Many of us already know that a vegetarian diet is healthier in the long run, and that we should really keep off the meat as much as we can to keep the old ticker going for more years. But many who have chosen a meat-free (or limited) diet are still consistently exposed to stupid questions from friends who don't understand it. A) Get better friends and B) now you have science on your side and more facts to push in the face of your carnivore friends as you laugh.
Vegetarians are healthier, long live the vegetarians. OK this wasn't the title of the recent report by British scientists, but it could have been. The study found that vegetarians run a 32% lower risk of heart disease than their carnivorous peers. Researchers followed more than 44,500 volunteers for 11 years and found that vegetarians were significantly less prone to cardiac issues.
In the 50-70 age group. 6.8% of people who ate meat went to hospital or died of heart disease; for vegetarians the number was only 4.6%.
Lead researcher Francesca Crowe from the University of Oxford's Cancer Epidemiology Unit said: "We think (it) is due to their lower cholesterol and blood pressure."
The veggie friends also had lower weight-to-height ratios and were less likely to develop diabetes.
So... Britain.. Time we reconsider this meat obsession of ours?
Image: Flickr Creative Commons / This Delicious Life
