Why Go Vegetarian?

Studies

At 1:15 in the following video, Deborah Kotz from US News and World Report says that the Adventist church has one of the healthiest diets, and therefore one of the longest life expectencies. "It's pretty accepted now in the medical community - with all of the scientific research that's been looking at Adventists - that they live longer than their peers." On their website, the Adventist church recommends "A generous use of whole grains, vegetables and fruits; and a moderate use of low fat dairy products (or nutritional equivalent alternatives), legumes, and nuts; a very limited use of foods high in saturated fat, cholesterol, sugar, and salt; abstinence from tobacco, alcohol, and coffee, tea, and other caffeinated beverages."

- "An interesting new study did look at this issue and found that avoiding meat, fish and poultry leads to more frequent reports of positive mood. The researchers, from Benedictine University in Illinois and Arizona State University, noted that in general, vegetarians report better mood than omnivores (those whose diets include meat, fish and poultry)" (Link).

- In the 1990’s the Vegetarian Times published the results of a study that researched longevity and diet. Meat eaters, lacto-ovo vegetarians and vegan women were all included in the study. Within this specific study, it turned out that the lacto-ovo vegetarians lived the longest, the meat eaters lived the next longest, and vegans lived the least long (Link).

Note: A vegan diet that is supplemented with vitamin B12, vitamin D (if consistent sunlight is not available), Omega 3 and possibly protein can also be very healthy. Some examples of long-term, very healthy vegans include Karen Calabrese, Jay Kordich, Lou Corona, Markus Rothkranz, George Malkmus and Gabriel Cousens (link).

- In one study from 1999 Meta-Analysis concluded that "Lacto-ovo vegetarians (23,265 people) had a 38% reduced rate of dying from lung cancer, a 34% reduced rate of dying from heart disease, and a 15% reduced rate of mortality (Link).

Today's world is quite unique in the sense that most of us will never have to kill an animal for food. We can purchase our meat "pre-butchered" and prepackaged from a supermarket. Personally I did kill a chicken once for food as well as a rabbit with a BB gun when I was a kid. In both instances I felt quite horrible. It's funny because I never felt bad when somebody else killed the animal for me. I think that most of us would have a hard time killing an animal for food, especially if that animal were a pet of some sort. I definitely don't judge people who choose to eat meat. Yet at the same time, I feel healthier when I eat a plant based diet. Ideally I think a vegan diet is the most humane diet. Yet a vegan diet may also be lacking in B12 because the greens that we eat are not usually from wild sources, but rather from pesticide sprayed sources (cows get their B12 from the dirt found on grass and grass roots). For this reason, it may be best to include B12 supplementation in your diet. Another option is to include grass fed dairy and/or free range eggs in your diet.

I really relate with this following video: