Can a Meatless Diet Save American Lives?

Camille Munoz
Can a Meatless Diet Save American Lives?
Dr. Malcolm Campbell
The University of North Carolina at Charlotte

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Heart disease is one of the biggest problems in todays American society .

According to the Center for Disease Control, about 610,000 Americans die of heart
disease annually thats one in four deaths . Heart disease is the leading cause of
death for both men and women (Heart 1). The most common type of heart disease is
coronary heart disease, which kills about 370,000 Americans each year . Heart disease
is the leading cause of death in people who identify as African American, Hispanic, or
White. For those who identify as other ethnicities, such as Pacific Islander, Asian, or
American Indian, heart disease is the second leading cause of death, with cancer being
the first (Heart 1).
However, this is not the way it has always been. Heart disease as only become
a major medical concern fairly recently. In 1900, the leading cause of death in the
United States was pneumonia and the average life expectancy was only forty-seven
years (Nissen 1). Doctors spent the majority of the twentieth century trying to invent
drugs to relieve infectious diseases such as pneumonia, tuberculosis, and others. Once
diseases like these were virtually eradicated, the average life expectancy rose, which
set the stage for heart disease to take over as the leading cause of death. By 1930 the
average life expectancy had risen to about sixty years and heart disease had made it to
the top of the list as the number one cause of death in the United States. This fact helps
prove an important fact: in most cases, the risk of heart disease increases with age. As
the heart grows older, it slowly grows weaker and becomes more susceptible to failure
and damage. Age also gives time for plaque to build up in the arteries and cause a fatal
blockage (Nissen 1).

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These are the facts as they pertain to all Americans, but now let us further
examine how they affect a more specific portion of the population. A lifestyle trend that
has become particularly popular over the past few decades is vegetarianism. There are
a few different forms of this lifestyle trend and each one has a different set of guidelines.
The three main types of vegetarianism are: vegetarian, pescatarian, and vegan.
Pescatarian is the broadest term with the most lenient guidelines. Pescatarian describes
any person who has cut all meat out of their daily diet with the exception of fish
products. Most people who partake in this type of diet choose to include fish in their
otherwise meatless diet as an easy semi-alternative source of protein. The term
vegetarian is a little more definitive in terms of its diet guidelines. Vegetarian refers to a
diet which cuts out all meat. With the exception of meat, it is an otherwise normal diet.
Vegan is the strictest of the three main types. According to PETA, those who identify as
vegan will refrain from consuming not only animal meat, but also any animal
byproducts, such as milk, eggs, and anything else that would come from any part of an
animal. Devoted vegans will check the labels of all products to ensure that they do not
contain any animal parts because some foods that no one would suspect to contain
animal parts actually do. For example, most gelatin products contain animal parts found
in bones and teeth in their ingredients as preservatives. So diets like vegetarian and
pescatarian offer a little bit of leeway for the individual to define what animal products
means on their own terms, whereas the vegan lifestyle is much more structured and
specific in what is and is not considered animal parts (Veganism 1).
All three of these meatless lifestyles are popular alternatives to the traditional
American diet. However, if one were to compare the heart disease statistics between

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traditional eaters and meatless eaters, one would notice a significant disparity in the
numbers of heart disease rates as well as death by heart disease rates. Vegetarians
and vegans have a much lower risk of heart disease and, subsequently, have a very low
death by heart complication rate. According to a study done by TIME, vegetarians also
typically live longer than the average American for a variety of reasons. The first reason
vegetarians enjoy a longer life span is because they have lower blood pressure. Not
only do those who refrain from eating meat have lower blood pressure but a vegetarian
diet has been shown to lower blood pressure in those who need treatment for a variety
of heart diseases. Vegetarians, on average, also have a lower risk of death than meateaters. A 2013 study of more than 70,000 people found that vegetarians had a 12%
lower risk of death compared with non-vegetarians. With none of the saturated fat and
cholesterol that clogs arteries, vegetarians may be at a lower risk for chronic diseases
overall (7 Reasons 1). A study done by The National Center for Biotechnology
Information showed that Americans who cut out or dramatically reduced their meat
consumption were thirty-two percent less likely to develop common heart diseases
compared to people who did not limit their meat consumption at all. Researchers at
Loma Linda University in California found that not only are strict vegetarians less likely
to develop certain types of cancer but a vegetarian diet may even offer protective
benefits against the unnatural harms that may cause cancer. Although research is still
being done on this matter, all the results from studies so far have been consistent in
proving that vegetarians, in general, develop cancer less often than the average
American. In addition to all the aforementioned benefits, vegetarians are at a lower risk
of developing diabetes and obesity. Although a meatless diet cannot be used as a

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solution to these health problems, it has been proven to be one of the most effective
methods of preventing them (7 Reasons 1). The main reason for lower heart disease
rates in vegans and vegetarians is because they have much lower cholesterol levels.
Plant-based foods do not contain any cholesterol and therefore, there is significantly
less cholesterol in the blood of a person who is vegetarian or vegan than a person who
adheres to a more traditional American diet.
People decide to go meatless for a variety of reasons. Some people do it as a
means of animal rights advocacy, some people do it for the health benefits, and some
people just do it because it is considered a trendy diet. However, there are some
cultures that have always practiced vegetarianism whether it be for religious purposes
or simply as tradition. One example is the Seventh Day Adventist religion. Seventh Day
Adventists place special emphasis on living a clean and healthy life and for them this
means only eating what the earth has supplied to them, with the restriction of animal
meat. They also reject the use of such things as tobacco products, processed foods,
and processed beverages such as soda and juice. They believe the key to wellness lies
in a life of balance and temperance. They believe that a well-balanced vegetarian diet
is all they need to thrive and they do not consume any animal products or by-products
for this reason. They find their dietary protein in such things as beans and nuts. A few
other religions that practice a meatless diet are Buddhism, Jainism, and Hinduism.
These religions place special emphasis on the harmony of life and the fact that all
creatures have worth and interact with one another and therefore they do not believe in
killing or consuming other animals if the practice can be avoided. They also find other
dietary substitutes to meat to help maintain a well-balanced, healthful diet. Groups like

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this who have lived traditionally meatless lifestyles for centuries have the lowest heart
disease rate of every culture in the world. In contrast, cultures who have always
included animal meat in their diets have had steadily increasing rates of heart disease.
The human diet has been evolving since the beginning of time, but the American
diet in particular has changed drastically in the past one hundred years. Traditionally,
American families had one working parent and one parent who would stay in the home
to look after the house chores and the children. The breadwinner was typically the
father and the caretaker was typically the mother. However, during World War One and
World War Two, many women started working outside the home while their husband
were off at war and then when the war was over and all the men came home, many
women kept working and a lot of household transitioned to two working parents. With
both parents working, there was little time to spend making home-cooked meals. Fast
food entrepreneurs had just begun opening the first fast food restaurants and as soon
as they did, they were overwhelmingly popular and fast food restaurants began
springing up on every corner of the United States. As more and amore American
families started turning to convenience food options, the obesity epidemic began.
Most American families eat out at restaurants multiple times a week and consider fast
foods meals to be more of a snack during the day. As a result of this, most people in
the United States are nutritionally malnourished and living in a state of partial
dehydration. This is a fairly new phenomenon and there have been studies done
recently looking into the fact that there are so many Americans who are morbidly
overweight yet simultaneously extremely malnourished. The people who fit into this

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category are at the highest risk of developing heart disease and other severe heart
problems which lead to complications and often death.

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Works Cited
"Cholesterol and Heart Disease." PCRM.org. Web. 29 Mar. 2015.
Craig, Winston J. Health Effects of Vegan Diets. The American Journal of Clinical
Nutrition. 2009. Web. 8 March 2015.
"Disease Rates of Vegetarians and Vegans." Disease Rates. Web. 29 Mar. 2015.
"Heart Disease Facts." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, 29 Oct. 2014. Web. 29 March. 2015.
Hill, Lisa ONeill. Young Vegetarians: Getting the nutrition they need. CNN. 21 October
2011. Web. 8 March 2015.
Nissen, Marc. "How Coronary Heart Disease Became Our Biggest Problem." The
Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 31 Jan. 2012. Web. 20 Apr. 2015.
Noris, Jack. Disease Rates of Vegetarians and Vegans. VeganHealth.org. December
2013. Web. 8 March 2015.
Stitcher, M. A., Smith, C. B., and Davidson, S. Reducing heart disease through the
vegetarian diet using primary prevention. Journal of the American Academy of
Nurse Practitioners, 22 (2010): 134-139. Web. 8 March 2015.
"Veganism in a Nutshell." -- The Vegetarian Resource Group. Web. 29 Mar. 2015.
"7 Reasons Vegetarians Live Longer." Time. Time. Web. 19 Apr. 2015.