Eating a vegetarian diet can have a dramatic effect on your heart. A study of 44,000 people has revealed that vegetarians are 32% less likely to die from, or need hospital treatment for, heart disease. Scientists at the University of Oxford tracked 15,100 vegetarians and 29,400 people who ate meat and fish. Over the course of 11 years, 169 people in the study died from heart disease and 1,066 needed hospital treatment – and they were significantly more likely to have been meat and fish eaters than vegetarians. (BBC online news)
I have no idea whether Epicurus was a vegetarian, but assume that the healthy Mediterranian diet hasn’t changed all that much in the intervening years. Modern processed foods supply too much harmful sugar and too much salt (apart from other additives), but no one dare confront the companies that make huge swathes of the population obese and unhealthy. To adapt the mantra of the National Rifle Association, “Food doesn’t kill; a person eating it does”.
(The original draft of this blog called the above “really silly”. But “really silly” doesn’t quite fill the bill).
Epicureans, modest eaters and drinkers, live healthy lives and live longer as a group.
Epicureans are all about balance and given the social structure of Epicurus’ day, I can imagine what wonderful meals and conversations they enjoyed. That is, I doubt Epicurus did his own cooking but who knows? I also imagine small birds and fish often landed on their plates. It’s fun to take shelter in those lovely Mediterranean images on these cold, damp days.
I do recognize the moral superiority of non-violence, and realize that veganism is the only ethical lifestyle in terms of non-violence and avoiding cruelty towards other sentient beings, but I’m not a fanatic and am flexible. I think eating fish is healthier than eating meat. In fact, the Mediterranean diet features it prominently.
I’ve been thinking of writing a piece on the live foods lifestyle for the Society of Epicurus page. Diet has everything to do with moods and health.
There might be such a thing as an (ideal) Epicurean dietary lifestyle: one that is simple, and that leads to happiness and health. There are foods that are mood boosters (raw cacao, yerba mate, maca) and then there are simple foods, particularly in the live foods lifestyle (fruits, fermented foods) that have a similar effects which are almost immediately noticeable: one feels happier and healthier and in a good mood.