Many studies around the world show that vegetarians have a lifestyle of their own: they don't smoke, drink little, enjoy sports, and are adept at using various techniques to free themselves from mental stress. In short, their lifestyle is quite different from that of the general public in many ways, and many consider them to be very health-conscious citizens. It is naturally difficult to separate sausages from doing yoga or playing volleyball. On such issues, retrospective studies are powerless for collecting statistical data. Only prospective studies can be effective. In these studies, the lifestyle habits of the control group are required to be as similar as possible. This is a clear-cut experiment. It is obvious from the results of this experiment that giving up meat can do no harm.
Vegetarians do not automatically have a longer lifespan than non-vegetarians. The theories instilled by the "Seventh-day Adventists of California" and some cereal advocacy groups are also untenable. The situation for vegetarians in Germany is as follows: Given that they generally have a lower body weight (the average BMI for men in this group is 21.3 and for women is 20.9), the number of people in this group suffering from eating disorders must be higher than average. Therefore, we must not forget that excessive health consciousness does more harm than good.