Vegetarians AGE faster? A study and article make this claim...

[Tasaio]

Here's an article that presents data from a study, and concludes that veg*an diet practitioners age faster.

Health & Nutrition by Michael R. Eades, M.D. » Vegetarians AGE faster

Of course, the author of that article is not unbiased.

But it did make me wonder. I had a professor at uni. who was vegan--he had a bowl of spinach for lunch every day. He was in his 40s...yet looked about 70. His hair was notably receding, and his beard was grey with flecks of white!

That's a single example, but it always stuck out at me because of the discrepancy between his healthy(?) diet and physical appearance.

[Brutha]

Since most of the structures in our bodies are made of protein, and since all of these proteins are bathed in blood that contains glucose, the normal course of events is for a portion of these proteins to undergo glycation.

It is just not true that all proteins have contact with blood.
I wouldn't trust someone who makes claims like that and doesn't seem to know that much about biology.

In general most people who call themselves "experts in nutritional science" don't know either much about biology or statistics.

In general I don't think that their is clear evidence that shows that either vegatism is healthy or unhealthy.

[martin]

What about a raw vegan diet which is supposed to keep you looking young?

[Jonathan Mead]

I think it really depends on your diet specifically. Not just whether or not you eat meat. You can be vegan and still eat a ton of junk food, smoke, drink and be a couch potato. Obviously your vegan diet won't make up for all the other bad habits you have.

It really depends on a lot of other factors. I think eating a lot of fruits and vegetables can't hurt you though. It's best to just use common sense.

[JoeGoldfarb]

Originally Posted by Brutha

In general I don't think that their is clear evidence that shows that either vegatism is healthy or unhealthy.

but there is plenty of biological evidence that lower daily calorie consumption increases lifespan in such organisms as varied as worms and humans.

[schola]

Note that he's not actually claiming vegetarians age faster.

He's talking about a research paper that says vegetarians have a higher concentration of advanced glycation endproducts (AGEs.)

Apparently those molecules are believed to be connected to some age related diseases, but it's a huge jump to conclude vegetarians age faster.

Advanced glycation endproduct - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[schola]

Originally Posted by Brutha

It is just not true that all proteins have contact with blood.

I think he's speaking in a general sense.

Cells are made of protein and all cells are in contact with blood or else they would die, so he's technically right.

[awakentransform]

There could be a lot of other factors that made your professor look older, like stress or excessive worry, smoking etc. I am vegetarian and most people think I am about 10 years younger than my age. Granted, this could also be due to other lifestyle factors as well.

[24evita]

For sure that professor had other factors. And if all he is eating is spinach then he is highly deficient in other areas


Plant based diets are extremely lite on the system and don't forget lots of researchers say lots of interesting stuff (ex. aspertame is safe vs aspertame is toxic) so no need to worry. There is too much evidence and common sense to point to vegetarians being healthier and decreasing their ageing, just check out the study of the 7th Day Adventists from Loma Linda, California as one if you'd like.

Cheers!

[Brutha]

Originally Posted by schola

I think he's speaking in a general sense.

Cells are made of protein and all cells are in contact with blood or else they would die, so he's technically right.

There are proteins that don't leave the cell and as a result don't come into contact with blood. They get produced inside the cell. The serve their function inside the cell and they get disintegrate inside the cell.

Let say you have a boat made from wood. Sure some of that wood comes into contact with water but the wood on the inside of the boat doesn't.
As a result it is wrong to say that all wood comes into contact with water.

but there is plenty of biological evidence that lower daily calorie consumption increases lifespan in such organisms as varied as worms and humans.

You can have low daily calorie consumption either being a vegetarian or with eating meat from time to time.
How much calories are right for a human is an entirely different topic than whether being a vegetarians is healthy, unhealthy or has no effect on health.

There is too much evidence and common sense to point to vegetarians being healthier and decreasing their ageing, just check out the study of the 7th Day Adventists from Loma Linda, California as one if you'd like.

Just because you have a group of people who do all sort of healthy things because of their faith and those people are vegetarians doesn't mean that being a vegetarian is the cause for them being more healthy. Their could be all sort of other reasons for them being more healthy.
It's just not evidence.

[Joeschmoe]

Actually, i may be able to dig some of these up, but there are studies showing that meat consumption under 10% of calories is associated with increased health and longevity outside of other considerations. Not a culture to culture comparison, but a comparison within the same culture.

[Brutha]

Not a culture to culture comparison, but a comparison within the same culture.

Even within the same culture you find less smokers amoung the vegetariens and a bunch of other unhealthy behaviors.
It easy to subract out all smokers but it gets a lot more difficult when you want to subtract out all factors that could have health effects.

It could also be that healthy people are more impatic towards animals and as a result choose to be vegatarians more often than unhealthy people.
There is a study that observed that people with high IQ (high IQ also correlates with longlivity) in childhood rather decide to become vegatarians later in life as adults.

People don't choose at random whether to become vegetarians or continue to eat meat.

In medicine you have controlled tests. You start with two groups and one group is given treatment A and the other treatment B.
If possible they even want to prevent the placebo effect, but even without excluding the placebo effect which is pretty difficult for something like eating no meat.
Doing those test would be one way to prove that something is healthy but when you study a small samply of people for a few years in a expermient like that nobody found a difference (you need a lot of people to see significantly whehter something increases lifespan).

There is another way:
Make a theory that predicts exactly how much vetegarians profit. The other factors will vary from one study to the next and if you can predict the difference between vegetarians and meat eaters in multiple experiments you can validate your theory.
Nobody did that either successfully for vegetarians.

A third method would be to explain exactly how being a vegetarian is benificent on a molecular level for a human being, but at present we don't know enough about how our bodies work to make that kind of prove.

You need one of these methods to get real knowledge. Apart from acting on real knowledge you can also act on what feels best and experiment personally.
If you go that route you can't generalise from your experiences.