Want To Live Longer?

Turn vegetarian says the British Medical Association.

- Shri K.K.Bajaj

The ultra-conservative British Medical Association has released a report stating categorically that vegetarians live longer than meat-eaters.

The coronary heart disease mortality among total vegetarians is just 14 percent. Vegetarians can, of course, have heart attacks, but they occur approximately 20 years later than in the lives of meat-eaters. This is a huge difference. And vegetarians live their lives feeling more fit and healthy and suffering from fewer bouts of sickness. Even doctors, who have been slow in recognizing the importance of nutrition to health, are beginning to concede to the scientific evidence that has been accumulating for about 100 years. Vegetarians, the report concludes, have 28 percent lower risk of dying from heart disease and 39 percent lower risk of dying from cancer.

The research of British Medical Association is based on a 12-year study of 5,015 British meat-eaters and 6,115 non-meat eaters. It was a thoroughly controlled study which took into account the effects of living conditions, social status, weight, job hazards and smoking, and still ended-up pointing the finger at meat. But, what is bizarre about the British study is the fact that its authors said they were “unable to pinpoint exactly what in the vegetarian diet contributed to increased longevity”.

According to Arthur Upton, Director of the National Cancer Institute in the US, “Up to 50 percent of all forms of cancer are caused by diet.