radical_edward wrote:
] "After following more than 10,000 people for 17 years,
] investigators found that vegetarians were 15 percent less
] likely to develop colorectal cancer than meat-eaters."
]
] More people should face the reality: Eating a vegetarian diet
] is simply good for you.

... [sigh]. I always am worried about dietary studies. For Example, they rarely take into account other factors then eating, such as the persons lifestyle, exercise, stress levels, etc.

As you are anti-Atkins (as I am), I show you a prime example. Last week NBC's Dateline was all about the Atkin's diet. Several Atkins people were pointing out that in the 1950's and 1960's, would ate lots of red meat for dinner, and eggs, bacon and sausage for breakfast, and we were fine. then, they said, because the US government created and promoted the food pyramid and so we became very fat in the 1970 and 1980s, and that continues until today.

This completely overlooks the number of blue-collar vs white-collar jobs, the activity levels of these folks, rising economic needs that forced both parents to work and thus the increase in processed foods that were bought, the growth of fast food, the insane amount of calories in food today (I doubt they had 1000+ calorie hamburgers @ BK in the 1950s), the increased sized of portions of todays food, the increase in disposable income of child to buy food, the increase in marketing to kids and sales of food products by kids, etc.

[deep breath]

In short the entire argument these folks were pushing was based on figures that you couldn't compare. While this may not apply in this study on vegetarians, I always kind of never take these things as seriously as I should.

RE: More Evidence Vegetarian Diet May Cut Cancer Risk