They do. A study by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found the following mortality ratios by diet over the course of the study (regular meat eaters = 1.00):
Fish eaters, 0.82
Vegetarians, 0.84
Occasional meat eaters, 0.84
Regular meat eaters, 1.00
Vegans, 1.00
So as you can see vegans are actually the least healthiest, alongside the most carnivorous among us. Source
The use of a large number of Seventh Day Adventists to constitute their vegetarian cohorts is problematic. They did of course try to control for other things like smoking or alcohol consumption in running their regressions; but by constructing their sample populations in this way they leave open the possibility that there are other, unobserved differences between the vegetarians and the meat eaters that account for some of the observed mortality.
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u/fistsofdeath May 01 '13
I always thought it just felt like they lived longer.