I know personally of two people who became anemic due to their lack of eating meat, they are now taking iron supplements and have changed their diet to include occasional meat products. I knew one better than the other and saw her change over a few year period, forgetful, tired, cranky. I mentioned the change to her, I was worried it was Alzheimer's, she went to the university hospital and got checked out, luckily it wasn't Alzheimer's, she just needed a couple of burgers.

It is a tricky thing to get the iron one needs on a vegetarian diet. It can be done but it takes a some real skill in cuisine. Iron from meat products is more readily absorbed than other sources.

If you plan on cutting meat out do some research first is all.

It takes education for sure. I'm not saying you can live on lettuce. That's quite obvious. But in Steve Job's case, I can guarantee he has researched the subject. Especially after the Cancer.

I know for sure that I could never go fully vegan ...I like eggs/cheese/ice cream way too much

a person responsible enough to go vegetarian will often be a person smart enough to learn how to continue eating a balanced meal. it's not always the case, but the few anecdotes presented here don't change the fact that a person can easily get all the right nutrients and minerals, etc. while not eating meat. while we aren't vegetarian, my wife subscribes to the a vegetarian monthly journal to get recipes and we try eating many through the course of each week.

Every person I've known who has been a life long vegetarian has become ill in their later years. These are folks who know what they're doing. It's possible as we age the body can't handle the diet anymore.

It's a fallacy that a person can get all the necessary nutrients without eating meat. In fact, that applies to all vitamins and minerals. Our bodies absorb these things from natural foods differently than in pill form. For example, taking Vit C pills is no permanent replacement for the naturally occurring vitamin in fruit. The same thing applies with iron and all the B vitamins. A balanced diet from all the food groups is necessary for proper breakdown and absorption.

The key is balance and moderation in all things.

They are only anecdotes and one can live a healthy life as a vegetarian. I would disagree that it is easy. It's very hard to get enough iron as well as a slew of other nutrients without eating meat. Our digestive system and metabolism , our liver, our kidneys, everything involved with the metabolizing of nutrients so we can live, all evolved while we were omnivores. We still are omnivores. If you do not eat meat you really need to watch out. One person can get away with it but the next person might have a mutation which causes difficulty in metabolizing iron which comes from vegetable sources. Why is that not a disease? Because most of us eat meat.

It is a smart thing to cut down on meat intake. Americans have made meat intake a serious problem because we inhale it. But it's good for you because you are an omnivore. There is no getting around that. Anything that says different you better see who created the data and see if they got their degree in nutrition of the back of a cereal box.

The people Steve Jobs got to advise him on his diet so he would not require pancreatic cancer surgery early on got their diplomas off a Cheerios box. Luckily he then listened to real doctors and had the surgery. Who knows who he is listening to now. He has a problem gaining weight because of a metabolism imbalance and he continues to be a vegetarian? That, is nuts.

Almost everyone I know has become ill in their "later years" ...that's what happens when you age. With all of the pollution, pesticides, antibiotics, and fast food there's no wonder why people are getting sicker younger these days. I really think we are going to see the average age of death drop again. There is so much cancer, diabetes, heart disease, alzheimers, etc. It's affecting EVERYONE these days. Out of all of the family funerals I've gone too ...most would not be considered "old" (unless your definition of old includes 50-something) The fact that every single one of them ate meat must mean they died because meat is unhealthy, right? That's how I take your statement.


The human body can indeed function perfectly fine without meat. Try rephrasing your google searches. ...if you search for "Vegetarian Unhealthy" guess what you will find. Search for "meat unhealthy" ...guess what.

From what I have been reading he's probably suffering from an insulin related issue. Eating meat will not fix this problem.

Pancreatic cancer will do a job on your insulin level, no doubt. I agree with you, zwei--it's not the diet.

On the same subject ...have you seen what Pancreatic cancer has done to Patrick Swayze? ...It's not pretty

Quakery is on the internet at ten times the volume as real science. Google Astronomy and then google Astrology ... guess what.

Not saying you are incorrect but there is a terrible amount of fraudulent articles out there that look like science. Don't google vegetarian, search it on a site like quackwatch.com

Jobs could be a rational pragmatic vegetarian. Likely he is. Or he could be an ideological vegetarian. Not good. The fact that he first confronted his cancer with a change in diet while ignoring doctor's advice makes me think he is the latter unfortunately.