According to an article in The Independent, a recent Oxford University health study determined that excessive meat consumption causes more than 45,000 premature deaths each year in the United Kingdom. That's approximately 31,000 deaths due to heart disease, 9,000 cancer-related deaths and 5,000 deaths from strokes. Dr. Mike Rayner of Oxford University's Department of Public Health said that the study clearly and comprehensively demonstrates the health benefits of reducing meat and dairy consumption in the UK.Earlier this year, British scientists reported that heart disease will kill around 400,000 Americans in 2010 and that many of these lives could be saved "if people ate healthier food and stopped smoking." In fact, heart disease is the number one health problem in the United States today, and is linked to diets high in animal products.
William Castelli, M.D., director of the Framingham Heart Study, the longest running clinical study in medical history, says of the heart disease epidemic, "If Americans adopted a vegetarian diet, the whole thing would disappear." According to the American Dietetic Association, a comprehensive, evidence-based review shows that well-planned vegan and vegetarian diets are not only associated with a lower risk of death from heart disease, but also lower rates of hypertension, type 2 diabetes and many types of cancer. The evidence is overwhelming. Eating meat greatly increases the risk of heart disease and death, while reducing or eliminating meat from our diets can prevent and even reverse heart disease.
Even former President Bill Clinton seems to have taken notice. In a recent interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, Clinton said he has adopted a nearly vegan diet for health reasons. Clinton cited the work of Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn at the Cleveland Clinic, Dr. Dean Ornish, founder of the Preventative Medicine Research Institute and Dr. T. Colin Campbell, author of the The China Study, the most comprehensive human health study ever done, to explain how a healthy plant-based diet can help reverse heart disease.
Luckily for us, adopting a healthy and humane vegan lifestyle is not only good for the heart, but it's also good for animals and the planet. For more information, delicious vegan recipes and tips on transitioning to a vegan lifestyle, please visit ChooseVeg.com.
