Vegetarian Diet Cuts Heart Risk by 32%, Study Says
Source: Bloomberg
Vegetarians were 32 percent less likely to be hospitalized or die from heart disease than people who ate meat and fish, scientists at England’s Oxford University reported.
The researchers followed almost 45,000 adults, one-third of them vegetarians, for an average of 11 1/2 years and accounted for factors such as their age, whether they smoked, alcohol consumption, physical activity, education and socio-economic background, according to the study published today in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
“Probably most of the difference is accounted for by the fact that the vegetarians had lower cholesterol and lower blood pressure,” Francesca Crowe, one of the authors of the study and a nutritional epidemiologist at Oxford, said in a telephone interview. “Diet is an important determinant of heart disease.”
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The Oxford study reinforces previous research that has concluded a healthy diet can reduce heart disease by lowering cholesterol, blood pressure and the risk of diabetes. Another study of more than 31,000 people who had been diagnosed with cardiovascular disease or diabetes, published in the journal Circulation in December, found that those who ate a diet that favored fish, vegetables, fruit, beans and nuts over meats and eggs were 35 percent less likely to die from cardiovascular disease.
Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-30/vegetarian-diet-cuts-heart-risk-by-32-study-says.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
These people who made the rather serious commitment to become vegetarians are a special case.
And let's be clear here, vegetarianism was not imposed on them as part of the study, it was a choice.
I see no mention in the article of the points I'll raise so let's consider this a thought experiment.
Can we assume that meditation and other forms of biofeedback are potentially good for ones health? If so, is it reasonable to assume that vegetarians, on average, practice that more?
You see where I'm going with this? Arguably the vegetarians will, on average, be more fastidious about many aspects of day to day living that relate to health and well being.
And imo there's an intangible that I very much doubt was accounted for.
Imo many of the vegetarians see it as a matter of responsibility and pride to do well in this study. That will affect everything.
It becomes not just a study, it also becomes a competition. 
P.S. I've been doing some reading over the last year and it seems for non-vegetarians eating eggs and dairy from animals that are fed well and treated well can make a positive difference in their health as compared to those who eat lots of dairy and eggs from mistreated animals raised factory style. Omega 3 levels is just part of the story. http://www.omega-3.se/en/food.html
Here's a good link. http://www.cornucopia.org/ Look at the "Scorecards" tab and its pop-up menu.
and supposedly it's the "meat eaters" that are so defensive on DU.
for fuck sake.
did you not realize expressing one's opinion about what one prefers to eat is not being judgmental? probably not, in your rush to be all defensive.
bwaaaaack, yewberry wants some broccoli!
He said war was too important to be left to the generals. When he said that, 100 years ago, he may have been right.
But now, food is too important to be left to the politicians. They have neither the time, the training, nor the inclination for culinary thought.
I can no longer sit back and allow vegetarian infiltration, vegetarian indoctrination, vegetarian subversion, and the international vegetarian conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.
Oh, and I am 50, low blood pressure, low cholesterol, etc.
Heart was just checked throughly - all good there too
I don't eat a lot of beef, but I eat chicken, seafood and the occasional pork loin. I mostly eat lean protein and I also eat plenty of vegetables.
