Many Floridians on this list will enjoy this piece from the Miami Herald.
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Posted on Thu, Jan. 18, 2007
MIAMI HERALD
The Edgy Veggie
Smart, soulful, sexy people don't eat meat
Ellen Kanner
ellenink@aol.com
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/living/food/16477932.htm
Smarter kids make healthier adults. It's a fact. And in one of the findings linking higher IQ to better health, a British research team found smarter kids are more likely to become vegetarian when they grow up.
The study, published last month in the British Medical Journal, reports that if you became a vegetarian by 30, chances are your IQ was at least 5 points higher than that of your peers back when you were 10.
OK, as statistics go, it's a little wordy and it won't change the world. But I wish it would. Often, all it takes is one encouraging announcement to get everyone in line. All across the globe last year, people happily toasted the discovery of resveratrol in red wine. Finding the antioxidant properties of dark chocolate gave everyone a reason to indulge.
But smarter kids growing up to be veggies? I just don't see people snatching up celery.
How about this: Vegetarians are lower risk for heart disease, diabetes and obesity and have a 40 percent lower cancer rate than our meat-eating peers. We live healthier and longer, animals love us, we're smart (Einstein and Gandhi were vegetarians), soulful (ditto the Dalai Lama) and sexy (Natalie Portman and Prince). Think vegetarians are wimpy? Clint Eastwood's a vegan.
We have convincing proof. We have compelling examples. What we don't have are converts among the carnivores.
So what's the problem? Maybe what vegetarians need is a better marketing plan -- an ad campaign complete with a catchy sound bite, maybe with a jingle penned by Prince or another broccoli believer like Morrissey or Coldplay's Chris Martin. We need branding, T-shirts, action figures.
The thing is, vegetarians shouldn't need logos or product placement. We shouldn't have to advertise who we are and the benefits of our life choice.
The real question is why, given the statistics, anyone would choose differently.
The best I can hope for is that scientists keep up their research and for vegetarians to keep putting it out there.
In time, there'll be a whole generation of smarter kids who'll rely on statistics, not slogans, to decide the healthiest way to eat -- and live.
(End of Miami Herald piece.)
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Date: Thu Jan 18 11:15:26 2007
