According to the largest study of vegetarian and vegans to date: Vegetarians live on average almost eight years longer.

This conclusion correlates with findings in the study below, followed by the explanatory video:

“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.”

Here’s my synopsis of what I’ve recently read:

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”.

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.”

After Dr. Ornish’s team showed that the bloodstreams of men eating vegan for a year had nearly eight timesthe 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.”

 

COPD – (lung diseases)..
the third biggest killer , can be prevented with the help of a plant-based diet, and can even be treated with plants.
The Tobacco Industry knows as much.. –  hence the study ”Addition of Açaí [Berries] to Cigarettes Has a Protective Effect Against Emphysema in [Smoking] Mice.”

Seriously…

The Meat Industry, of course, employs the same tactics, like putting fruit extracts in burgers, or improving the nutritional profile of frankfurters with powdered grape seeds..

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.

Mood disorders..
 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.

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.

Related articles

*   Aggressive Cancers Hate Plant-Based Diets (wakingtimes.com)

*   Healthy Eating | Vegetarianism (yvonnebergeron.wordpress.com)

*   Veganism makes its way into black men’s diets | theGrio (thegrio.com)

 

This essay was previously published at Joern’s blog, which is located HERE 

Hero image used from http://community.blog.de/2013/01/20/bilder-sagen-mehr-worte-15447037/