LLU professor studies diets of Seventh-day Adventists
Nikki Cobb, Staff Writer

LOMA LINDA - One recent day, among the nine-grain and oatmeal breads, amid the milk- and eggless hot-dog buns at Loma Linda Market and Nutrition Center, Karen Jones peruses her choices and picks up a loaf of whole-wheat bread.

“My mom never let me eat white bread,” Jones, 53, explained. “All my life I was told to eat healthy - there are so many things in life that can hit you, you should do what you can for your health.”

Jones, a Seventh-day Adventist, is on the right track, according to Dr. Gary Fraser. Fraser is a professor of medicine and epidemiology at Loma Linda University. He’s conducting a study comparing the health effects of different diets on Seventh-day Adventists.

The results are preliminary - the study, which includes 95,000 Adventists from all 50 states and all the Canadian provinces - won’t be done for several years. But there are clear trends emerging from previous work that suggest diet plays a tremendous role in health and longevity.

Fraser chose Adventists to study because they have such similar lifestyle and religious practices but a wide variety of dietary habits. About 4 percent to 5 percent are strict vegans - eating no milk, eggs or animal products. Forty to 50 percent are lacto-ovo vegetarians, who consume milk and eggs, and about 45 to 50 percent eat red and white meats several times a week.

This study is examining the consumption of soy, vitamin D and unsaturated fats like those found in nuts and flaxseed on colon, breast and prostate cancers.

“All three of the main hypotheses are areas where there is a lot of commercial promotion without really secure evidence of what is going on,” Fraser said.

Adventists don’t smoke and drink little, if at all. Those kinds of lifestyle choices aren’t variables that have to be factored into the study, Fraser said.

Fraser said Adventists die of the same causes as non-Adventists - the same cancers, cardiovascular diseases and other ailments.

The odd thing is, he said, that they just die later. Adventist men in California live six years longer than their non-Adventist counterparts. Adventist women in the state outlive others by 4 1/2 years.

“It’s striking to me that it hardly seems to matter what you die of, it’s just going to be later,” Fraser said. “There’s some underlying aging process that is being impacted by the Adventist lifestyle that delays all of the common causes of death.”

This is the third such study. The first, begun in 1958, compared Adventists with non-Adventists and found that Adventists were 40 percent less likely to die of heart disease and 50 percent less likely to die of cancer.

Another study, begun in 1976, compared Adventists with different diets, and found those who ate food similar to that of the general population had the same incidence of cancer and heart disease as non-Adventists.

Based on his studies, Fraser said he’d recommend a plant-based diet that includes a handful of nuts each day. Regular exercise is important, as is avoiding being overweight or underweight. And of course, don’t smoke.

“People can make big changes in that direction that really aren’t difficult to make,” he said.

There might also be some health advantages conferred simply by being religious.

Fraser said he’s selected 10,000 people from the dietary study for another, smaller look at the effects belonging to a church has on health.

“People who attend church regularly live longer, for reasons that are only partially understood,” Fraser said. “We think the advantage Adventists have is primarily related to lifestyle.”

“We’re evaluating the role of cumulative life stresses on mortality and how religion conceivably might suppress the effects of those stresses,” he said.

Tina Merrill, 47, and Stephen Loeck, 62, aren’t Seventh-day Adventists - they aren’t even from Loma Linda.

The two, visiting from Anchorage, Alaska, were shopping at the Loma Linda Market. Merrill said her grandmother always taught her to eat healthy.

“It makes me feel better when I eat healthy foods,” she said. “It makes your cells live longer.”

Source: San Bernardino County Sun