Back when I went vegan, you know, when you had to worry about all the dinosaurs laughing at you and stuff, there was a stat floating around that said being vegan would add something like seven years to your life. The figure came from a study of Seventh Day Adventists, and I'm not going to look for the link because it doesn't really matter in this context, but I remember there were even coffee mugs available that had the stat written on them.

Well, as you can guess from what statistics are out there, most people didn't take the bait, and I guess the conclusion was that people would rather eat bacon and die 7 years sooner. But hey, the internet wasn't a big thing back then, so maybe people just didn't get the message.

We'll see: a new study has lowered the bar even further: you can get 14 more years than your buddy down the street just by not smoking, drinking moderately, getting some exercise, and eating those pesky five servings of fruits and vegetables. Not surprisingly to you guys, the biggest impact is the food thing, which gave people a 44% chance of surviving to the end of the 11 year study, even if they still ate animals.

Sadly, I doubt it's going to make a difference in global eating habits, simply because it hasn't yet, and I'm not at all trying to sound bleak. Lately I've been thinking that instead of focusing on the health arguments for veganism, we've got to think a little sideways and come up with more reasons for people to want to live. Wow, that does sound bleak, but think about it: we've got a population who'd literally rather die than go without a hamburger or eat some broccoli. Are their lives that sad?