Many people have still never heard of the vegan diet. Others are confused enough just by the many types of vegetarian diets. Many others still think of various forms of vegetarianism as a mental disease, as they did in te 19th century when Seventh-Day Adventists became the first major group in Western society to be prominently promoting vegetarianism for a long healthy life.
Since that time, and mostly in the last 30 years, science has through numerous studies come to recognize that those living a balanced lifestyle including a fully vegetarian diet receive health benefits over those consuming the standard high-protein diet. These gains are not just realized in longevity, but are even more so recognized in the quality of life during the latter years of life.
It is important to recognize that one person eating a vegetarian diet will not necessarily do better than any other given person eating a meaty diet. Genes, exercise, pollution exposure, and a very wide variety of other elements known and unknown to science also play a role in lifespan and quality of latter stages life. But, the longer gains experienced on average by vegetarians indicates that the best health for any given individual are more likely to be found by that individual consuming a balanced vegetarian diet.
You will find many of the articles on this site point to reasons beyond selfish ones for considering a vegetarian diet. In a society where animal raising and slaughter are usually done in the cheapest manner rather than the healthiest or most humane manners, it is hard to now ignore the morality of meat eating from these 'farms'. Also, as the world population expands rapidly there are increasingly more ecological issues involved, some of which you can learn about on this site. It should be noted for example, that even the most efficient animals on hormones eat more than five times as much food as they produce. That is a hard morality to swallow in a world where many humans still die of hunger.
You may have noted the use of the word 'balanced' a couple of times already. Any unbalanced diet will typically make you worse off than the most unhealthy foods eaten in balance. For this reason you should first consult a doctor knowledgeable in nutrition or a certified nutritionist when choosing the right diet for you.
The articles here are given merely as a free survey of information to help you decide if you are interested in partaking in a vegan or vegetarian diet, and what some scientists currently perceive as some of the current advantages and disadvantages of various diets and lifestyles. It is our hope that these articles will help you to take an interest in eating a more vegetarian diet, even if you do not think a vegan diet is right for you right now.