaí [Berries] to Cigarettes Has a Protective Effect Against Emphysema in [Smoking] Mice." Seriously.

The meat industry tried the same tack. Putting fruit extracts in burgers was not without its glitches, though. The blackberries "literally dyed burger patties with a distinct purplish color," and though it was possible to improve the nutritional profile of frankfurters with powdered grape seeds, there were complaints that the grape seed "particles became visible" in the final product. And if there's one thing we know about hot dog eaters, it's that they're picky about what goes in their food!

Onward to strokes: The key to preventing strokes may be to eat potassium-rich foods. Though Chiquita may have had a good PR firm, bananas don't even make the top 50 sources. The leading whole food sources include dark green leafy vegetables, beans, and dates. We eat so few plants that 98 percent of Americans don't even reach the recommended minimum daily intake of potassium. And if you look at killer number five -- accidents -- bananas (and their peels) could be downright dangerous!

Alzheimer's disease is now our sixth leading killer. We've known for nearly 20 years now that those who eat meat -- including chicken and fish -- appear three times more likely to become demented compared to long-term vegetarians. Exciting new research suggests one can treat Alzheimer's using natural plant products such as the spice saffron, which beat out placebo and worked as well as a leading Alzheimer's drug.

Diabetes is next on the kick-the-bucket list. Plant-based diets help prevent, treat, and even reverse Type 2 diabetes. Since vegans are, on average, about 30 pounds skinnier than meat-eaters, this comes as no surprise; but researchers found that vegans appear to have just a fraction of the diabetes risk, even after controlling for their slimmer figures.

Kidney failure, our eighth leading cause of death, may also be prevented and treated with a plant-based diet. The three dietary risk factors Harvard researchers found for declining kidney function were animal protein, animal fat, and cholesterol, all of which are only found in animal products.

Leading killer number nine is respiratory infections. With flu shot season upon us, it's good to know that fruit and vegetable consumption can significantly boost one's protective immune response to vaccination. Check out the short video "Kale and the Immune System," and you'll see there's not much kale can't do.

Suicide is number 10. Oh yes, vegan food even has something good to offer on this one! Cross-sectional studies have shown that the moods of those on plant-based diets tend to be superior, but taken in just a snapshot in time one can't tease out cause-and-effect. Maybe happier people end up eating healthier and not the other way around. But this year an interventional trial was published in which all meat, poultry, fish, and eggs were removed from people's diets and a significant improvement in mood scores was found after just two weeks. It can take drugs like Prozac a month or more to take effect. So you may be able to get happier faster by cutting out animal foods than by using drugs.

Drugs can help with the other conditions as well, but instead of taking one drug for cholesterol every day for the rest of your life, maybe a few for high blood pressure or diabetes, the same diet appears to work across the board without the risk of drug side-effects. One study found that prescription medications kill an estimated 106,000 Americans every year. That's not from errors or overdose, but from adverse drug reactions, arguably making doctors the sixth leading cause of death.

Based on a study of 15,000 American vegetarians, those that eat meat have about twice the odds of being on antacids, aspirin, blood pressure medications, insulin, laxatives, painkillers, sleeping pills, and tranquilizers. So plant-based diets are great for those that don't like taking drugs, paying for drugs, or risking adverse side effects.

Imagine if, like President Clinton, our nation embraced a plant-based diet. Imagine if we just significantly cut back on animal products. There is one country that tried. After World War II, Finland joined us in packing on the meat, eggs, and dairy. By the 1970s, the mortality rate from heart disease of Finnish men was the highest in the world, and so they initiated a country-wide program to decrease their saturated fat intake. Farmers were encouraged to switch from dairies to berries. Towns were pitted against each other in friendly cholesterol-lowering competitions. Their efforts resulted in an 80 percent drop in cardiac mortality across the entire country.

Conflicts of interest on the U.S. dietary guidelines committee may have prevented similar action from our own government, but with our health-care crisis deepening, our obesity epidemic widening, and the health of our nation's children in decline, we may need to take it upon our selves, families, and communities to embrace Food Day ideals of healthy, affordable, sustainable foods by moving towards a more plant-centered diet. If we do, we may be afforded added years to enjoy the harvest.

For a plan on how to eat this way, check out The Lean!

For more by Kathy Freston, click here.

For more on diet and nutrition, click here.

Also on HuffPost:

We asked two experts in plant-based eating -- Amy Lanou, Ph.D., an associate professor of health and wellness at the University of North Carolina Asheville, and Vandana Sheth, R.D., C.D.E, a Los Angeles-based dietitian and spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics -- for their advice for people who are just starting out on a vegan diet.

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• 1. Eat The Same Amount As Your Pre-Vegan Days

  Always hungry on your new vegan diet? You may not be eating enough, says Lanou. "What people find when they move to a more whole-foods diet built from plant foods, is they have to eat larger quantities of food," she says. "People find themselves hungry or not feeling full and it's because the caloric density of the food they're eating is lower." For example, you can't expect to go from eating a sandwich that has meat, cheese, lettuce and tomato, to a sandwich with only lettuce and tomato and expect to feel the same amount of fullness, she says. So you "have to eat more food, and that happens anytime you're taking out, or removing, the calorie dense foods from your diet."

• 2. Don't Seek Out Vitamin B12

  There are a myriad of plant-based options to get most of our body's essential nutrients -- you can get calcium, for example, from leafy green vegetables and tofu instead of milk, and you can get omega-3 fatty acids from chia seeds and flax seeds instead of fish. But a big mistake many new vegans make is not going out of their way to find a plant-based source of vitamin B12, which is vital for proper neurological development and functioning, Sheth says. The nutrient "primarily comes from animal products, so make sure you're getting it either through things like fortified cereals or plant-based beverages fortified with B12," Sheth adds. Lanou explains that because the body is able to store up vitamin B12 for a long period of time, you may not even notice that you're deficient until a year or more after you've started a vegan diet. Older people who are going vegan should talk with their doctors about getting enough vitamin B12, Sheth notes, because the "intrinsic factor" in our bodies that help us absorb vitamin B12 diminishes with age.

• 3. 'If It's Vegan, It Must Be Healthy'

  When some people start a vegan diet, they load up on foods like processed veggie burgers, processed veggie cheese, processed veggie hotdogs, and other, well, <em>processed</em> veggie-based foods. While this can help you to stick to your meat- and animal-free goals, some of these foods aren't giving you the nutritional benefits you would get if you actually ate whole, real, non-processed foods, Lanou says. "The benefit of going from an omnivorous diet to a vegan diet has to do with what you're taking out <em>and</em> putting in," she says. "If you're putting things in that are too similar, you may not be getting all the benefits you could be getting." Sheth agrees, saying that she discourages her clients switching to a vegan diet only to rely solely on those processed vegan foods. "Those are also heavily processed -- high in sodium and fat. But you wont want to live off that either -- it's <em>still</em> a processed food," she says.

• 4. Always Eat The Nuts/Salad When You Are Out And About

  Many restaurants and stores now have plenty of options for plant-based eaters -- but not all of them. So, it's wise to carry some delicious, nutritious back-up options if you find yourself in a place where you have nothing to really eat. "You can always find a bag of peanuts or cashews somewhere, and that's not bad food, but you don't want to live on that," Lanou says. And the same goes for restaurants -- don't feel like you always have to have the salad if you're out at a place that serves meat-centered dishes, Sheth says. "You can customize and say, 'I'll have the grains and vegetables that come with the steak,' but ask if they have tofu or a bowl of chili so you can easily have all the nutrients you need," she adds.

• 5. Don't Listen To Your Body

  Every time you alter your diet pattern, it will take about three weeks for your body to adjust, Sheth says, so don't be discouraged if you're feeling strange or still adjusting your eating habits when you first start. And don't take cravings as a sign that your body "needs" a certain food (a bacon craving doesn't mean your body needs bacon!) as it could just mean you need to reassess what nutrients you're consuming. "If you're craving meat or bacon, what have you been eating the last few days? Maybe you've just been living off salads, so you may not be getting adequate heart-healthy fats," Sheth says. "See if you can balance it out. Is it the fat your craving? The salt? Just assess what you're doing and see if you're meeting all your nutritional needs." Lanou advises people to listen to their bodies, and adjust accordingly. "If your body is telling you it's hungry, eat. If it's telling you something doesn't feel good when it's in your stomach, buy something else," she says.

• You've Got Vegan Food's Benefits

  In this edition of You've Got, Kathy Freston tells you all about the health benefits and variations of Vegan food.

 

 

 

Follow Kathy Freston on Twitter: www.twitter.com/kathyfreston

Comments

[nq5511]

07:21 PM on 11/21/2012

Why don't they publish the full truth of the matter? Those who live longer than any place on earth or nations with the greatest longevity are NOT vegetarians, though they eat many vegetables. Japan is #1, and in the city of Okinawa it's common to find MANY over 100 years old per reports and a doctor friend of mine from Okinawa. It's said they eat pig primarily as any meat. Everything but the oink.

Same with France where they definitely eat meats, fats, and smoke more but one of the top nations in longevity, as have been proven. In fact, they are lower in the top 3 causes of death, heart attack, cancer and stroke. The person documented as living longer than anyone before she died at about 133 years old in Arles, France smoked until she was 108 years old.

I don't advocate these things but greatly wish they'd tell the WHOLE truth. For OUR sake in the US.

[Amber Ferrizz]

06:04 PM on 11/21/2012

Great article, super informative! I will be sharing it on www..CrunchyHippie.com~ a green social network based on living natural and healthy lives in community!

Aside from the health factor there is a host of ethical and environmental reasons why the meat industry and factory farming is a bad news. Being someone who recently transitioned to a vegan diet over the course of a year, I feel it's one of the best decisions physically and ethically that I've made in my life. Nothing is as hard as we project it will be and the result is a happier and healthier person!
~Amber~ big time veggie lover

"Nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances for survival of life on earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet." —Albert Einstein

[Margaretrc]

07:39 PM on 11/12/2012

Equating eating eggs to smoking 5 cigs a dayfor 15 years is beyond ludicrous. Eggs are super food. I'd like to see the study that came up with that statistic. I'd bet I could poke a bunch of holes in that one.

[Nescobar]

04:06 PM on 11/20/2012

Sounds like you didn't really watch the video. The study is referenced in there, as well as how the risks for eating eggs and smoking produce similar numbers in terms of mortality. So....have a look at the study and let us know about how you have proven it to be incorrect. That would of course be with peer reviewed science. I'm interested to hear.

[Margaretrc]

06:55 PM on 11/20/2012

Actually, I did watch the video, but a while ago and I didn't remember seeing the study cited. But it's not hard to find the study elsewhere, as well as some good criticism of it. It's what they call an epidemiological study--not much good for determinig cause and effect. I'll let the experts explain it: "“This is very poor quality research that should not influence patient’s dietary choices,” said Dr. Steven Nissen, who chairs the department of Cardiovascular Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, in an email. “It is extremely important to understand the differences between ‘association’ and ‘causation’.” There's more like this at http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2012/08/16/egg-study-not-all-its-cracked-up-to-be/ beginning with "But cardiologists say the study shouldn’t be taken so seriously because the research is flawed." And FYI, it doesn't take a peer reviewed study to prove something incorrect. It's incumbent upon the individuals making a claim to prove it correct with peer reviewed studies,preferably RCT. An epidemiological study that depends on questionnaires to assess eating and other habits and has numerous confounding variables isn't it, peer reviewed or not.

[Margaretrc]

06:57 PM on 11/20/2012

And eating eggs or any other source of cholesterol has very little effect on serum cholesterol. Even Ancel Keys, perpetrator of the lipid hypothesis, said that. So if eating eggs doesn't raise serum cholesterol appreciably, how on earth is it supposed to cause thickening of the arteries, even granting that serum cholesterol does have a direct effect on arterial thickness? It's way more complicated than that, but that's beside the point.

[LovisMirac]

02:44 PM on 11/12/2012

"Vegetarians live on average almost eight years longer than the general population, which is similar to the gap between smokers and nonsmokers."
---- Not a big surprise.

However,
"Consuming the amount of cholesterol found in just a single egg a day may cut a woman's life short as much as smoking five cigarettes daily for 15 years"
----- That one, I question (and yes, I am a vegetarian).

Why I question that: it does matter, where you get your cholesterol from,
and you picked one of the best cholesterol sources:

1) "Why Eggs Don't Contribute Much Cholesterol To Diet ... the absorption of cholesterol is reduced by another compound in the egg, a lecithin."
Reference:
http://www.unisci.com/stories/20014/1029013.htm

2) Two-thirds of our cholesterol is MADE BY THE BODY, made from saturated fat.
So, in terms of limiting sources of cholesterol, it's actually much more effective to limit sat. fat.
3) Eggs are low in saturated fat.
4) Cholesterol is being found to have a LOWER statistical significance in heart disease than a related substance: triglycerides ((which are, in turn, being found more correlateD to *sugar* intake, because chronically high-sugar & insulin resistance result in liver-released triglycerides)).

((However, if you still want to reduce cholesterol, (still a good idea), something much better than lowering eggs, that you implied, but did not discuss in detail: high FIBER intake (esp. soluble fiber) moves out bile, decreasing cholesterol re-absorbtion from the gut.))

[Margaretrc]

07:34 PM on 11/12/2012

You make some very good points, @LovisMirac, except for a couple. Unless one has unnaturally high cholesterol from a genetic disease called Familial Hypercholesterolemia, which results from a defect in LDL receptors (not enough of them), it's not "still a good idea" to reduce cholesterol. We need cholesterol for myriad structures and functions--including the brain. Cholesterol is so crucial to our health that the body will make what it doesn't get from the diet. Think about it, If cholesterol were harmful and not crucial to our health, would we have evolved a system to re-absorb it from the gut? I think not. I don't have FH, so I prefer to let my body decide how much cholesterol I need and not mess with it. Which is why I'm not afraid to eat sat fat. Because I don't WANT to limit the sources of cholesterol for my body. I want my body to be able to get as much as it needs. And I'm not afraid to eat cholesterol, either--dietary cholesterol has little to do with serum cholesterol. And the association between dietary sat fat and heart disease is tenuous, at best. Even the former president of the American College of Cardiology agrees. http://content.onlinejacc.org/article.aspx?articleid=1133027&issueno=5

[LovisMirac]

06:29 AM on 11/13/2012

I totally agree, and your point is a worthy one -- my closing paragraph did make it sound as if reducing cholesterol is *always* a good thing, and it's not.

To be fair to my comment, I think my main point was that watching saturated fat and sugar intake is more productive than watching cholesterol.

I was making summary points. I welcome the invitation to treat the topic more fully.
Re' cholesterol, for me, the bottom line:
(1) what do blood tests say, about cholesterol and triglyceride levels? For most, I'd say listen to your doctor, for interpreting those numbers... (and of course learn yourself).

(2) practical moderation. Personally, I don't even need to watch my cholesterol at this point, because I've moderated saturated fat for decades, and sugar more recently, and my blood work suggests cholesterol and triglycerides are within healthy ranges.

Moderating saturated fat for me, used to mean a few consistent choices, and generally being aware. My consistent choices were things like choosing poultry and eggs and vegetable oils, over red meats and cow dairy and butter.

Now that I'm vegetarian (for about 8 years now), and rarely eat cow dairy. I don't even need to watch saturated fat much anymore. I still pay attention to what the blood work numbers say, of course, but one of the nice things about being vegetarian, is that it handles a lot of issues.

I do often eat eggs. Like you, I see them as a superfood.

[LovisMirac]

06:34 AM on 11/13/2012

P.S. I choose eggs from free-range chickens when available, and free-range is not on the shelf, I choose cage-free. (For non-dietary reasons, of course.)

[Margaretrc]

11:27 AM on 11/10/2012

At least the UCLA study about the Mormons doesn't say eating meat is what gives the Mormons the extra years of life! So you can eat meat or not, your choice. Clean living is much more conducive to living a long, healthy life than whether or not you choose to eat what humans have been eating for their entire history as humans.

[Margaretrc]

11:24 AM on 11/10/2012

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705377709/UCLA-study-proves-Mormons-live-longer.html?pg=all Hmmm. Except for the fact that they do eat meat, Mormons share a lot of characteristics in common with 7th Day Adventists, including longer than average life span--about the same number of extra years as Ms Freston says vegetarians do, maybe even a tad longer. So it seems the key to living longer isn't so much about whether or not you eat meat, but about numerous other lifestyle factors. "Several healthy characteristics of the Mormon lifestyle are associated with substantially reduced death rates and increased life expectancy."The study, conducted from 1980 to 2004, included information from questionnaire responses by more than 9,800 faithful Mormon couples and concluded that practicing Mormons in California had the lowest total death rates and the longest life expectancies ever documented in a well-defined U.S. cohort." You can download a PDF of the study from here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/she-the-people/post/mormonism-good-for-the-body-as-well-as-the-soul/2012/06/20/gJQARk3IqV_blog.html

[I-US]

01:36 PM on 11/10/2012

From the second source: "But since 1833, Otterson said, the church has also encouraged limiting meat consumption in favor of grains, fruits and vegetables."

[Margaretrc]

05:54 PM on 11/10/2012

"Limiting" is different from "eliminating". And I'm not using this study to support any "eat meat for longer life" assertion. I'm saying it simply shows that you don't need to eliminate meat from your diet to enjoy good health or a long life. Mormons do eat meat--the amount is irrelevant to my point. I doubt if there are any vegetarian or vegan Mormons.

[Jay Wortman MD]

12:03 PM on 11/09/2012

The major problem with nutritional studies and the policies that are derived from them is that they are most often observational in nature. Observational data is useful for one thing - the generation of hypotheses that can be tested in clinical trials. There are exceptions like smoking, parachutes, etc where the observational data is overwhelming. In nutritional research, however, the effect odds ratios are usually under 2 which is a signal that the data is not to be trusted without supporting research. Unfortunately, we see a wealth of nutritional policy and advice is based on observational studies with effect sizes of much less than that. As an example of how wrong observational data can be you need look no further than the recent fiasco on hormone replacement therapy. The Harvard observational study suggested that it reduced cardiovascular risk by 50%. When the clincal trial was conducted, it actually increased risk by 30%. That's an 80% difference - a pretty clean miss! The reason for this is that there are a host of potential confounders in any observational study and, unless you can somehow account for every single one of them, you are at risk of getting your conclusions wrong. The article here essentially bases its position on reports from observational studies. Caveat emptor.

[factUnicorn]

04:35 PM on 11/08/2012

Confounding factors play a role in the statistics you quote. Vegetarians and vegans are statistically more concerned about all other important health aspects, which leads the majority to vegetarian/vegan lifestyles. This means that they exercise, don't smoke, consume no/moderate amounts of alcohol, and reduced intake of excess calories - all important factors that have a huge positive influence on a person's health. No science shocker there.

The study http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16965238 makes no mention of a plant-based diet, just a low-fat, high-fiber diet.

Also Ornish's study, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16094059, concluded "Intensive lifestyle changes may affect the progression of early, low grade prostate cancer in men. Further studies and longer term followup are warranted." Further studies being warranted is not even close to "What more does one have to know about a diet that reverses our deadliest disease?"

In future articles, please link to the study you reference directly. Several times you link to http://nutritionfacts.org/ videos and not the study you actually reference. Readers don't need another (gasp!) supporting opinion of the study you reference, we'd like the study itself so we can make our own informed decisions.

Bottom line, we can all agree that a balanced diet and plenty of exercise, while not smoking and reducing alcohol consumption are proven interventions for a long, healthy life... as long as your genetics play ball - http://cancer.stanford.edu/information/geneticsAndCancer/genesCause.html.

[melenmagellan]

05:13 PM on 11/06/2012

I've been vegetarian for 8 years, initially for weight loss and animal rights reasons. It's since settled into a lifestyle. You CAN be a junk food vegetarian and be unhealthy, so not eating meat is not not a free pass into longevity. You still have to be careful of what you eat if you want to be healthy. I've never gotten a strong meat craving since switching to a vegetarian diet, so it hasn't been hard for me at all. But I know that some people would feel very deprived on a veg diet (perhaps they grew up with meat as a staple), so being vegetarian wouldn't suit them. I just urge everyone to buy organic and cage-free when they can.

[Punchy Brewster]

06:59 PM on 11/05/2012

What does this mean for vegetarian smokers?

[eLucida]

10:41 PM on 11/05/2012

Tobacco is a plant product, so as long as it is organic it is healthful.

/sarcasm

[Robert Pope]

09:29 AM on 11/06/2012

That they should smoke organic cigarettes - like American Spirit!

[drama mine]

02:42 PM on 11/05/2012

I am admittedly not an expert on this subject so please correct me if I am wrong. I understand people wanting to maintain a vegetarian diet because of spiritual or ethical reasons, but I find the healthy lifestyle tag to be suspect. It seems to me that human beings are designed to eat meat, and the protein from meat is important to the development and maintenance of our bodies. It also seems that vegetarian diets in order to be truly healthy require vitamins or other supplements if not augmented by eggs or fish. It also seems like there is a lot of misinformation on the subject, due to studies such as this which seem intrinsically flawed and biased. I myself have tried a vegetarian diet because I read somewhere that it could lead to an increase in energy. What I found was quite the opposite.

[Ila Awasthi]

11:14 PM on 11/05/2012

If human beings were designed to eat meat, we would have been evolved with sharp claws and teeth like all the other meat-eating animals who are able to kill and eat their prey without any tools. The fact that we had to invent tools and weapons to hunt means that we were not 'designed' for that. Monkeys don't eat meat and we came from them!

[drama mine]

04:43 AM on 11/06/2012

Chimpanzees eat meat. You sound well-meaning but not well informed.  

[seumasog]

10:36 AM on 11/06/2012

This has to be the lamest argument against meat-eating that gets trotted out regularly by veg*ns.

[mazaza]

07:19 AM on 11/06/2012

I don't see how we are any more designed to eat meat than to not eat it. If you push it, you can survive quite well on plants alone without any meat, but just meat and no plant would certainly lead to a much lower life expectancy.

Being a vegetarian and feeling good is quite possible, lots of people do it. It does require a dedication to cooking though.

[Margaretrc]

09:12 PM on 11/06/2012

"... just meat and no plant would certainly lead to a much lower life expectancy." I'm sorry, but you can't know that. There are cultures that traditionally eat no plants and they do just fine. And we did evolve eating mostly meat. But you're basically right. Health isn't a matter of whether or not you eat plants and/or meat. It's a matter of whether or not you eat a lot of junk and what else you do/don't do, like exercise, smoke, and so on.

[Thinking 4 Myself]

01:23 PM on 11/05/2012

my guess....
vegetarians are less likely to do manual labor at work

[Klad InVermont]

04:00 PM on 11/06/2012

Why's that?

[Thinking 4 Myself]

10:56 PM on 11/16/2012

the inherent privledge implied by being able to choose not to eat meat suggests a level a wealth that is not consistent with doing manual labor

[LovisMirac]

06:50 AM on 11/13/2012

I'm guessing you're referring to the benefits of protein and fat, when you're using your body big-time.
And I agree.
I'd just point out that there are other sources of protein & fat... and some vegetarians choose them... but I'll admit, it often takes a willingness to explore, to find those choices.

Whether it's vegetarianism or not, it takes some exploration and creativity to discover food that is both tasty AND healthy... and part of the process still involves willingness to acquire tastes.
For example, I love coconut oil, instead of butter -- it's an improvement health-wise -- but it took some "trying things" to discover that. Before I found coconut oil, some of the things I tried did not work that well for me, LOL. And even for something as tasty as coconut oil, the choice still has grown on me.

[TekkenDavis]

09:33 AM on 11/04/2012

Vegetarian here. I prefer it. Not a health choice so much as a choice based on spiritual reasons. I don't want to spill blood. If there are health benefits so much the better. I feel better as a whole person by refusing meat.

[Margaretrc]

07:55 PM on 11/04/2012

And I respect that.

[Iron Fist]

12:03 AM on 11/04/2012

vegetarians dont live longer. they die sooner.

[TwoZeroOZ]

04:11 PM on 11/04/2012

To be fair, all studies have "shown" that vegetarians live longer.

However, they all compare vegetarians to the typical person with a typical crappy diet.

There really is no evidence that compares those on a strict veg*n diet to those on a strict well balanced diet. All other indirect sources of evidence do suggest that a good well balanced diet should outperform a veg*n diet.

[Caroleeena]

08:37 AM on 11/05/2012

Wishful thinking is no substitute for facts.
And the facts prove your statement wrong.

[Thinking 4 Myself]

01:25 PM on 11/05/2012

no the actual facts are on his side
there are large populations of vegetarians in india and china

the meat eating countries live longer

[Margaretrc]

09:16 PM on 11/09/2012

@I-US, "the Adventist Healthy Study 2 does exactly that. It compares 96,000 Adventists to each other--some who eat meat and some who do not. " And when the study is completed, I'll be interested in the results. But the study is not yet complete and the results are not all in.

[J David Auner]

04:05 PM on 11/03/2012

I just watched "Forks over Knives" and seemed to see similar results as Atkins/Bernstein get in junked up people. Bill Clinton is walking proof that rich folks can go vegan and do much better. The two old recycled guys (stars of the film) from the dairy farms - exposed for years to raw milk and high quality meats, seem to be doing pretty well. Instead of traditional diet, these guys were seeing the fallout from the first 25 to 50 years of industrial farming practices. My family typically lives too long - on high quality meats and dairy and many kinds of fermented foods. I am making things worse for Social Security by growing greens and veggies in the garden without a pesticide (guineas and wild birds keep the bugs down). Will start milking a few goats soon. Cheese next. There are several ways to sustainability - I raise pigs for slaughter and my pig's lard is liquid at room temperature (no commercial feed.) I will post a picture on facebook of the bacon in the skillet yesterday, combined with grain fed eggs over toast was good but the turnip/chard greens sauteed in the bacon drippings( with olive oil as the drippings were too small volume) was excellent.

[FaunaAndFlora]

12:16 AM on 11/04/2012

If by "the two old recycled guys" you are referring to T. Colin Campbell and Caldwell Esselstyn, their claims are based on bunk. Campbell's book, "The China Study", makes claims that aren't supported by the raw data in the actual China study. For example, six statistically significant associations with animal foods and disease were found. Four of the six found that those who ate the most animal foods had lower rates of heart disease, diabetes or cancer.

As for Esselstyn, he did an uncontrolled interventional study of 24 patients with cardiovascular disease, of which 6 dropped out after a few weeks. Only 11 remained in the study for five or more years, at least according to earlier reports. Later, that 11 morphed into 17. And while his intervention included a low-fat vegetarian diet, it also used statins, exercise and a ban on all processed foods as well.

That said, we seem to have the same culinary politics. I raise goats, lambs, ducks and geese for meat, milk and eggs. I also have several garden plots interspersed on my land where I raise vegetables, herbs and berries. Oh, and I'd love to try your lard. ;-)

[J David Auner]

04:19 PM on 11/04/2012

I would suspect Barnard's group paid for the movie - they push too hard. Really, cows and pigs as pets only? Peace.

[Margaretrc]

07:58 PM on 11/04/2012

For anyone that takes Forks over Knives seriously, here is a brilliant analysis of the science: http://rawfoodsos.com/2011/09/22/forks-over-knives-is-the-science-legit-a-review-and-critique/