According to the preliminary results of a decade-long study, the vegetarian habits of religious group the Seventh-Day Adventists could cause the community to live longer.
According to Huffington Post writer Annie Hauser, early findings from a vast study of 96,000 members of group from across the US and Canada indicates the benefits of a diet free from meat.
Yahoo reports that vegetarian Adventist men live to an average of 83.3 years and vegetarian women 85.7 years (9.5 and 6.1 years, respectively, longer than other Californians).
Hauser says that early findings from the Adventist Health Study 2 suggest:
- Vegans are, on average, 30 pounds lighter than meat eaters.
- Vegans are also five units lighter on the BMI scale than meat-eaters.
- Vegetarians and vegans are also less insulin resistant than meat-eaters.
- Lean people are also more likely to exercise regularly, eat plants, and avoid cigarettes than overweight people, suggesting that numerous factors are boosting the overall health of these participants.
- Pesco-vegetarians and semi-vegetarians who limit animal products, but still eat meat once a week or so, have "intermediate protection" against lifestyle diseases.
According to the Seventh-Day Adventist Dietetic Association, members of the group practise a vegetarian dietary lifestyle because of their belief in the holistic nature of humankind.
Breakfast cereal inventor John Harvey Kellogg is one of the church's most famous founding members.
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