Your Health
Honoring Your Body as Temple

As people who live our lives infused with spiritual awareness, it is very important that we honor the health of our physical bodes as well as our spiritual ones. Leading health experts agree that going vegetarian is the single-best thing we can do for ourselves and our families. Healthy vegetarian diets support a lifetime of good health and provide protection against numerous diseases, including our country's three biggest killers: heart disease, cancer, and strokes. The American Dietetic Association states that vegetarians have "lower rates of death from ischemic heart disease; . lower blood cholesterol levels, lower blood pressure, and lower rates of hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and prostate and colon cancer" and that vegetarians are less likely than meat-eaters to be obese. Vegetarian diets provide us with all the nutrients that we need, minus all the saturated fat, cholesterol, and contaminants found in animal flesh, eggs, and dairy products.

Research has shown that vegetarians are 50 percent less likely to develop heart disease, and they have 40 percent of the cancer rate of meat-eaters. Plus, meat-eaters are nine times more likely to be obese than vegans are.

The consumption of meat, eggs, and dairy products has also been strongly linked to osteoporosis, Alzheimer's, asthma, and male impotence. Scientists have also found that vegetarians have stronger immune systems than their meat-eating friends; this means that they are less susceptible to everyday illnesses like the flu. Vegetarians and vegans live, on average, six to 10 years longer than meat-eaters.

A plant-based diet is the best diet for kids, too: Studies have shown that vegetarian kids grow taller and have higher IQs than their classmates, and they are at a reduced risk for heart disease, obesity, diabetes, and other diseases in the long run. Studies have shown that even older people who switch to a vegetarian or vegan diet can prevent and even reverse many chronic ailments.

Common Concerns

Heart Disease

Eating animal-based foods impairs the heart's ability to do its job. Meat and dairy products are high in cholesterol and saturated fat. As these fatty substances, or "plaques," build up inside the walls of arteries, blood flow to all areas of the body is impeded. This artery damage is called atherosclerosis. It often begins very early in life and develops gradually. When too little blood reaches various regions of the body, normal immune systems are impaired, setting people up for a number of diseases, most notably heart disease. Heart disease is the number one health problem in the United States today and, according to the American Heart Association, the single leading cause of death. Most heart disease is diet-related-caused by animal products. Research shows a highly significant correlation between the consumption of even small amounts of animal-based foods and the increasing prevalence of heart disease.

Obesity

It's hard to dance the circle when you can't fit in it. Americans just keep getting fatter. A government review of all the studies on weight loss found that two-thirds of dieters gain all the weight back within a year, and a whopping 97 percent gain it all back within five years. This yo-yo weight fluctuation is worse than being overweight; 97 percent of dieters would have been better off if they hadn't even bothered.

There has not been a single study indicating that high-protein diets such as Atkins work for more than a year. In fact, two studies showed that weight loss on the Atkins Diet reversed or stalled after just six months, and Atkins himself died at 258 pounds. The only weight-loss plan that has been scientifically proved to take weight off and keep it off for more than a year is a vegetarian diet. Many delicious vegan foods are naturally low in fat, so quantity and calorie restrictions are unnecessary. My colleague Dr. Dean Ornish calls it the "eat more, weigh less" diet (and even wrote a wonderful book with that title).

Researchers have found that overweight people consume about the same number of calories as slim people-but they don't consume the same kinds of food. Animal products contain much more fat than plant-based foods-animal flesh, after all, is designed to store calories, which makes it one of the worst things that a dieter can eat. Because vegetarian diets are the only diets that work for long-term weight loss, it's no surprise that population studies show that meat-eaters have three times the obesity rate of vegetarians and nine times the obesity rate of vegans. It's possible to be an overweight or obese vegan, of course, just as it's possible to be a thin meat-eater, but adult vegans are, on average, 10 to 20 pounds lighter than adult meat-eaters.

Cancer

According to the World Health Organization, up to 40 percent of all cancers are preventable, and one-third of all cancer deaths in the U.S. can be attributed to nutritional factors, according the American Cancer Society (ACS). Vegan diets maximize the foods that help us fight cancer-fiber-packed grains and beans and phytochemical-packed fruits and vegetables-and minimize the foods that cause cancer. Combine these two factors, according to the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, and the scientific evidence is clear: "Vegetarians are about 40 percent less likely to get cancer than nonvegetarians, regardless of other risks such as smoking, body size, and socioeconomic status." One study compared cancer rates of vegetarians and meat-eaters in 34,000 Americans. The results showed that those who avoided meat, fish, and poultry had dramatically lower rates of prostate, ovarian, and colon cancer compared to meat-eaters.

Strokes

You probably know that eating meat, eggs, and dairy products can result in clogged arteries and eventually lead to heart attacks, the number one cause of death in America today. But all the cholesterol and saturated fat in animal products also clog the arteries in your brain, which can lead to strokes. Strokes are the third-leading cause of death in the United States-after heart disease and cancer-affecting one American every 45 seconds and killing one American every three minutes.

The good news is that going meat-free can reduce your risk of suffering from strokes and can protect you against heart disease and several types of cancer. In fact, researchers have found that a pure vegetarian diet is the only lifestyle change that has been shown to consistently reverse atherosclerosis, the hardening of the arteries that often causes strokes and heart attacks. On average, vegetarians have significantly lower blood pressure than meat-eaters do. People with high blood pressure are far more likely to suffer from strokes. Researchers who tracked 72,000 women over a period of 14 years recently confirmed the fact that those who adhered to diets rich in fruits, vegetables, and grains were less likely to suffer from strokes in comparison to those who ate the typical American meat-heavy diet. If you want to protect yourself against strokes and other serious chronic diseases, the science indicates that going meat-free is one of the best steps that you can take.

Impotence

Where will you be this Beltane?

Every year, impotence, or "erectile dysfunction," affects millions of men across the world, with one study showing that as many as half of men over the age of 40 are impotent at least part of the time. Originally, it was thought that impotence was caused by anxiety, but according to the Erectile Dysfunction Institute, up to 90 percent of all cases of impotence are physical as opposed to psychological. That's right: High cholesterol, obesity, diabetes, prostate cancers or inflammations, and hormonal imbalances cause the vast majority of all cases of impotence. The good news is that medical science has proved that all of these conditions can be virtually eliminated (and even cured) with a low-fat vegan diet.

Viagra and other anti-impotence drugs may get you through the night, but a vegetarian diet can get you through your life. Numerous physicians and nutritionists agree that the best way to prevent artery blockage as well as multiple other conditions that cause impotence is to eat a diet high in fiber, including plenty of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. These foods will scrub the plaque off the arterial walls to get your blood flowing and your love life going again in no time.

Go vegetarian; your body will thank you.