Cancer: Adventists' Advantage

The tens of thousands of Seventh-Day Adventists in Southern California suffer from most of the same diseases as their non-Adventist neighbors, including cancer. Yet on the average, the Adventist men live longer. Most conspicuously, they have only one-fourth as much lung disease as other Californians. Why?

Only part of the answer, say two of the Adventists' doctors in the A.M.A. Journal, may be found in their tendency to follow a modified vegetarian diet and their strict adherence to a regime of exercise and good hygiene. The major explanation for the Adventists' better health,...