We tend to scoff at vegetarians, call them nuts among the ber­ries, but the fact is they’re doing better than we are,’ says Dr William Castelli, Director of the US government’s Framingham Heart Study in Massachusetts.

Even lacto-ovo-vegetarians,people who eat milk and eggs, live longer (by about three years) than low-meat eaters. For instance, the coronary heart disease mortality among total vegetarians is only 14 per cent. Vegetar­ians can, of course, have heart attacks, but they occur approx­imately 20 years later than in the lives of meat eaters. This is a huge difference. And vegetarians live their lives feeling more fit and healthy and suffering from fewer bouts of sickness.

Even doctors, who have been slow to recognize the importance of nutrition to health, are beginning to concede to the scientific evidence that has been accumulating for about a hundred years. The ultra-conservative British Medical Association has released a report stating categorically that vegetarians live longer than meat eaters. Vegetarians, the report concludes, have a 28 per cent lower risk of dying from heart disease and a 39 per cent lower risk of dying of cancer.

Scientists only make idiots of themselves when they refuse to face the implications of their work. What they should be asking now is what it is about meat that kills: the human machine is not designed to deal with it, so it becomes a poison. According to Arthur Upton, director of the National Cancer Insti­tute in the USA: ‘Upto 50 per cent of all forms of cancer are caused by diet. Colon cancer should be the most apparent indica­tor because that is where problems with digestion show up. There is not a single population group in the world with a high meat intake which does not have a high rate of colon cancer.’ Here are some statistics:

• World populations with high meat intakes which do not have correspondingly high rates of colon cancer: None.
• World populations with low meat intakes which do not have correspondingly low rates of colon cancer: None.
• Increased risk of breast cancer for women who eat meat daily compared to women who eat meat less than once a week: four times higher.
• Increased risk of breast cancer for women who eat eggs daily compared to women who eat eggs less than once a week: three times higher.
• Increased risk of breast cancer for women who eat butter and cheese three or more times a week compared to women who eat these foods less than once a week: three times higher.
• Risk of death from heart attack of average animal food eater: 50 per cent.
• Risk of death from heart attack of average vegetarian: 15 per cent.
• Risk of death from heart attack of average purely vegetarian: four per cent.
• Amount you reduce your risk of heart attack by reducing your consumption of meat, dairy products and eggs by 10 per cent: nine per cent.
• Amount you reduce your risk of heart attack by reducing your consumption of meat, dairy products and eggs by 50 per cent: 45 per cent.
• Amount you reduce your risk of heart attack by reducing your consumption of meat, dairy products and eggs by 100 per cent: 90 per cent.
• Rise in blood cholesterol from consuming one egg per day: 12 per cent.
• Rise of heart attack risk from 12 per cent rise in blood cho­lesterol: 24 per cent.
• Meat, dairy and egg industries claim there is no reason to be concerned about your blood cholesterol as long as it is ‘normal‘. Your risk of dying of a disease caused by clogged arteries if your blood cholesterol is ‘normal’: over 50 per cent. Your risk of dying of a disease caused by clogged arteries if you do not consume saturated fat and cholesterol: five per cent.

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), a group of 4000 of the top doctors in America recently put out their own Four Basic Foods chart, much to the chagrin of that powerful lobby, the meat and diary industry. The ‘basic’ foods are: whole grains; vegetables; legumes; and fruits. There is no mention of meat or dairy products as being essential food groups necessary for human nutrition and health. The PCRM’s position is that the less we eat of this stuff the better. Many of these physicians have themselves become vegetarian simply on the strength of the nutritional studies on human beings.