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Comment by miles | Hacker News Reader

After watching "What the Health"[1], it seems like there is no small amount of FUD coming from the meat industry. And the long-term health benefits of plant-based diets are well-established[2,3,4,5].

[1] https://vimeo.com/ondemand/whatthehealth/203617202

[2] Vegetarians less likely to develop cancer than meat eaters, says study https://www.theguardian.com/science/2009/jul/01/vegetarians-...

[3] Vegans live longer than those who eat meat or eggs, research finds - Every three per cent increase in calories from plant protein was found to reduce risk of death by 10 per cent http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/...

[4] 16 Studies on Vegan Diets – Do They Really Work? https://authoritynutrition.com/vegan-diet-studies/

[5] How Not To Die: The Role of Diet in Preventing, Arresting, and Reversing Our Top 15 Killers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXXXygDRyBU

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I do not necessarily disagree with your claims, but few people will take you seriously if your sources are a sensationalist newspaper and youtube. Even the nutritionist's blog in not particularly reliable, given how poor replication is in this discipline.

Also, OP made a specific claim about controlling for health-conscious behavior that is not countered here.

The Guardian article links to the paper, which has this in the introduction:

    Relative risks (RRs) were estimated by Cox regression,    
    stratified by sex and recruitment protocol and adjusted 
    for age, smoking, alcohol, body mass index, physical 
    activity level and, for women only, parity and oral 
    contraceptive use.

I wouldn't disagree that there's still a lot of uncertainty, but at least for cancer, I'd bet on a small but significant effect. Anyway: what is pretty much proven is that living like a vegetarian is quite beneficial. You can probably even continue eating meat.

(One possibly life-prolonging behaviour observed more in vegetarians: not considering the Guardian to be a 'sensationalist' newspaper)

The Guardian and the Independent aren't 'sensationalist', they're basically the two most highly regarded British newspapers.

Living in a padded room would likely add years to one's life, also.

It just wouldn't be a very enjoyable life.

Why do you think that people who don't eat animals don't enjoy life? Have you seen any correlation between happiness and the amount of animals one consumes?

Just go to any steakhouse and look around. They are having fun. You'd have to go a long way to enjoy tofu that much. Pretending to enjoy tofu doesn't count.

I've seen a strong correlation between my happiness and the amount of meat I consume, yes.

I'm sorry if that sounds facetious, but do I really need to demonstrate that most people enjoy eating meat? Well, they do. They enjoy it a lot.

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