A strong commitment to health has been a part of Seventh Adventist’s tradition since in founding in the 1840s.

There has been three large Adventist cohort studies in the United States and Canada since the 1950s. ¹

Data from the AHS-2 study shows that Adventists smoke much less frequently than the general American population (males – 1.2%, females – 1.0%) and drink less alcohol (6.6% drink alcohol).

Diet is also significantly different from the general population:

The AHS-1 study showed 30-year-old Adventist males lives 7.3 years longer than the average 30-year-old white Californian male and with females living 4.4 years longer than the average Californian white female. For vegetarians it is 9.5 years longer for men and 6.1 years longer for women. ²

The rate of breast and prostate cancer is 4 times greater in the US population than is experienced by the Adventists. Similarly, the rate of cardiovascular disease is 5 times greater in the general population.

Men drinking five to six glasses of water a day had a 60% – 70% reduction of the incidence of a fatal heart attack. ³

There has been over 60 years of research comparing the effects of vegetarian diets on health. Within the SDA community, the more vegetarian the diet, the better the health outcomes.

Vegan Seventh-day Adventists are the healthiest group of people on the planet.

Californians are much healthier than the average American. US Asians and Hispanics are much healthier than the average white person in the USA. Significance for the diabetic Odds Ratio is less than 0.0001. ⁴

(*) After adjustment for age, sex, ethnicity, education, income, physical activity, television watching, sleep habits and alcohol use.

Comparison of disease

The following table compares Californian Seventh-day Adventists. The comparison group is the Seventh-day Adventists vegetarians. Seventh-day Adventists are much healthier than the average American. ⁵

Vegetarians ate no meat, fish, or poultry; semi-vegetarians ate meat, fish, or poultry in total less than 1 time per week; non-vegetarians ate these foods one or more times per week.

Relative Risk or Odds Ratio of cardio-metabolic-related factors among vegan and lacto-ovo-vegetarian Adventists compared with non-vegetarians

Comparison of Mortality

The vegetarians and semi-vegetarians are compared with non-vegetarians Adventists. ⁶

Vegetarians ate no meat, fish, or poultry; semi-vegetarians ate meat, fish, or poultry in total less than 1 time per week; non-vegetarians ate these foods one or more times per week.

Hazard ratio of all-cancer and site-specific cancers among vegan and lacto-ovo-vegetarian Adventists compared with non-vegetarians

As the diet becomes more vegetarian then the risk factors decreased for all categories except for female ischemic heart disease and female urinary tract cancers.

Comparing Cohorts

The majority of nutrition studies compare two or more cohorts to examine differences in outcomes. Below are some examples of different methods of comparing cohorts.

It is essential that we are aware of the cohorts that the studies are comparing. Results cannot be extrapolated to populations that are outside the domain of the study.

Results obtained from the Westman and Yancy trial that examined obese women on a ketogenic diet, calorie-restricted diet for 24 weeks, cannot be generalised as a long-term diet for “normal” weight, non-diabetic participants who are consuming an adequate amount of energy for their weight and activity level.

The Yancy and Westman study was “funded by an unrestricted grant from the Atkins Center for Complementary Medicine, New York, New York“. The supplements were provided by Atkins Nutritionals, Inc., New York.

Additional Reading

For additional information read The Evidence Against Eric Westman and William Yancy.

A senior student research paper submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Science in Nursing at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma states: ¹¹

The study cited for this information is Beyond Meatless, the Health Effects of Vegan Diets: Findings from the Adventist Cohorts. ⁸

Multi-Variate Analysis

Seventh-day Adventist studies provide different sets of models to perform analysis. Health is affected by many factors including BMI, age, education, race, smoking, alcohol consumption, family history of disease, breast feeding and much more.

In an attempt to remove the influence of these confounding variables, models attempt to make “adjustments”. It is common to make adjustments for education, for example. It is difficult to make valid adjustments. Are “more educated” people healthier because they earn more money and can spend more on health care? Is it because they are “more interested” in health care? Is it because they can better evaluate health care messages? Attempting to untangle these relationships is not always (or perhaps rarely) productive.

It is essential to consider the adjustments made for these variables when evaluating health risk conclusions.

Vegan sceptics love to point out the increase in urinary tract cancers based on the following table in the following 2013 paper. ¹²

The table below from the Seventh-day Adventist study 2 shows the results for model (a) where adjustments were made for only the age. (Older people are more likely to succumb to cancer.)

The Vegetarian group includes all people who are NOT in the first category (Non-vegetarian). The definition of these groups is defined in the first table of the post.

The last column (p) defines the level of significance. Usually the level of significance must be 0.05 or less before it is considered statistically significant. None of these results are considered to be statistically significant. There are so few people afflicted that it is not possible to make an association between the urinary tract cancer mortality and diet.

Seventh-day Adventists and Longevity

Much publicity is given to the longevity of the people of Japan and Okinawa (an archipelago that stretches from southern Japan to Taiwan). However, it is vegetarian Californian Seventh-day Adventists that have the longest lifespan and the highest levels of health on the planet.

Vegetarian Californian Adventists have a higher life expectancy at the age of 30 years than other white Californians by 9.5 years in men and 6.1 years in women, giving them the highest life expectancy of any formally described population. ²

Note that Californians are much healthier than the average American being in the top five states for longevity with an average life expectancy of 5-6 years greater than the Mississippi states.

Additional Reading

Post relating to Low-carbohydrate and ketogenic diets.

Last updated on Tuesday 22 October 2024 at 14:22 by administrators

1. Butler, T. L. et al. (2008) Cohort profile: The Adventist Health Study-2 (AHS-2). International Journal of Epidemiology. 37 (2), 260–265.
2. Fraser, G. E., & Shavlik, D. J. (2001). Ten Years of Life—Is It a Matter of Choice? Archives of Internal Medicine, 161(13), 1645–1652.
3. Buettner, D. (2012) The Blue Zones. Second Ed. Washington DC: National Geographic.
4. Tonstad, S. et al. (2009) Type of vegetarian diet, body weight, and prevalence of type 2 diabetes. Diabetes Care. 32 (5), 791–796.
5. Fraser, G. E. (1999) Associations between diet and cancer, ischemic heart disease, and all-cause mortality in non-Hispanic white California Seventh-day Adventists. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 70 (3), 532s–538s.
6. Le, L. & Sabate, J. (2014) Beyond Meatless, the Health Effects of Vegan Diets: Findings from the Adventist Cohorts. Nutrients. 6 (6), 2131–2147. Table 8
7. Yancy, W. S. et al. (2004) A low-carbohydrate, ketogenic diet versus a low-fat diet to treat obesity and hyperlipidemia: a randomized, controlled trial. Annals of Internal Medicine. 140 (10), 769–777.
8. Le, L. & Sabate, J. (2014) Beyond Meatless, the Health Effects of Vegan Diets: Findings from the Adventist Cohorts. Nutrients. 6 (6), 2131–2147.
9. Tantamango-Bartley, Y. et al. (2013) Vegetarian Diets and the Incidence of Cancer in a Low-risk Population. Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention. 22 (2), 286–294.
10. Fraser, G. E. & Shavlik, D. J. (2001) Ten Years of Life – Is It a Matter of Choice? Archives of Internal Medicine. 161 (13), 1645–1652.
11. Bahr, M. N., Chrisostom, K. M., Chrisostom, S. S., Peters, N. K., & Thomas, P. M. (2019). A Comparative Analysis of the Ketogenic, Paleolithic, and Vegan Diets. Nursing Undergraduate Work. 9., 57.
12. Tantamango-Bartley, Y. et al. (2013) Vegetarian Diets and the Incidence of Cancer in a Low-risk Population. Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention. 22 (2), 286–294. Table 4