Perhaps, one of the most powerful arguments for vegetarianism is the link between meat consumption and heart disease. Undeniably, in the United States (the world's largest consumer of meat), one in every two people dies from cardiovascular diseases, which are seldom heard of in countries with very low meat consumption. The Journal of the American Medical Association reported in 1961: "A vegetarian diet can prevent from 90 to 97 percent of heart disease."
What is it in meat that causes such great harm to the circulatory system? The fat in animal meat, such as cholesterol, is not properly broken down in the human body. This fat adheres to the walls of a meat-eater's blood vessels. With constant accumulation, year after year, the insides of the vessels become narrower and narrower, allowing less and less blood to pass through. This dangerous condition is called arteriosclerosis. It places a heavy burden on the heart, forcing it to work extremely hard to pump blood through the blocked and constricted vessels. As a result, problems such as high blood pressure, cerebral congestion, and palpitations occur. Recently, scientists at Harvard discovered that vegetarians generally have lower blood pressure than non-vegetarians. During the Korean War, the bodies of 200 American soldiers, with an average age of 22, were examined. Approximately 80 percent of them showed signs of arteriosclerosis due to blockages from meat waste. Soldiers of the same age from South Korea did not show this phenomenon. The Koreans' diet was primarily vegetable-based.
Now we can understand that the nation's number one killer, "heart disease," has become quite prevalent. An increasing number of doctors (and the American Heart Association) are strictly limiting the amount of meat their patients can consume. They even advise patients to avoid meat completely. Scientists have now realized that the roughage and fiber in vegetarian foods can indeed lower cholesterol. Dr. Register, head of the Nutrition Department at Loma Linda University in California, conducted experiments that confirmed substances in beans can reduce cholesterol.