One million American Seventh-Day Adventists, who do not smoke or eat meat, were studied. They lead normal American lives. They are not isolated from the American society. They show forty percent less coronary disease, four hundred percent less deaths from respiratory disease, one hundred percent less morality rate from all causes, one thousand percent less death rate from lung cancer, and fifty percent less dental cares in children.

From The Complete Guide and Cookbook For Raising your Child as a Vegetarian.

Longevity increases for vegetarians and that has been shown in Strandler's book The Complete Guide and Cookbook For Raising Your Child as a Vegetarian. Several tribes were compared; Masai, an eastern African tribe, eat meat while Hunzas eat almost meatless meals with grown products and dairy products. Masai lives to be approximately forty years old while a Hunzas's life span reaches 100 years. Carnivores such as Eskimos, Greenlanders, Lapplanders and Russian Kurgis live an average of forty years while herbivores tend to live longer. Bulgarians, Russian Caucasians, Yucatan Indians and East Indian Todas are good examples of that.

From Strandler's book The Complete Guide and Cookbook For Raising Your Child as a Vegetarian.

“VEGETARIAN DIETS and LONGEVITY: A study of 11,000 vegetarian and health-conscious people followed for an average of 17 years found that they had an overall mortality level 44 percent below that of the general population.”

Reference: British Medical Journal 1996;313:775-79.
From:  http://www.earthsave.org/health/rxhealth.htm 

Professor Joan Sabate, Chairman of the Loma Linda University Department of Nutrition, School of Public Health, summed up the change in attitudes concerning the vegetarian diet in his paper, "The contribution of vegetarian diets to health and disease: a paradigm shift."

"Recent scientific advances seem to have resulted in a paradigm shift: diets largely based on plant foods, such as well-balanced vegetarian diets, are viewed more as improving health than in causing disease, in contrast with meat-based diets."

“The September 2003 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, one of the most prestigious publications in the nutrition field, contains a special supplement devoted to vegetarian diets based on the 4th International Congress on Vegetarian Nutrition held at Loma Linda University between April 8 and April 11, 2002. The study that would immediately gain your attention is the research report that looked at the relationship between meatless diets and longevity. Four of the six studies analyzed showed that vegetarians lived longer than people who ate meat."

From:  http://www.vegparadise.com/news44.html

“Researchers have found that Seventh-Day Adventists have significantly longer-than-average life expectancies. They ascribe this longevity to church members' high rates of vegetarianism and regular exercise and virtually non-existent rates of smoking.

In a study comparing California Adventists with Californians who were not members of the religion, researchers at Loma Linda University found that Adventists' life expectancies surpassed those of the general population. Male Adventists had a gain of more than 7 years over other men, while female Adventists had a life expectancy nearly 4.5 years longer than that of other women.”

From: Archives of Internal Medicine July 9, 2001;161:1645-1652 

However, due to a recent increase in the number of deaths caused by cancer or heart disease, medical doctors and nutritionists started to study what causes fatal diseases.  According to the 1983 statistic data from National Cancer Institution in America, 1/3 of cancer deaths can be avoided by diet.  The studies in many countries show that vegetarians have a lower cancer death rate (Messina 37).  About death caused by heart disease, vegetarians are 50 % less likely to die by heart problems according to the international consensus data (Messina 32).  Vegetarians have also lower rate of diabetes, gallstones, and kidney disease.  "A plant-based diet" has a lot of advantages: low fat, less cholesterol, more fiber, special beneficial chemical like anti-oxidants, or enzymes, which are protectors from cancer and heart disease (Messina 36-38). Therefore, it is obvious that a vegetarian diet helps people stay away from fatal diseases.

Messina, Virginia, and Mark.  The Vegetarian Way.  New York: Crown Trade Paperbacks, 1997.

Mortality from coronary artery disease is lower in vegetarians than in non-vegetarians.  Total serum cholesterol and LDL cholesterol levels are usually lower, while HDL cholesterol and triglyceride levels vary depending on the type of vegetarian diet that is followed. Vegetarian diets that are typically very low in fat and cholesterol may decrease levels of proteins A, B, and E.  Platelet composition and possible platelet functions may very, and plasma viscosity may be decreased.  Such effects may be attributed to the vegetarian's lower intake of total fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol, along with lower weight, increased physical activity, and abstinence from smoking.  Vegetarians generally have lower blood pressures and lower rates of Type II diabetes than do non-vegetarians, which may decrease the risk of coronary artery disease in the vegetarian population.

Vegetarians of the Seventh-Day Adventist faith have lower rates of mortality from colon cancer than does the general population.   That may be due to dietary differences which include increased fiber intake, decreased intake of total fat, cholesterol, and caffeine, increased intakes of fruits and vegetables, and, in lacto-vegetarians, increased intake of calcium.

Position of the American Dietetic Association: Vegetarian Diets

VEGETARIAN DIETS and LONGEVITY: A study of 11,000 vegetarian and health-conscious people followed for an average of 17 years found that they had an overall mortality level 44 percent below that of the general population.

Source: British Medical Journal 1996;313:775-79. 
From:  http://www.earthsave.org/health/rxhealth.htm