In industrial countries, life-style diseases such as adiposity, diabetes mellitus, hyperlipidemia, hypertonia, CHD, and carcinoses are widespread. There is an abundance of epidemiologic data showing that a vegetarian diet is associated with a lower risk for these diseases.
Nevertheless, meat, sausage, and fish are still commonly considered to be normal components of human nutrition. The myth that these are especially healthy and valuable foodstuffs is still widespread. Many members of the medical profession also still seem to believe that meat is a vital force in your diet.
In modern epidemiologic models the public health risk of different diets is classified totally different today than it was only a few centuries ago. Meanwhile a low intake of vegetable foodstuffs is considered a risk factor for phytochemical deficiency diseases which include a great number of tumor diseases, cardiovascular diseases and degenerative diseases.
The following will present facts showing that meat consumption is connected with considerable health risks. This information is based on scientific publications available in the Medline-database as abstracts or original works.