Hearty vegetarians

There are a few things that waitresses or waiters can get wrong in their work. Advice to table staff number one: asking, “Will sir be being joined by anyone else this evening?” is not a good idea. Just assume that the poor devil is dining alone but don’t inflict on him the indignity of removing the extra set of cutlery. Advice number two: don’t start cleaning the table in preparation for the next guests until the current guests have paid if you want to maximise your tip. Advice number three (and this may be the big one): when a guest tells you they are vegetarian don’t say, “Maybe you’d like the salmon then?”. Vegetarians do not eat meat, and since fish and chicken are meat, then you can safely assume that a vegetarian won’t eat them. If you do offer them meat then they are entitled to thrash you soundly with a sprig of parsley garnish and rest assured they will have the energy to do so because as a new study has shown, a vegetarian diet is good for the heart.

Although the number of deaths caused by circulatory disease has been decreasing in recent years, heart and blood vessel disease still remains the single biggest killer of Australians causing 32 per cent of all deaths. That is why a new study showing a vegetarian diet can reduce heart disease risk is such important news.

The research comes from the University of Oxford (UK) and was based on analysis of data from 45,000 people, 34 per cent of whom were vegetarian. After controlling for variables like age, exercise level, smoking, and so on they found that vegetarians were 32 per cent less likely than meat eaters to suffer from heart disease.

Further analysis showed that vegetarians had lower cholesterol levels and lower blood pressure, both of which are risk factors for heart disease. Vegetarians also had a generally lower body mass index (BMI) and were less likely to develop diabetes.

All in all, it sounds like vegetarian eating is a recipe for a happy heart.