We Can Extend Our Productive Lives

People aren't aware that our excessive consumption of dietary fat is a modern
phenomenon. Before the Civil War in this country there is hardly any mention
of heart attacks in medical books because they were so rare. But now heart
attacks are our leading cause of death for both men and women.

Years ago, the rich foods that people consume today were simply unavailable
and unaffordable. In the Middle Ages, for example, the kings and queens got
fat, and developed gout, diabetes, arthritis, and heart disease, while peasants
living in the fields never knew of these afflictions.

The incidence of many chronic diseases and cancers has been increasing
steadily in this century. Many years ago a high infant mortality rate, including
birth-related deaths, and a higher childhood mortality rate affected statistics
concerning life spans. Because infant and early childhood mortality rates were
added into the formula, it showed that average Americans lived shorter lives
than they do today.

Thanks primarily to better sanitation, modern plumbing with flushing toilets,
and refrigeration, life-threatening infectious diseases became less prevalent
earlier in this century. This was not due to the advent of antibiotics or
vaccinations; this tremendous decline in infections occurred many years before
these medicines were introduced.

Many mortality studies have been done on the Seventh-Day Adventists, a
conservative Christian group that provides dietary and life style advice to its
members. They are prohibited from using tobacco, alcohol, and pork, and are
discouraged from consuming meats, fish, eggs, and caffeine-containing
beverages. Because the latter items are only discouraged and not prohibited,
there is a wide range of consumption of these items. For example, some
Adventists never eat meat or eggs, whereas others consume them daily.
Furthermore, about one-half join the church as adults and, before converting,
these Adventists may have been exposed to a diet high in animal products for
most of their lives. If we look at multiple scientific investigations done on this
group, we find the following:

1. As a whole, male Adventists live an average of 8.9 years longer than the
rest of (nonsmoking) America, and Adventist women 7.5 years longer (this
includes both vegetarian and nonvegetarian Adventists).
Vegetarian Adventists live the longest in proportion to the time they had
been oh a vegetarian diet.
If we extrapolate the results to include those
on a vegetarian diet for more than half their lives, more than 13 years are
added to the life span, compared to the average nonsmoking American.

2. Egg and meat consumption is strongly associated with all causes of
mortality. Dairy product and milk consumption is associated with prostate
cancer. The earlier in life that Adventists became vegetarians, the lower
their risk of coronary heart disease.
These findings are consistent with
the findings of numerous epidemiologic investigations, including those
done on dairy products and their relation to prostate cancer.

3. All-cause mortality shows a significant negative association with green
salad consumption, meaning the more leafy green vegetables consumed in
the diet, the longer the life span.
This confirms the importance of raw,natural plant foods, the loss of important factors with cooking, and the protective effect of all of the health-giving nutrients they contain.

The conclusion one must make is that animal food consumption is more of a
risk factor for an early death than even cigarette smoking. Of course, I am
strongly against smoking, but a smoking, lifetime vegetarian probably has a
better chance to reach 75 years of age than a nonsmoking, lifetime meat eater.

The opportunity is ours: we cannot rely on modern medicine to give us health
and long life. Good health is our own responsibility, and only through accurate
information can we protect ourselves and our families