February 4, 2002 – Mortalities from coronary heart problems have reportedly decreased by 10% over the past two years in Britain. The British Heart Foundation believes that improving cardiac medicine and surgical techniques, as well as increasing the number of non-smokers and people who care about the quality of their diets, are factors that contributed to this decline. According to Dr. Charles George, medical director of the Foundation, to further reduce the number of deaths, it will be necessary to convince the British to exercise more.
But there may be another explanation for this recent decrease in coronary heart disease mortality in Britain. Following the successive mad cow and swine fever disasters which greatly affected islanders across the Channel, vegetarianism has increased by 25 to 30% in Great Britain. Not to mention that a much larger number of Her gracious Majesty’s subjects have significantly reduced their consumption of red meat.
An overview of the seven main surveys carried out in Great Britain in 2000 and 2001 on this question reveals that:
- Almost 15% of those polled planned to stop consuming meat or at least red meat;
- 22% of British people polled have stopped consuming meat or eat it only occasionally (once a week) since the disasters;
- The British included, in 2001, between 10 and 12% of pure vegetarians, whereas they were 4% in 1996 and 7% in 1997…
Pierre Lefrançois, PasseportSanté.net
