All evidence shows that heart disease and many forms of cancer mainly arise from eating too much meat and dairy products and too little fruit, vegetables and cereal food. What kills off the majority of British people, before their time, is the typical Western diet. A Western vegetarian diet Vegetarians rely on fruit, vegetables, pulses, pasta, bread, cereals, rice and all kinds of plant foods to provide most of what they eat. Which is exactly what ALL leading health authorities now advise us to do. They can also eat free-range eggs and a moderate amount of dairy products in a healthy diet.
Vegans eat no animal products of any kind and exclude all dairy products and honey.
Every single scientific study comparing vegetarians with typical Western diet eaters has found that vegetarians are considerably healthier and less likely to suffer from a wide range of illnesses than meat eaters and they live longer. What's more, there aren't any illnesses to which vegetarians are more prone than meat eaters. Many indications point to gluttonous consumption of meat as likely to be especially harmful. Many more modern studies have now confirmed this early finding and have added a whole string of other diseases to the list that afflict meat eaters more than vegetarians. The most recent study, published in the British Medical Journal in December 1998, confirmed yet again that vegetarians have a sharply reduced risk of developing cancer and coronary heart disease, are generally healthier and live longer than meat eaters.