Re: [nukkad] Mortality rates and diet

["Indian Rediff" <>]

I would have thought longevity has more to do with being able to speak
Hindi or not ... ;-)

But seriously:

The arguments are spcious at best, and downright flameworthy at worst.

1) S. Indians are NOT vegans. They drink milk (not soy milk) and they
are as fatty as the fattest in India.

2) There was an Anthropological Survey conducted sometime in 1993
(http://tinyurl.com/j3mfl)  that determined that Indians (as a whole)
are NOT vegetarians by choice. It is more an economic reason than
religious choice. A startlingly high percentage (88%) of Indians
prefer to be meat eaters. (Note: The URL http://tinyurl.com/j3mfl that
has this information is actually a Google cache of a
www.hinduismtoday.com archive page. hinduismtoday appears to be down
(the web site, not the religion ;-). Also, you need to search for
"Survey Blows Out India's Social Myths" to see what I am talking
about).

3) Malnutrition is NOT a standard feature of S. Indians at all. They
get sufficient proteins from the daal in sambhar/rasam (although
rather liquid), molakootal (a non-spicy daal) etc. Plus the loads of
vegetables do not hurt.

Sai

On 3/1/06, Harshal Chhaya  wrote:
> In a discussion about the pros and cons of a vegetarian/vegan diet, one
> of the guys (a non-Indian, BTW) wrote:
>
> =======
> I wish all vegans good luck because you will need it. I suppose there are
> lots of reasons for people wanting to be vegans but it certainly isn't
> because of health reasons. The shortest lived people in the whole world are
> the vegans of South India who eat no meat at all and have a diet high in
> carbohydrates and low in protein and fat. The life span of Northern Indians
> who are meat eaters is almost ten years longer. And their heart disease rate
> is 50% lower. I personally think moderation in all things is better than
> extremes at either end.
> ========
>
> Clearly, this guy is making up facts to prove his point.
>
> I would have assumed that the typical vegetarian S. Indian diet would be
> healthier than a typical N. Indian diet. Am I wrong?
>
> Has there been any empirical study comparing the diets of North and
> South India and their effect on health and life-span?
>
> - Harshal


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We understand death for the first time when he puts his hand upon one 
whom we love. -Madame De Stael, writer (1766-1817)
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