Lifestyle & Health

Vegetarian women are less than one-fourth as likely as meat-eaters to get breast cancer, while vegetarian men have a 46 percent lower chance of suffering a heart attack. In addition, a vegetarian diet helps prevent strokes, osteoporosis, kidney stones, many cancers, diabetes, hypoglycemia, kidney disease, peptic ulcers, hernias, obesity, gallstones, hypertension, asthma, and many other diseases.

“Vegetarians have the best diet. They have the lowest rates of coronary disease of any group in the country…. they have a fraction of our heart attack rate, and have only 40 percent of our cancer rate. On the average, they outlive other people by about six years now.” William Castelli, M.D. , Director, Framingham Heart Study, the longest-running clinical study in medical history.

Vegetarians live longer, healthier lives. One 21-year-long study that compared meat-eaters and vegetarians showed that the greater the meat consumption, the greater the death rate from all causes combined.

“Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.” Albert Einstein.

“Well-planned vegan ….diets are appropriate for all stages of the life cycle, including pregnancy, and lactation…satisfy(ing) nutrient needs of infants, children and adolescents and promot(ing) normal growth.” The American Dietetic Association’s position paper on vegetarianism.

Vegetarianism is an automatic cholesterol-cutter. The only foods that contain cholesterol are animal products, like meat and dairy. And since a three-decade-long study found that not a single subject with a cholesterol level below 150 has ever developed heart disease, that’s hard to ignore!

A well balanced vegetarian diet can provide all the nutrients your body needs and there is much scientific evidence to indicate vegetarians may be healthier than meat-eaters.

A vegetarian diet is healthy because it is typically low in saturated and total fat, high in dietary fibre and complex carbohydrate, and high in protective minerals and vitamins present in fresh fruit and vegetables.

Vegetarian food groups are:
Cereal/grains – wheat (bread & pasta), oats, maize, barley, rye, rice, etc. Potatoes are a useful cereal alternative.
Pulses – kidney beans, baked beans, chick peas, lentils, etc.
Nuts & Seeds – almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, etc.
Fruit and vegetables.
Dairy products or Soya products – tofu, tempeh, soya protein etc.
Vegetable oils and fats – margarine or butter