[Karen]

http://livinlavidalocarb.blogspot.co...u-to-know.html

FACT #7: Vegetarians do not live longer than people eating a typical mixed diet.

I have heard that Seventh-day Adventists (who are often vegetarian) do live 7 years longer than the average American. Why this is so, I don't know, and there could be other factors besides being vegetarian that feed into this. I do know that Adventists as a whole tend to be more focussed on health than most other Christian churches (a reason why many are vegetarians).
2/05/2006 7:41 PM
Blogger Science4u1959 said...

Hi Newbirth,

That is indeed a often-heard story. The facts however are somewhat different. These people are indeed quite health-conscious and often, as a result, do not drink or smoke: factors which might indeed lower the risks of certain forms of cancer.

However, in reality, latest studies have not borne out the claims that vegetarians have lower cancer rates than the general population. A large study on vegetarian California 7th Day Adventists showed that, while the Adventists had slightly lower rates for some cancers, their rates of malignant melanoma; Hodgkin’s disease; and uterine, prostate, endometrial, cervical, ovarian, and brain cancers were actually higher than the general population, some quite significantly.

In the same paper, the authors wrote that meat consumption, however, was not associated with a
higher risk.

And also that no significant association between breast cancer and a high consumption of animal fats or animal products in general was noted.

Indeed, Dr. Emmanuel Cheraskin’s survey of 1040 dentists and their wives showed that those with the fewest health problems as measured by the Cornell Medical Index had the MOST protein in their diets.

The facts are that high-protein diets, when consumed in balance with enough water, fat and fat-soluble vitamins, and nutritional factors from non-starchy vegetables, are extremely healthy.

Minimally processed animal foods like beef and lamb are healthy foods that are rich in a number of nutrients that protect and enhance several body systems: taurine; carnitine; creatine; glutathione; vitamins A; D; several of the B-complex, including B6 and B12; minerals like chromium, magnesium, sulphur, iron, zinc, and phosphorus; complete proteins; and coenzyme Q10, needed for a healthy heart.