Vegetarians Live Longer and Healthier

This is funny. There are studies and stuff going around about people in Okinawa living the longest, etc. And their diet isn't all veggies. There is quite a bit of fish and meat in there too.

A lot of their pork dishes are amazing! *sighs*

Eat only until 80% full, pay attention to a macrobiotic diet. That's the model for that. There's limited meat and practically no diary. Whole grains, seasonal produce, sea vegetables.

Really? That's not how I remember it..lol. Have you been to Okinawa or Japan? They have dairy and they enjoy their meat dishes quite thoroughly. And there is a lot of it..lmao.

Nowadays Okinawan cuisine is full with fatty pork dishes (and they put that nasty spam/corned beef in every single dish they have), but that's not how they used to eat 30 years ago. That is the diet that's known for the Okinawan people's longevity, the one of 30 or so years ago. Its main characteristics are low caloric intake on a long term basis and limited meat, dairy and rice, not as much fish as in mainland Japan, and plenty of soy products and local vegetables (goya, local varieties of sweet potato). In other words people were poor and ate what was available. Today, Okinawans eat very differently and obesity rates raise fast.

Nothing wrong with spam..lol. And Spam originated in the US It's also a favorite food in Hawaii.

Also - pork has been a part of Okinawan cuisine a lot longer than 30 years. A lot longer.

The point being is that people can be healthy and live quite a long time including meat in their diet.

Of course they can, I totally agree. And of course pork is part of Okinawan cuisine, but in *limited* amount - that's the key word here. What I tried to convey with my previous post is that the way Okinawans eat today is quite different from the so called "Okinawan diet". The same thing happened in Crete/Greece. Locals do not eat as healthy as they used to and obesity is now a big problem. Kids in Crete are among the most obese in Europe!

I'd rather live a shorter life and enjoy meat than live a longer one without it.

I'd rather live a shorter life and enjoy meat than live a longer one without it.

I could never give up my bacon. I could give up all red meat but I love my bacon. I've been known to order a veggie burger with bacon before. So I'll take a shorter life if it means I can still eat bacon!!

How many of you kill your own food?

How many of you kill your own food?

My husband kills some of our food.

To me it comes down to how I feel. I have been plant based for over a month and have tons of energy and feel great. I am losing weight quickly and not hungry at all. The problem with studies is that you can find a study to back up whatever your particular belief is.

To me it comes down to how I feel. I have been plant based for over a month and have tons of energy and feel great. I am losing weight quickly and not hungry at all. The problem with studies is that you can find a study to back up whatever your particular belief is.

That's exactly how I feel, I feel even better now that I did as a vegetarian, I sleep better too.

Although Dean Ornish promotes a vegetarian diet for heart disease, he has recently promoted the consumption of fish oil and even salmon because of the protective benefit of Omega-3s.

Of the few studies I've heard about vegetarians do not live longer than people on the Mediterranean style eating plans. Vegetarians have lower blood cholesterol and lower heart disease, but overall mortality rates from all causes and life expectancy are the same.

Although I have no issues with vegetarians, I do not like veganism. It's selling point is largely ethical, although they make a lot of claims about health that do not seem to pan out. Most vegans I have met are overweight, pale, with no muscle tone and strangely neurotic about food labels. I did meet one once who was glowing and quite energetic, but she made an effort to incorporate healthy food - not simply to strike out categories of "bad" food. Still, it is very hard for me to accept the idea of a vegan diet. An eating plan where one naturally misses out on B-12 and where you have to worry about combining complete proteins sounds restrictive to me. A lot of vegans seem to incorporate rare, expensive and trendy foods / supplements and sugar substitutes that sound cool, but are probably unnecessary for health. Is agave nectar really that much better than corn syrup? Both technically come from a plant, both are sugary additives and empty calories.

In my view the ideal diet should be practical, straight forward, readily available, and healthy. Less processed, high in nutrition - "clean eating" I guess would be my ideal. I look at what the body builders do, what the fitness competitors eat to get the bodies that they have - it's 80% nutrition and only 10% training, according to Tosca Reno.

I think that most people do best on a varied diet incorporating some animal products, especially low fat dairy. When I went vegetarian for a while I always felt that I was missing out meat and it was always very hard to hit above 45 grams of protein a day with legumes and soy substitutes, although I love them both.

It's also a little....restrictive to say that only vegetarians have a plant based diet. I LOVE fruit and veg so to say that someone who eats four ounces of grilled chicken breast once a day or snacks on cottage cheese is not going to reap the benefits of a plant based diet is not necessarily true.

As for the Seventh Day Adventists, they have a strong spiritual / religious support system for managing stress and an active lifestyle, both of which play an important role in the prevention of disease.

How many of you kill your own food?

I have but I was also brought up to respect nature and the food I eat..whether I kill it or not. And so I will nom my burgers with the respect they deserve

I've been vegetarian for 15 years.
But I must say: they are STATISTICALLY healthier. Just avoiding meat won't necessarily make you a healthy person; sure, you avoid many processed and rubbish stuff. But you can have a healthy lifestyle eating meat, and a horrible lifestyle being vegetarian. I see no actual health benefits to being vegetarian; I see health benefits to watching your macros and keeping it as clean as possible.

smartest reply of the whole thread

I ahree!!