76 Joel Fuhrman, M.D.
How Much Longer Do Vegetarians Live?
This is a difficult question to answer accurately, as there are few stud-
ies on lifelong vegetarians in countries with electricity, refrigeration,
good sanitation, and adequate nutrition. American studies done in
1984 on Seventh-Day Adventists, a religious group that provides di-
etary and lifestyle advice to its members, sheds some light on this is-
sue. Adventist leadership discourages the consumption of meat, fowl,
and eggs; pork is prohibited. Because eating animal products is only
discouraged and not necessarily prohibited, there is a large range in
animal-product consumption. Some Adventists never eat meat and
eggs, whereas others consume them daily. When we take a careful
look at the Seventh-Day Adventist data, those who lived the longest
were those following the vegetarian diet the longest, and when we
look at the subset who had followed a vegetarian diet for at least half
their life, it appears they lived about thirteen years longer than their
average, non-smoking Californian counterparts.^23 Most of the partic-
ipants in this study were converted to the religion, not born into it.
There was no data on those lollowing such a diet since childhood.
However, the data from this carefully constructed study was com-
pelling; and what is of considerable interest to me is the association
of green salad consumption and longer life.^24 Leafy greens, the most
nutrient-rich foods on the planet, were the best predictor of extreme
longevity.Some nutritional experts would argue that a strict vegetarian
who follows a diet rich in natural vegetation, not refined grains, has
the longest longevity potential, as indicated by evaluating the China
Project data together with hundreds of the smaller food-consumption
studies—but, of course, this is still educated speculation. Let's not
argue whether it is all right to eat a little bit of animal foods or not,
and thereby miss the point that cannot be contradicted or disagreed
with:Whether you eat a vegetarian diet or include a small amount of animal
foods, for optimal health you must receive the majority of your calories from
unrefined plant food. It is the large quantity of unrefined plant food that
grants the greatest protection against developing serious disease.