Adventists

Mills, P. K., Beeson, W. L., Abbey, D. E., et al., Dietary habits and past medical history as related to fatal pancreas cancer risk among Adventists, Cancer, 61, 2578, 1988. 

Phillips, R. L., Snowdon, D. A., Dietary relationships with fatal colorectal cancer among Seventh-day Adventists, J Natl Cancer Inst, 74, 307, 1985. 

Bantu women and 800-900 mg/d among the white women. In the United States, Marsh, et al. (J7) reported significant differences in bone mass in age and height-matched lacto-ovo vegetarian Seventh Day Adventist women compared with omnivores. This was true in the women over 60 years of age premenopausal S.D.A. women had bone densities which were similar to those of white omnivorous women. 

Mortality among Seventh-Day Adventists in Relation to Dietary Habits and Lifestyle... 

PHILLIPS AND SNOWDON Mortality of Adventists in Relation to Diet... 

This variation results in a population with much wider variation in exposure to meat than one could find in a typical sample of the general population. Adventists who chose to use little or no meat also tend to follow many other nutritional practices that are believed to promote health. Thus, wide variation in many dietary exposures, in a population which is relatively homogeneous in many other characteristics relevant to cancer risk, provides an ideal setting to test dietary hypotheses. 

Serious interest in the health status of Adventists initially arose in the late 1950 s as part of a surge of research effort to investigate the health effects of tobacco use. Adventists provide an opportunity to evaluate the risk of smoking-related diseases among a group who reportedly abstain from both tobacco and alcohol. 

Adventists are of particular interest as research subjects because former smokers or heavy meat users usually dropped their habit because of religious reasons, rather than illness, and a sizable proportion of Adventists never initiated smoking or meat use. 

Mortality among Adventists Versus the General Population... 

A standardized mortality ratio of 100 for any given cause of death would indicate that the risk of Adventists dying from that cause is... 

Age-Standardized Mortality Ratios for Selected Causes of Death Among 25,000 White California Adventists, 1960-1980... 

The probability that the mortality differential between Adventists and all U.S. whites is accounted for by chance alone is under 0.05. 

The number of deaths expected if white California Adventists (age 35 or over) had the same concurrent risk of dying (within each of 26 sex-age groups) as all whites in the United States. ... 

In fact, it is reasonable to assume that adults in the general population who choose to join the Adventist church are a select group of rather unique and unusual people whose risk of acquiring or dying from any given disease may have been distinctly different from the general population at the time they converted to Adventism.7 If this were true, the primary explanation for their low risk may not be the... 

Coffee Use. Table V focuses on the relationship of coffee use to the same six causes of death considered on previous tables. Approximately 70% of the Adventists in this study use no coffee. However, 17% drink two or more cups of coffee per day and 10% limit their intake to one cup per day. The "no coffee" category includes 362 subjects who report occasional coffee use (less than one cup per day). They were combined with subjects who indicated their coffee use as "0" cups per day. All subjects in the occasional use category took the effort to write a note to this effect on their questionnaire. We suspect many more subjects who really belong in the occasional use category simply recorded their use as "0" cups per day because it approximates their use closer than "1 cup per day". 

Relationship of Animal Relative risk of California Table III Product Use to fatal Prostate Adventist Males the Age-Standardized Cancer Among 9000, 1960-1980... 

Relationship of Meat Consumption to the Age-Standardized Relative Risk of Death From Coronary Disease and All Other Causes Among California Adventist Men age 35-64,... 

One of the difficulties encountered in evaluating the possible associations between disease risk and consumption of meat or coffee is the fact that Adventists who use one of these products also tend to use the other. For example, 91% of the Adventists in this study who use no meat also abstain from coffee, whereas, 50% of those who use meat four or more days per week also use coffee. Thus, it is... 

Figure 1. Age-standardized relative risk of fatal coronary disease among California Adventist males age 35-69 divided by meat and coffee use, 1960-80. The number of deaths is indicated at the base of each bar. The probability that chance alone accounts for the differential in risk between the indicated group and subjects who use no meat or coffee is less than 0.001.

Compared to the general population, Adventists have an exceptionally low risk of fatal lung cancer and other diseases which are strongly related to cigarette or alcohol use. They also appear to have a marked reduction in risk of death from large bowel cancer, coronary disease, stroke, diabetes, and nontraffic accidents. 

Meat use among Adventists is unrelated to fatal cancers of the large bowel and breast. 

Animal product use among Adventists is strongly related to risk of fatal prostate cancer. 

Meat use among Adventists is questionably related to coronary disease in females, and stroke in males. 

Coffee use among Adventists is moderately related to risk of death from large bowel cancer in both sexes, as well as coronary disease and all causes in males. 

Coffee use and meat use are both independently related to risk of fatal coronary disease in young Adventist males. 

Overall, it does appear that the vegetarian diet, abstinence from smoking, and perhaps other prudent practices adopted by the majority of Adventists may be preventive for several of the major life threatening diseases which are so prevalent in the U.S. 

The most important item to keep in mind when interpreting this data is that all the relationships mentioned are merely associations between a disease outcome and some personal characteristic which is common to a high proportion of subjects who experience the disease. Even if statistical testing has essentially ruled out chance phenomenon as a likely explanation for these observed associations, there is still the very real possibility that the associations are indirect and, thus, not directly relevant to the cause of the disease. For example, it is likely that Adventists who use meat and/or coffee may have many other characteristics which are different from subjects who abstain from these products. One or more of these characteristics may be the important factor which actually accounts for the association between meat and a specific cause of death. Yet, such a factor may not have been measured or taken into account during the data analysis. 

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