Vegetarians Live Longer and Healthier

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.

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.

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; therefore, they do not need the teeth to tear meat. As humans are omnivores, we have both canines for tearing meat and the flat molars for grinding plant matter.

Have you ever looked at a hippo's canines? They're herbivores and have huge ones!

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.

Oh boy, that's my bad. The traditional Okinawan diet is of course before the 50s. There was a large study 30 years ago, thus the confusion.

How many of you kill your own food?

I'll throw some fuel on the fire...

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.

Yes. It is unfortunate that most medical professionals aren't taught much about nutrition in medical school. There are even quite a few heart surgeons who don't realize that coronary artery disease can be reversed by diet. Doctors may be experts in what they do on a day to day basis, but that doesn't make them nutritional experts. Fortunately, there are many doctors who are aware of the role food plays in disease prevention and control. Some are working to change the rules so that doctors may learn about nutrition in medical school.

Nice way to dismiss what I said.

Certainly nutrition does impact disease, but to suggest that most cancers are 'lifestyle' diseases is at best simplistic, at worst, misleading.

And, just for the record, the oncologists I deal with also happen to be leading researchers in their fields at different major centers in the US, and they do actually support a holistic approach to healing, along with the formal accredited medical side.

Simply put, since I am a layman and not a researcher or even a college grad, there is a standing belief that there are many factors which will cause a person to get cancer (any cancer), some are known, most are not.

Oh! I finally see what you are referring to. In my original post, I did refer to "most" cancers as being lifestyle diseases. I guess what I really meant was that the most common varieties of cancer (breast, prostate, colon, endometrial) are largely affected by diet far more than by genetics. Decades of research is now fairly conclusive that what we eat affects the development and growth rate of cancer. Clearly, cancer is far more complicated than that and eating a plant-based diet offers no guarantees, but the research is compelling enough to suggest in many instances that proper nutrition can be equally as effective as conventional treatment. Statistically, ones odds of developing these more common varieties diminishes significantly on a plant-based diet.

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]."