Download The Vegetarian Advantage

The Vegetarian Advantage
Dr Bevan D Hokin PhD
Director of Pathology
Sydney Adventist Hospital
The Vegetarian Advantage
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Material sourced from:
– Published peer reviewed scientific papers
from reputable Journals
– Publications from the Adventist Lifestyle
study
– Papers presented at the 3rd and 4th World
Congresses on Vegetarian Nutrition
The Vegetarian Advantage
Types of vegetarian diets
The Vegetarian Advantage
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Types of vegetarian diets:
Understanding an individual’s definition
or degree of ‘vegetarian diet’ is
extremely important. Theoretically, this
term refers to someone who chooses no
meat, fish or poultry. But there are
many variations to this basic definition.
The Vegetarian Advantage
Types of vegetarian diets:
 Plant-based Diet
The term “plant-based diet” describes
the eating patterns of those who
decrease their use of animal products
and increase their use of plant foods
even though they do not intend to
become vegetarians.
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The Vegetarian Advantage
Types of vegetarian diets:
Semi-Vegetarian Diet
A semi-vegetarian diet may include fish
and/or chicken but no red meat.
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The Vegetarian Advantage
Types of vegetarian diets:
Pesco-Vegetarian
A pesco-vegetarian includes dairy
products and eggs, but no animal flesh
with the exception of fish.
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The Vegetarian Advantage
Types of vegetarian diets:
Lacto-Vegetarian Diet
A lacto-vegetarian diet includes dairy
products, but no animal flesh, eggs
or products containing eggs.
Ovo-Vegetarian Diet
An ovo-vegetarian diet includes eggs,
but no animal flesh or dairy products.
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The Vegetarian Advantage
Types of vegetarian diets:
V egan Diet (‘Strict’ or ‘Total’ Vegetarian Diet)
A vegan diet only includes plant-based
products including cereals and grains,
vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds. It is
devoid of any animal derived foods
including meats, fish, chicken, eggs,
dairy products.
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The Vegetarian Advantage
Types of vegetarian diets:
Macrobiotic Diet (‘Zen’ Diet)
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People who choose a macrobiotic diet avoid meat,
chicken, sometimes fish, dairy products, eggs,
vegetables of the nightshade family (potatoes,
tomatoes, green capsicum, eggplant), tropical fruits,
and processed sweeteners. A macrobiotic diet
generally promotes the use of wholefoods and also
incorporates Asian sea vegetables.
The Vegetarian Advantage
Types of vegetarian diets:
Fruitarian Diet
Fruitarian diets include fruits as well as
vegetables that are botanically classed
as fruits (such as tomatoes, eggplant,
avocado, zucchini), nuts and seeds.
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The Vegetarian Advantage
Types of vegetarian diets:
Raw Food Diet
These diets include vegetables, fruits,
nuts, seeds, sprouted grains, sprouted
beans all consumed in the raw state.
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The Vegetarian Advantage
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Types of vegetarian diets:
– Obtaining an adequate nutrient intake
with a macrobiotic, fruitarian or raw
food diet can be difficult, particularly
for children and pregnant women.
– The SDA Church recommends the
lacto-ovo-vegetarian diet
The Vegetarian Advantage
Reasons
for becoming a
vegetarian
The Vegetarian Advantage
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Reasons for becoming a vegetarian:
Environmental Concerns: Many people
now give consideration to the
environmental aspects of food
production and choose a plant-based
diet for the more favourable
environmental effects, such as
increased sustainability from the
production of plant-based foods.
The Vegetarian Advantage
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Environmental Concerns:
– One acre of wheat will produce 800,000
calories, one acre used to raise beef
generates only 200,000
– Eating beef returns only 4% of calories the
steer consumed, and 10% of the protein it
consumed.
– It takes 25 times more water to produce a
kilo of beef than it does to produce a kilo
of vegetables.
The Vegetarian Advantage
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Reasons for becoming a vegetarian:
Animal Rights: Concern for animal welfare
has created another group of vegetarians,
some of whom accept dairy and eggs
(because an animal has not been slaughtered
in their production), while others totally
exclude animal products in the name of
preventing cruelty to animals and as an
objection to inhumane farming practices.
The Vegetarian Advantage
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Reasons for becoming a vegetarian:
Weight Control: Some people (often
teenage girls) may choose to become
vegetarian with the intention of
controlling their weight. As with other
extreme diet changes, the sudden
adoption of restrictive vegetarian diets
may be masking the signs of an eating
disorder.
The Vegetarian Advantage
 Reasons
for becoming a
vegetarian:
Religious Beliefs: Some religions
such as Buddhists, Hindus, Jews
and Seventh-day Adventists include
vegetarian dietary practices as part
of their religious belief system.
The Vegetarian Advantage
 Reasons
for becoming a
vegetarian:
Religious Beliefs:After the flood,
God permitted the consumption of
flesh food…”for your lifeblood I will
surely require a reckoning; of every
beast I will require it of man.” Gen
9:1-5
The Vegetarian Advantage
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Reasons for becoming a vegetarian:
Aesthetics: The thought of eating
dead animals doesn’t appeal.
Mary-Tylor Moore was a vegetarian
because she could not stand the
thought of “eating anything with a
face.”
The Vegetarian Advantage
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Reasons for becoming a vegetarian:
Health: Some perceive the avoidance of red
meat as a healthy dietary option (due to the
reduced intake of saturated fat and
cholesterol), while others focus on the health
benefits of a plant-based diet providing plenty
of vitamins, minerals, dietary fibre,
antioxidants, and phytochemicals, many of
which are found exclusively in plant foods.
The Vegetarian Advantage
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Reasons for becoming a vegetarian:
Health: Studies have shown that
vegetarians have lower rates of many
diseases, and have an improved life
expectancy:
cardiovascular disease
obesity
hypertension
some cancers
type 2 diabetes
constipation
kidney stones
gall stones
The Vegetarian Advantage
Problems
with meat
Problems with meat:
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Saturated fat
All animal foods contain an unhealthy high
level of saturated fats.
Saturated fat in the diet is a more significant
cause of an elevated cholesterol than the
amount of cholesterol we consume in our
food.
Saturated fats and cholesterol are associated
with increased risk of heat disease
Problems with meat:
Cholesterol
A person consuming 2000 calories/day
and 200mg cholesterol, who increases
cholesterol intake to 600mg/day,
increases heart attack risk by 30%
 A person consuming 600mg
cholesterol/day who reduces this to 200
mg/day, lowers risk of death from all
causes by 37% - equivalent to 3.4 years
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Problems with meat:
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Food source
Beef
 Chicken
 Fish
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Cholesterol
Serving
size
90 gm
90
90
Cholesterol
content
70 mg
69
40-60
Problems with meat:
Excess protein
Too much protein in the diet is
associated with increased stress on liver
and kidneys
 Excess organ meat consumption is
associated with increased risk of gout
 High protein consumption can lead to
excess homocysteine production and
resultant blood vessel diseases.
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Problems with meat:
Disease
Meat products in most countries contain
various parasitic diseases (Trichinosis,
Hydatids)
 Bacterial infections are common Salmonella, Listeria
 Viral diseases such as Bird flu
 Prion diseases such as mad cow disease
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Problems with meat:
Contaminants
 Hormones
 Antibiotics
 Mercury
 Dioxins
in fish
The Vegetarian Advantage
Health benefits of a
vegetarian diet
Vegetarian health advantages:
Less Cancer
Adventists who consume meat on 4 or
more days a week, had a 66% higher
mortality from ovarian cancer, and 41%
higher mortality from prostate cancer
 Consumption of meat, poultry and fish
is associated with a doubling of the risk
of bladder cancer
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Vegetarian health advantages:
Less Cancer
The consumption of both red meat and
white meat more than doubled the risk
of colon cancer
 Those who eat the most red meat have
2.5 times the risk of developing cancer
(any type) than those who eat the least
red meat.
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Vegetarian health advantages:
Less obesity
Adventist meat eaters had 2.5 times the
risk of being obese compared with
vegetarian Adventists
 Adventist vegetarians: men 8% and
women 16% were >130% of their ideal
weight. For Adventist non-vegetarians,
the proportions were 20% and 32%
respectively.
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Vegetarian health advantages:
Less obesity
Obesity doubles the risk of heart attack
in Adventist men
 Obesity increases the risk of breast
cancer, endometrial cancer, prostate
cancer, colon cancer, and several others.
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Vegetarian health advantages:
Less osteoporosis
Vegetarian women between ages 50 to
89, lose only 185 of their bone mass,
whereas non-vegetarians lose 35%,
even when they have the same amount
of calcium in their diets
 The bone density of 80 year-old
vegetarians is comparable to that of 60
year-old non-vegetarians
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Vegetarian health advantages:
Less heart disease
Meat users in the general population in
their 40’s have four times as many
heart attacks as vegetarian men.
 Adventist men who consumed beef at
least 3 times per week had a 60-70%
increased risk of fatal coronary heart
disease. For women, 30%
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Vegetarian health advantages:
Less heart disease
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Adventist men who adopted a vegetarian diet
early in life (before age 20) had half the risk
of a fatal heart attack compared with those
who did not adopt a vegetarian lifestyle until
after 50 years.
Those who adopted the vegetarian lifestyle in
their 30’s had 1/3 the number of fatal heart
attacks compared with those who adopted
the lifestyle in their 50’s
Vegetarian health advantages:
less diabetes (Type II)
Adventist men who are non-vegetarians
have 3.8 times the risk of having
“diabetes” on their death certificates as
do vegetarians
 Adventists have less than half the
mortality from diabetes as compared
with the general population
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Vegetarian health advantages:
less strokes

Non-vegetarians had a risk of stroke
that was 30% higher than seen in
vegetarians
Vegetarian health advantages:
less dementia
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Meat eating doubles the risk of
dementia
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Vegetarians have a delayed onset of
dementia (still may develop dementia,
but at a much older age)
Vegetarian health advantages:
Vegetarians live longer
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Adventists at age 30 have a life
expectancy of 7.28 years longer than
non-Adventists
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Adventist vegetarians have a life
expectancy of up to 12 years longer
than non-Adventists
The Vegetarian Advantage:
conclusions
There are many forms of vegetarianism
- all have health benefits proportional to
the reduced intake of flesh foods.
 Of the many reasons to become a
vegetarian, health benefits are
compelling
 Vegetarianism results in a reduced
incidence of almost all chronic diseases

The Vegetarian Advantage:
conclusions
The Adventist recommended lacto-ovovegetarian diet is a healthy choice,
providing many health benefits
 It is relatively easier to obtain all
essential nutrients for good health from
a lacto-ovo-vegetarian diet
 Vegetarians live longer, and the extra
years are quality years
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