Vegetarians Live Longer and Healthier

123468

Replies

  • Phew, good job i live in the UK.

    :D
  • MEAT.jpg



    Meat might be murder but it's tasty, tasty murder.
  • smantha32
    smantha32 Posts: 6,990 Member
    How many of you kill your own food?

    I hunt, gut, skin/pluck, AND butcher 90% of the meat I do eat. Duck, elk, and deer. I also fish, pink salmon season is coming up and I'll be out there at 5 am catching supper.

    Good for you!! :drinker:

    I'm a little queasy about the idea of killing my dinner.. but I do believe it's a ton healthier than eating any kind of meat from a grocery store. I wish I could even think about doing it without thinking of throwing up. lol

    My grand dad used to keep chickens and rabbits and kill them for food. Bunnies!! :sad:
  • benol1
    benol1 Posts: 867 Member
    Hi Pangui,
    I found this article to be encouraging, affirming and inspirational. I am so glad I adopted a plant-based diet. Hopefully, I too, can avoid the lifestyle diseases (coronary artery disease, type II diabetes, stroke, most cancers, alzheimers, and obesity) caused by the Standard American Diet.

    http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/02/the-lovely-hill-where-people-live-longer-and-happier/272798/

    "The death rate from cancer for Adventist men is 60 percent lower than that of the average California male; for Adventist women, it is 75 percent lower. According to Loma Linda University, ground zero in the Adventist Health Studies, "Death from coronary heart disease among Adventist men was 66 percent [lower compared to their California peers]; for Adventist women, it was 98 percent [lower]. Stroke death rates for Adventist men were 72 percent [lower], compared to their non-Adventist counterparts. For Adventist women, death from stroke was 82 percent [lower]."

    Thanks for the article. Personally, I am very nearly vegetarian, having returned to a plant-based diet after about 25 years of meat eating. I am not strict but most of my meals during the week are vegetarian.
    I think its great and more people should adopt a well-balanced vegetarian diet.
    Having said that, I don't think there is a direct correlation between vegetarianism and better health. I have witnessed some people with eating disorders masking their condition as vegetarianism or veganism.
    kind regards,

    Ben
  • I have 3 meals a day, each and every meal including either fish, chicken, offal, steak or eggs. , along with heaps of avocado or olive oil (each meal) and veg or salad with each meal. I have been doing this every day for the last 4 months. I feel fantastic, way better than I ever have, my joint pain has gone. My cholesterol is well within acceptable range, (where it was excessively high, I was supposed to be on medication) I sleep way better than I ever have. My bloodwork has gone from hideous, to excellent ranges.
    Each to their own, but meat and other protein has done wonders for me..:bigsmile:
    Also, I have lost 16 kgs in those 4 months, I started at 92.5 kgs, and rejoined mfp when I got to 88 kgs.
  • TheConsciousFoody
    TheConsciousFoody Posts: 607 Member
    How many of you kill your own food?

    I hunt, gut, skin/pluck, AND butcher 90% of the meat I do eat. Duck, elk, and deer. I also fish, pink salmon season is coming up and I'll be out there at 5 am catching supper.

    Good for you!! :drinker:

    I'm a little queasy about the idea of killing my dinner.. but I do believe it's a ton healthier than eating any kind of meat from a grocery store. I wish I could even think about doing it without thinking of throwing up. lol

    My grand dad used to keep chickens and rabbits and kill them for food. Bunnies!! :sad:

    As far as the deer and elk go..the worst part is the gut bag. Talk about wanting to throw up.
  • Minerva624
    Minerva624 Posts: 577 Member
    I'm a vegetarian and I love it. I've been veg for almost a year now. I don't know if this is due to my diet but my sweat never, sometimes barely smells now. Sometimes I will forgo the deodorant when I run and will end up with no foul sweat. Maybe it's due to me drinking a lot of water but it's awesome. However I sill wear deodorant in public. ;)
  • SwimFan1981
    SwimFan1981 Posts: 1,430 Member
    How many of you kill your own food?

    I hunt, gut, skin/pluck, AND butcher 90% of the meat I do eat. Duck, elk, and deer. I also fish, pink salmon season is coming up and I'll be out there at 5 am catching supper.

    This makes sense!
  • WinnerVictorious
    WinnerVictorious Posts: 4,733 Member
    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.

    SPAM was introduced to the diets of many south pacific islanders just after WWII, so that's more like 70 years ago, not 30.
  • brevislux
    brevislux Posts: 1,093 Member
    Also, I have been a vegan for 9 years with no supplements and get blood work regularly, see a nutritionist, and have absolutely no problems. I get a lot of protein and iron and even B12. And only recently have I actually started TRYING to eat properly... it's not difficult to be a vegan. For me, I've worked in animal rescue all of my life and it would be far more difficult for me to eat animals I've had emotional bonds with then it is for me to not eat meat or dairy.

    185873_10150154797986667_8356382_n.jpg

    409544_10150684926726667_683245817_n.jpg
    It's so cute!!! Ahh!
  • smantha32
    smantha32 Posts: 6,990 Member
    I'm a little queasy about the idea of killing my dinner.. but I do believe it's a ton healthier than eating any kind of meat from a grocery store. I wish I could even think about doing it without thinking of throwing up. lol

    My grand dad used to keep chickens and rabbits and kill them for food. Bunnies!! :sad:

    As far as the deer and elk go..the worst part is the gut bag. Talk about wanting to throw up.

    Uh, yeah that would do it! OMG. :sick:
  • Lyra89
    Lyra89 Posts: 674 Member
    You really have to keep up to date with the research before making such claims.

    I spend, on average, two to three hours a day reading nutritional studies.

    I was a veggie for two years until Jan of this year...the cravings & updated research swayed my decision.

    EVERY healthy culture/person has these things in common: they eat a balanced diet with plenty of fruit and veg, they are active, they drink water, they keep stress low, they have a social circle, they are positive people, they get enough sleep.

    Wholefoods obviously improve quality of life, and in general, populations live longer when consuming whole foods...however, meat is a whole food.

    Opt for organic/free range if you can, people <3
  • BurtHuttz
    BurtHuttz Posts: 3,653 Member
    How many of you kill your own food?

    EW! Eat people?! That's disgusting!!
  • Lupercalia
    Lupercalia Posts: 1,857 Member
    The OP is ridiculous propaganda.

    You want to live a long time? Eat a healthy diet, don't sit on your a**, reduce internal inflammation, sleep more, don't sit on your a**, avoid sugar, reduce stress, don't sit on your a••.....etc. It's not that complicated.

    I was a veggie, a vegan, and even a weirdo raw vegan for 20 years, and have never been healthier since turning away from all that madness and re-introducing meat and animal fats back into my diet, and doing away with the grains and sugars.
  • beskimoosh
    beskimoosh Posts: 375 Member
    Phew, good job i live in the UK.

    This was my thought too!
  • RosscoBoscko
    RosscoBoscko Posts: 632 Member
    Whilst being a vegan or vegetarian works for some people and doesn't for others, the fact that the people in this community are vegan/vegetarian probably has very little to do with their increased life expectancy compared to the other factors in their environment. In fact someone following the same nutritional/eating rules but also adding meat to their diet would probably have the same life expectancy.

    The factors that make the most difference here are the physical activity, lack of stress, philosophical approach etc, which combined with a healthy diet of any sort would boost life expectancy.
  • MaraDiaz
    MaraDiaz Posts: 4,604 Member
    Why do you all want to talk people out of a vegetarian diet? Do you realize how much meat would cost if more people ate it? It's expensive enough. Shush and leave well enough alone!
  • freerange
    freerange Posts: 1,722 Member
    How many of you kill your own food?

    I do, what is your point
  • RosscoBoscko
    RosscoBoscko Posts: 632 Member
    How many of you kill your own food?

    I do, what is your point

    All food is killed anyway, unless anyone's found a way of eating a live plant and it staying alive!!
  • If it works for you, than good on ya.

    However, the 3rd tooth from the middle on each side is called a canine. The canine sole function is to grasp and tear meat. Therefore, it is in our basic evolutionary design to eat meat. Herbivores do not have them, because they are designed to be unable to process meat

    That's not entirely true. Canines are also used for fighting. Herbivores such as horses have canines - mainly the males but a few females also possess smaller ones. Our dentition and digestive system supports the theory that we evolved to eat a wide range of foods, but I suspect we were gatherer-hunters (i.e. major source of nutrition was plant-derived) rather than hunter-gatherers
  • VictoriaWorksOut
    VictoriaWorksOut Posts: 195 Member
    I would like to find out, from people who live long lives and eat meat, what is their portion size? My feeling is that it is normal or small.

    Meat is harder on body to digest then other food, and people who eat large portions of food not only get fat but also put a lot of exhaustion on their body. All energy and blood flow goes to digestion, instead of fueling body and it's functions, including self-repair. From everything I have learned, moderation is the key.

    I was vegetarian in my twenties for about 7+ years, then for another 15 I did not eat red meat and pork. Now in my forties I still do not eat pork.
  • freerange
    freerange Posts: 1,722 Member
    Why do you all want to talk people out of a vegetarian diet? Do you realize how much meat would cost if more people ate it? It's expensive enough. Shush and leave well enough alone!

    Really, I don't recall any meat eaters trying to talk veggies out of eating their veggies. IN FACT I bet every meat eater here also eats some veggies. However I do see veggies trying to make it so we can't eat meat. And that is the ONLY problem I have with vegans. I could care less what someone eats, you could have a diet of grasshopper $^%$ as far as I'm concerned, but don't try to make me eat how you do, and don't look down your holier than thou vegan nose at me either. There is nothing, NOTHING, morally superior about going against human history to abstain from eating meat.
  • iAMsmiling
    iAMsmiling Posts: 2,394 Member
    Also, I have been a vegan for 9 years with no supplements and get blood work regularly, see a nutritionist, and have absolutely no problems. I get a lot of protein and iron and even B12. And only recently have I actually started TRYING to eat properly... it's not difficult to be a vegan. For me, I've worked in animal rescue all of my life and it would be far more difficult for me to eat animals I've had emotional bonds with then it is for me to not eat meat or dairy.

    185873_10150154797986667_8356382_n.jpg

    409544_10150684926726667_683245817_n.jpg

    My mom taught me to never play with my food.
  • BeachGingerOnTheRocks
    BeachGingerOnTheRocks Posts: 3,927 Member
    Given everything I've managed to live through already in my life, the rest of it, how ever many years, days, weeks, or hours that is, are going to be enjoyed.

    Every morning, I get up and ask myself "Self? If this was your last day on Earth, what would you want to eat for breakfast?"

    Self always responds "Well, if this was my last day on Earth, I'd like to eat some bacon."

    Today, Self confused me and asked for toast. Very odd.

    Bacon for lunch.
  • Phew, good job i live in the UK.

    Lol, and this :)
  • sunsnstatheart
    sunsnstatheart Posts: 2,544 Member
    How many of you kill your own food?

    I hunt, gut, skin/pluck, AND butcher 90% of the meat I do eat. Duck, elk, and deer. I also fish, pink salmon season is coming up and I'll be out there at 5 am catching supper.

    That is awesome! In any event, for those that live in cities we don't exactly grow our own vegetables either. When I can hunt though, I do.
  • beskimoosh
    beskimoosh Posts: 375 Member
    How many of you kill your own food?

    I hunt, gut, skin/pluck, AND butcher 90% of the meat I do eat. Duck, elk, and deer. I also fish, pink salmon season is coming up and I'll be out there at 5 am catching supper.

    That is awesome! In any event, for those that live in cities we don't exactly grow our own vegetables either. When I can hunt though, I do.

    If I had the skills to do it in the most humane way possible, then yes, I totally would. It really annoys me when people get freaked out that the meat they're eating was once an animal, I think it shows a lack of respect for the food. I will say this, that pig in the pictures is so cute. Couldn't eat an animal that was someones pet, however good bacon tastes.
  • ArroganceInStep
    ArroganceInStep Posts: 6,239 Member
    How many of you kill your own food?

    I have, I don't have the time to hunt regularly now but I know how to do it.

    What's your point? How many of you grow ALL of your own vegetables? Do you have any idea what goes into running a large scale farm?


    Bueller?
  • elliott062907
    elliott062907 Posts: 1,508 Member
    I am amazed at people. And I hate the term, "I'm only human". I have been stalled for a while, but I keep on keeping on. I know it will change and I will get over the hump. I was told by a very negative person that I am obsessed with weight loss. Um No!!!! I am happy with 80lbs being gone in a year and a half and happy about eating healthy and sharing accomplishments. I have decided, "that which I do not need, will be walked away from". And I feel so much better!!!!! I make a lot of Gluten Free and Vegetarian meals. And it is so funny that people will have seconds and take a dogie bag home, but afterwards when they want the recipe and I gladly give it to them, they say, "oh well, I thought it tasted different". Really? And the leftovers and seconds, you didn't notice any difference?? I think it is that people are not happy with them selves, that the need to put others down has become so common with them, they cannot see the impact they are making. I have a few life changing events hit me since Oct 2012 and it is hard to overcome with negative people. So I say this to all my friends and family that are in the same sort of situation. "Let them go, you don't need negative, distance yourself". You have to do it for you!!!!!! Peace and Blessed Be.
  • RhonndaJ
    RhonndaJ Posts: 1,615 Member
    I'm kind of fascinated that most cancers are considered a 'lifestyle" disease. I'm pretty certain our oncologist will be interested to hear it.