Living a longer, healthier, and happier life - health advantages of vegetarianism - includes related article on Chinese diet

Vibrant Life, May-June, 1992 by John Scharffenberg

Are you headed for one of the chronic diseases that ravage the lives of millions every year? Maybe it's time for a diet change.

He's dead!" "Forty-one years

"He seemed so happy. A man who had everything." "His poor family." "I just don't understand it." Why?"

Have you known someone who died prematurely, maybe from a heart attack, stroke, or cancer? What thoughts ran through your mind? Your attention, at least momentarily, may have turned to your own health, to ways you can prevent an untimely death.

If you're reading this magazine, you no doubt are interested in living and maintaining a healthy life, and when you consider the growing evidence, an important step in that direction is being a vegetarian.

Cardiovascular disease and cancer account for two thirds of all deaths in the United States, and the two main causes that people can do something about are cigarette smoking and a poor diet. When it comes to diet, the three main problems are too much fat (especially animal fat); obesity; and lack of fiber. And a diet with considerable animal products affects all three factors.

Heart disease. Heart attacks in men are four times greater in those who are nonvegetarians in their 40s than vegetarians. Scientists state: "A more vegetarian diet without excess calories can lower cholesterol and ... should lower coronary heart disease" (InterSociety Commission for Heart Disease Resources Report, 1984).

The major reason for the greater heart attack risk among nonvegetarians is because of cholesterol and saturated fat. All cholesterol and 70 percent of saturated fat in the average American diet come from animal products. Our bodies make cholesterol in sufficient amounts, so we don't need it in our diet.

But more than this, animal products are without fiber, are high in fat, and are low in linoleic acid, an essential fatty acid that lowers blood cholesterol.

Frequently diseases have been attributed to such causes as use of tobacco when perhaps the greater problem was a poor diet. For example, in Japan more men smoke than in the United States, yet they have only one quarter the heart attack rate as seen in the U.S. This is because their diet produces a much lower blood cholesterol level.

In the United States it has also been noted that smokers consume more saturated fat and cholesterol than nonsmokers. So at least some of the health problems of U.S. smokers can be attributed to more than smoking.

One study showed that total vegetarian men who do not use animal products of any kind have only 14 percent the expected heart attack death rate, lacto-ovovegetarians have 39 percent, and meat eaters 50 percent the expected rate, as found in the general population. The nonvegetarians in this particular group also did not smoke, which is why their rate was lower than the general population.

Another interesting note: men who ate nuts daily had only half the fatal heart attack rate as those who rarely ate nuts. This is now being investigated further.

Diabetes. Another part of the study found that those who ate meat six times or more a week had 3.6 times greater risk of diabetes being on their death certificate. And the major cause of death among Type 11 diabetics (adult onset b") is heart disease. After further study it was discovered those who were not diabetic were at greater risk of developing diabetes if they were on a nonvegetarian diet. It appears that fruits and vegetables have a protective effect.

Treatment of Type 11 diabetes today is primarily by a low-fat, little-or-no cholesterol diet and one that is high in fiber. The diet is also low in calories since most Type 11 diabetics are overweight. These recommendations can readily be met by a vegetarian diet.

Cancer. Meat eaters were found to have a 28 percent higher risk of breast cancer, 51 percent higher risk of prostate cancer, and 66 percent higher risk of ovarian cancer.

High consumers of meat, milk, eggs, and cheese had a 3.6 times greater risk of prostate cancer compared to low consumers. Ovarian cancer in women appear to be related to the amount of meat and eggs consumed. A study of over 142,000 Japanese women showed breast cancer risk to be 3.8 times greater in daily users of meat compared to those who ate it less than once a week.

In Japan cancer of the pancreas is 2.5 times more frequent in those who eat meat daily compared to vegetarians.

Studies have also found that high consumers of fruits and vegetables have a lower cancer risk. Cancer of the pancreas is much lower. And those who eat cabbage once a week have only one third the risk of colon cancer as those who eat it once a month. in a study of people over 65 years of age, high consumers of vitamin A and C foods had only a third the cancer death rate as low consumers of these fruits and vegetables.

A study in Norway of 11,083 men in which 53 developed lung cancer showed those with low vitamin A intakes were at three times greater risk of getting lung cancer compared to those with normal intakes.

Osteoporosis. One study found that vegetarian women at age 80 had bones as dense as nonvegetarians at age 60. This 20-year advantage may have been because of the lower protein intake of vegetarians. A high protein diet increases the excretion of calcium.