Diet, Life Expectancy, and Chronic Disease

Research into the role of diet in chronic disease can be difficult to interpret. Measurement errors in different studies often produce conflicting answers to the same questions. Seventh-day Adventists and other groups with many vegetarian members are ideal study populations because they have a wide range of dietary habits that adds poer and clarity to research findings. This book analyzes the results of such studies, focusing on heart disease and cancer. These studies support the benefits of a vegetarian diet and in addition provide evidence about the effects of individual foods and food groups on disease risk that is relevant to all who are interested in good health. Fraser places the findings in athe broader context of well-designed nutritional studies of the general population. He discusses the degree of confidence we can have in particular relationships between diet and disease based on the strength of the evidence. While this is a scholarly book, it is written in clear English and contains an extensive glossary so that it should be accessible to a wide audience.

1: Why we study the health of Adventists
2: Coronary heart disease rates among Adventists and others
3: Cancer rates among Adventists and others
4: The longevity of Adventists as compared with others
5: Diet and the risk of coronary heart disease
6: Diet and the risk of cancer
7: Diet, other risk factors and ageing
8: Vegetarianism and obesity, hypertension, diabetes, and arthritis
9: Social support, religiosity, other psychological factors and health
10: Coronary heart disease mortality among British, German, and Indian vegetarians
11: Cancer and all-cause mortality among British and German vegetarians
12: Risk factors for cardiovascular disease and cancer among vegetarians
13: Risk factors and disease among vegans
14: Changing a population's diet: a behavioural view of the Adventist experience
15: Shifting to a vegetarian diet: practical suggestions from a nutritionist
16: The challenge of nutritional epidemiology