Vegetarians are less likely to die of heart disease

It is not difficult to find studies reviewed claiming the benefits of a vegetarian diet. Long-term vegetarianism has been associated with greater longevity, a lower risk of cancer and diabetes, weight loss and improve digestion. However, according to a new study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, vegetarianism can also protect us from heart disease by reducing cholesterol and blood pressure.

Researchers at the University of Oxford controlling blood pressure and cholesterol of 45,000 volunteers English and Scottish levels - of which 34 percent identified as a vegetarian - between the Decade of 1990 and 2009. During this period, 1.235 volunteers developed heart disease. 169 of them died, while the remaining 1066, had recovered from the illness or continued to suffer with him.

After adjusting for external factors such as social class, age, education, smoking status and alcohol consumption, the researchers found that vegetarians had a 32 percent lower risk of heart disease than carnivores. Vegetarians also tended to have a lower body mass index and a lower risk of developing diabetes.

"The results clearly show that the risk of heart disease in vegetarians is about one-third lower than in comparable non-vegetarians,' said study author and Deputy Head of the unit of epidemiology of cancer of the University, Dr. Tim Key."

"Most of the difference in risk is likely caused by effects on cholesterol and blood pressure and shows the important role of diet in the prevention of heart disease," said study author Dr. Francesca Crowe.

Our bodies are not well adapted to eating meat

The results of this new study should not surprise anyone who understands the anatomy of the human body. In fact, the majority of humanity has survived in vegetarian or cerca-vegetariana throughout history, and this diet adapted well to our Physiology: our teeth (including incisors teeth) are blunt, our intestinal tract extends shorter, hydrochloric acid in our stomach is often too weak to properly digest the flesh and their parasites, our saliva is more alkaline than acidic and our hands are designed to collect fruit and Earthnot to capture prey.

While there is a time and place when eating animals is justified and even desirable (for example, during situations of survival or times when are inadequate sources of food of plant origin), most of us live in relative comfort and with access to a wide variety of foods you have little need for meat semi indigestible, acid and formation of pus. Ultimately, this study conducted by the University of Oxford is the latest in a long series of studies that remind us the why it is advisable to listen to the needs of our body more than the contemporary food industry Council.

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Posted in: disease, heart, likely, Vegetarians