Page 38 - Spring2008

The American Vegetarian Society was statistics in a search of the medical database.
founded in 1850 by Sylvester Graham (1794- In spite of claims to “stacks of studies,”
1851), an early advocate of dietary reform in there is actually very little scientifi c literature that
United States and the inventor of Graham bread, carefully compares mortality and disease rates
made from chemical-free unsifted fl our. Highly in vegetarians and nonvegetarians. In 1991, Dr.
influential, Graham promoted vegetarianism and Russell Smith, a statistician, analyzed the exist-

a high-fiber diet as a cure for alcoholism and lust. ing studies on vegetariansim and discovered that
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Graham preached that an unhealthy diet (one while a number of studies show that vegetarian
containing the confounding variables of meat and diets signifi cantly decrease blood cholesterol

white flour) stimulated excessive sexual desire, levels, very few have evaluated the effects of
which irritated the body and caused disease. vegetarian diets on overall mortality. His careful
John Harvey Kellogg (1852-1943) fol- analysis (see sidebar) revealed no benefi t from
lowed in Graham’s footsteps. Inventor of corn vegetarianism in terms of overall mortality or

flakes and a process for making peanut butter, longevity. In fact, Smith speculated on the pos-

Kellogg advocated a high-fiber vegetarian diet to sibility that the available data from the many
combat the twin evils of constipation and “natural existing prospective studies were left unpublished
urges.” Kellogg preached against sexual activity because they failed to reveal any benefi ts of the
even in marriage. vegetarian diet. He notes, for example, mortality
Today we recognize the demonization statistics are strangely absent from the Tromso
and suppression of “natural urges” as a recipe Heart Study in Norway, which showed that
for the pathological expression thereof; in fact vegetarians had slightly lower blood cholesterol
we’d probably label Graham and Kellogg as nut levels than nonvegetarians.
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cases suffering from serious insecurities. But Since the publication of Russell Smith’s
the diet proposed to accomplish their goal of analysis, two signifi cant reports on vegetarian-
character building and social piety is still with us, ism and mortality have appeared in the literature.
enshrined, in fact, in the government-sanctioned One was a 2005 German paper that compared
food pyramid based on grains, vegetables and mortality in German vegetarians and health-
fruits with the addition of small amounts of low- conscious persons in a 21-year followup. By
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fat animal foods. Lop off the top of the pyramid comparing vegetarians with health-conscious
and you have the vegan diet, still promoted with meat eaters, the German researchers eliminated
In spite claims religious fervor even though its original dogmatic the major problem in studies that claim to have
to “stacks of basis has been forgotten. The language of moral found better mortality rates in vegetarians com-
studies,” there rectitude still lurks in the vegetarian arguments pared to the general population. Vegetarians
of sexually liberated New Age youth.
tend not to smoke, drink alcohol or indulge in
is actually With these paradoxes in mind, let’s exam- sugar and highly processed foods. To compare
very little ine the 22 reasons given for adopting a vegan these individuals to meat-eaters on the typical
scientific diet. western diet will naturally yield results that favor
vegetarianism. But in the German study, both
literature that 1. YOU’LL LIVE A LOT LONGER: vegetarians and nonvegetarian health-conscious

carefully Vegetarians live about seven years longer, persons had reduced mortality compared with the
compares and vegans (who eat no animal products) about general population, and it was other factors—low
15 years longer than meat eaters, according to prevalence of smoking and moderate or high
mortality and a study from Loma Linda University. These fi nd- levels of physical activity—that were associated
disease rates ings are backed up by the China Health Project with reduced overall mortality, not the vegetarian

in (the largest population study on diet and health diet. The other was a 2003 report that followed
to date), which found that Chinese people who
vegetarians eat the least amount of fat and animal products up on The Health Food Shoppers Study in the
and have the lowest risks of cancer, heart attack and 1970s and the Oxford Vegetarians Study in the
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nonvegetarians. other chronic degenerative diseases. 1980s. The mortality of both the vegetarians

Reference please? We haven’t found such and the nonvegetarians in these studies was low
38 Wise Traditions SPRING 2008