Rikkitic: I don't understand why carnivores feel such a need to be smug and condescending to vegetarians. I am prepared to respect your choice, why can't you do the same?
I have been a vegetarian for most of my life. I have always looked many years younger than my age. When I was in my 40s, I was refused alcohol service in the USA because they wouldn't believe I was 21. My IQ is far above the median and I am entirely self-educated. I am multilingual and until retirement I earned my living as a technical writer. I am now 72 and I have never had any health problems, in spite of smoking heavily for 40 years.
Congratulations on your good health in your 70's. I suspect the genetic lottery has a big hand in it, but that said, a really good recent study that I as a carnivore found compelling that was directly related to the benefits of a long term vegetarian diet, is one done on seventh day adventists. From what I understand, the vegans and vegetarians came out of it really well, BUT then it's arguable that the pesco-vegetarians were even better off. BUT then in a separate study in Europe, the levels of PCBs in fish were ~5x than beef, which was next highest. BUT then many of the older adventists who feature in the good results, possibly pre-date the pollution.
As a carnivore, I rarely respect the choice of a vegetarian. My personal experience, is that many adopt it and become fundamentalist advocates. And it gets tiring to hear about it. And it's easier to put your fingers in your ears and go lalalala than to hear how someone is a vegetarian, and anecdotal reasoning about how well it works (read your second paragraph), or it being advocated with poor science or reasoning (read the first post in this thread).
