Keep Your Health by Becoming Vegetarian

Many people who choose a vegetarian diet do so as a way of improving their health. The possible benefits include improved health for nutritional reasons and improved food safety. In the therapy of some health disorders and/or food intolerances vegetarian diets are a necessary element.

The American Dietetic Association and Dietitians of Canada have stated: "Vegetarian diets offer a number of nutritional benefits, including lower levels of saturated fat, cholesterol, and animal protein as well as higher levels of carbohydrates, fiber, magnesium, potassium, folate, and antioxidants such as vitamins C and E and phytochemicals."

Some studies suggest that vegetarian food helps keep body weight under control and reduces risk of Heart diseases. American vegetarians tend to have lower body mass index, lower levels of cholesterol, lower blood pressure, and less incidence of heart disease, hypertension, some forms of cancer, type 2 diabetes, renal disease, osteoporosis, dementias such as Alzheimer’s Disease and other disorders that may be diet-related.[43] The health of a group of 27,000 vegetarians is currently being followed at a UK centre of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC), the largest study of the long-term effects of vegetarian diet.
Although potentially diet related, most studies do not control for other lifestyle variables that typically coexist with vegetarianism, for example increased exercise as part of a general concern for physical wellbeing that often accompanies the adoption of a vegetarian lifestyle.