Comments on: Vegetarians AGE faster

By: Lynne Smith

Lynne Smith — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 01:45:08 +0000

Enjoyed the comments.I think a lot of it has to do with genetics. Everyone is different. I am 73, in very good health. Grew up on a farm with raw milk, mostly veggies & fruit in summer, when the garden was in, small amounts of meat, in winter, the root veggies, small amounts of meat and the canned goods. When I left home, my
diet was terrible. As an Air Hostess, very little money, I ate the unused
meals on the airplane, mostly desserts, sometimes at home, I would eat a pint of ice cream for dinner. When I had a date, that was a real meal of meat or seafood etc. Later, when I had children, we ate yogurt and wheat germ, etc, food of the 60’s. Then, after my child left home I ate whatever, mostly high protein. I found out I had lost bone mass. I resorted to a more balance veggie, berries, red meat twice a month, chicken, turkey, fish. It didn’t seem to make a difference. Now, somedays I go for days without meat, but
try to eat a moderate diet with red meat a couple times a month, fish, chx, turkey, now and then, and sometimes not at all. I am still rolling along and people tell me I look 50. I bike and walk at least 2 hours a day, and when weather permits, play pool volleyball and pool basketball with my friends. From my diet over the years, I would have considered myself to be dead by now, or with diabetes or some other disease, but thank goodness, NOT. Just a little high cholesterol LDL109 and HDL94 give or take with triglycerides 75 and glucose 90. So, I think genetics must play a real important part and everyone is different. There is no one fit for all. The thing I am concerned about is the inhumane treatment of animals in the factory farming, and since I have learned about it, I am trying to
choose otherwise. Enjoyed the comments immensely as I said before. Keep on truckin”!

By: Bob scu

Bob scu — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 18:16:36 +0000

i think the oldest living person ever on record was vegetarian..

By: gerald ryan

gerald ryan — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 12:05:42 +0000

I am after the truth and you have seem to genuiely raised some important questions in your article that I want to think about. I am vegetarian. However, the following questions I have in my mind are stumbling blocks before I can use what you present as evidence of eating meat and before I will go back to doing so. I’m sorry for my doubt and mental weakness but these questions keep me from seeing things as I suppose you might. Here are my questions… sincerely.

1. Do we know for sure that when the body is AGEing it’s proteins, it is not in the body’s best interest?
2. Have we ever seen anybody with a protein deficiency, that does not also have a caloric deficiency?
3. Is not every cell of the body fueled by glucose and/or fructose, and is not convert fats and proteins into glucose an energy expensive and “dirty” process, producing ketone bodies and higher levels of enervation and toxemia? Do not carnovorour mammals generally require a lot more sleep and rest than vegetarian creatures?
4. Does not the overconsumption of fat clog the blood and interfere with absorption as well as drainage? Now here I recognize that vegetarians eat just as much fat as omnivores. Is not all meat and animal foods, and almost all protein rich foods heavy in fat?
5. Proteins are the building blocks of physiology, like metal for cars. But aside from minor repairs to damaged parts that can’t be met by recycling proteins, just as we don’t feed our cars metal, do we need to eat that much protein for repair?
6. Is our digestive physiology and anatomy fitted to flesh eating compared to carnivores? Is our stomach acid not much weaker in strength than omnivores, is our digestive track not much longer, causing meat to pass slowly and putrefy on the way? Did I smell worse when I ate flesh than I do now when I eat none and eat more fruits and vegetables? Is that not evidence? How do we keep animal meat from putrefying in our gut? this is a serious question I ask all meat eaters.
7. Is our psychological disposition geared towards flesh eating, and is this not evidence of our natural diet? And is it not best to test this with children who are pure and unconditioned?
8. Could any of us take down an animal with horns with our bare fists and teeth? Or assuming it’s dead already, could we pierce it’s skin with our front ‘canine’ teeth? would we eat such fare with relish, compared to a tree ripened mango, say? Is this not evidence of our natural diet?
9. Is our ‘natural diet’, whatever that turns out to be, not inevitably the best diet for health?
10. Must all vegetarians, even those who live poorly, inherited weakness, or eat junk demonstrate high levels of health as proot of vegetarianism?

Sincerely, sincerely, sincerely, sincerely, sincerely and non dogmatically.

Too many questions to deal with in a comment response. Many are answered in the post I just put up. Thanks for being civil.

By: Nina K.

Nina K. — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 08:39:48 +0000

Dear Dr. Eades and all the others here,

im new to the site here and love it immediately. Great site, great infos for me.

One off topic comment to the vegi or not controversy:

a close friend of mine brought it to the point: he said to an religiously vegetarian:

hey, my food poop on yours

… all said

Regards,
Nina K.

By: Coolman

Coolman — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 15:24:51 +0000

I came on here to see if vegetariansim produced slower aging, not faster, so this is really interesting for me. I have 2 vegetarian friends and they age by far the slowest out of everyone. One is a 33 year old woman, who looks early twenties, and the other is a 40 year old man who also looks like he’s in his twenties.

Now I’m leaning toward some middle ground. I eat a lot of meat, and I think I’ll cut back a bit, and maybe eat some more fish for variety.

By: The People's Chemist

The People's Chemist — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 16:46:28 +0000

Nicely done. Over the last 10 years, I’ve watched vegetarian friends age exponentially compared to my meat-eating allies. Studies will also show increased mitochondrial decay among vegetarians and vegans. Hope those veggies taste damn good!

By: Andrew Van Cleve

Andrew Van Cleve — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 01:26:05 +0000

I am a carnivore since 1991.

I also have an eating disorder where I occasionally eat everything in the house.

Because I don’t have anything in the house (usually) that isn’t in line with my usual dietary habit, eating everything usually means I get to feeling over stuffed and the next day I’m recovered and resume my usual eating habits.

I suspect these guy’s who weigh 700 pounds and have to be lifted out of their windows with a crane have the same eating disorder but too many carbs available.

By: m coburn

m coburn — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 05:21:05 +0000

was doing some research on why, after going totally vegetarian for the last two months, I was experiencing very low energy levels, I have lost weight ( 20 lbs) and my arthritus in my right knee has gone away, as well as all of my heartburn issues have gone away, but the issue of very low energy levels is a problem, as I was researching it, this blog came up as well as this article:
Do Vegetarians Live Longer?

http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2006/jan2006_awsi_01.htm

mentioning carnosine as a possible fix for glycation, I have started to try it, but I’m curious if anybody else knows anything about it, (but I am going to reintroduce fish, eggs & cheese back into my diet…

Carnosine is pretty good stuff. It’s starting to get a lot more play in the literature. There is a lot of it in meat, thus the name CARNosine.

By: jo

jo — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 06:39:31 +0000

Bev,
are you eating dairy on your Low carb diet (like cheese, yogurt, cream etc)? If yes, this could be why you get the acne. Dairy and acne are hugely correlated (see nurse’s study) and many ppl clear up after removing dairy. It may be too much veg oil or processed meats or a nut allergy. Try changing different things and see what kind of reaction you get. If i were you i’d go back to the prior diet only keep quality meat in and see what happens, then lower grains and see what happens.

By: Bev in Canada

Bev in Canada — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 22:15:16 +0000

I quit smoking almost 2 years ago and have gained more than 30 pounds even though I remained low-carb. Two different naturopaths told me it's because my liver is severely taxed from all the protein I was eating. They both recommended that I eat a more vegetarian-type diet with whole grains/legumes and very little animal protein. When I followed their advice, I didn't lose any weight and experienced severe brain-fog to the point that I couldn't function at work. The only good thing was that my constant acne cleared up. Both docs don't understand why this didn't work for me and they said that they see a lot of former low-carbers that have toxic livers. I went back to LC and my acne returned but I still haven't lost any weight. Do you have any suggestions? After almost 2 years, I just don't know what else to try. It's total hogwash and nonsense that your liver is 'severely taxed' from the protein in your diet. Low carbers don't eat all that much more protein than anyone else, and even if they did, it wouldn't tax the liver. I wonder if they don't teach biochemistry and physiology in naturopath schools? I would think not except that I've heard this same nonsense from MDs, and I know MDs get biochem and physiology in medical school. You should read this post, this one and this one, and act accordingly. You probably need to cut some of the calories from your diet. If you're truly on low-carb (not just sort of low-carb, but truly low-carb) and you aren't losing, then you're taking in too many calories. Try to get you diet jump started by substituting a couple of protein shakes for meals, then eat a whole-food, low-carb meal for supper.