I've been vegan for more than 20 years and thought that was a long time, but Loreen Dinwiddie takes the vegan cake. The Oregon resident, who just celebrated her 108th birthday, went vegan in 1922 and never looked back. Loreen attributes her longevity to "fruits, vegetables, and nuts. It's all there in the Bible." She may be onto something, since studies show that vegans slash their risk of our nation's top killers: heart disease, cancer, strokes, and diabetes. 
 

You could grill a whole lot of veggies with 108 candles.            moonlightbulb/cc by 2.0

 
Watch Loreen in action and see if you don't agree that she deserves our vote for Cutest Vegan Centenarian. Do you know someone who's been vegan as long (or nearly as long) as Loreen? Comment and tell us about it!

 
Written by Alisa Mullins

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A new Oxford University study reinforces what we've been saying for some time now: Cutting your meat and dairy intake can improve your health—and quite possibly save your life. Indeed, the report found that even if Britons simply lowered their meat consumption to three servings per week, about 45,000 fewer of them would die each year from heart disease, cancer, and strokes. And that doesn't even take into account the more than 1 billion animals who are killed for food each year in the U.K., most of whom would be spared if the nation's citizens heeded the warnings of the study and cut their intake of meat and dairy products.

Of course, no matter which side of the Atlantic you're on, you don't have to wait for your fellow citizens to go vegetarian en masse—you can improve your own health and save thousands of animals' lives just by switching to a plant-centered (or "-centred," for you Brits) diet. Click here for more on why and how to go vegan.

Written by Jeff Mackey

One reason I'm glad to live in Houston is that the Texas Medical Center is here. The center includes some of the country's leading health care facilities, such as the Texas Heart Institute (THI)—which was recently named one of America's best centers for heart care for the 20th consecutive year. So THI seems like the perfect place to display our sizzling "Bypass Heart Disease" ad, which features a sexy nurse touting the cardiovascular benefits of a vegan diet.

We've sent our request to the institute's president, but now we want our readers to weigh in. Please vote in the following poll. And as always, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section.

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As if heart disease, cancer, strokes, and diabetes weren't enough, we've just learned of another shocking health fact that will have you replacing the flesh on your fork. Meat is linked to anaphylactic shock.

Researchers from the University of Virginia, the University of Tennessee, and the John James Medical Centre in Australia recently discovered that meat allergies may be much more common than we once thought. The scientists examined 60 patients who suffered from recurring cases of unexplained anaphylaxis and found that nearly half of those people were actually reacting to a carbohydrate in meat. Symptoms of the meat-induced allergy don't appear until hours after eating, making the dangerous reaction difficult to trace.

A potentially deadly allergic reaction that's almost impossible to trace? Sounds like an easy path to an early grave. But even if you're not allergic to meat, we'd like to let you in on a secret to a longer, healthier life. Give your body a break and start eating a cruelty-free diet.

Written by Logan Scherer

Another day, another strand unravels from SeaWorld's carefully crafted damage-control campaign in the wake of the tragic death of a trainer at the Orlando park last week. The scandal du jour is that, back in 2007, after a trainer at the San Diego SeaWorld nearly drowned after being dragged underwater by an orca, the California Division of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Cal/OSHA) issued a report concluding that a fatal attack on a SeaWorld trainer was "inevitable" and not a matter of "if" but "when."

But the Cal/OSHA backpedaled on its warning after SeaWorld whined and moaned and claimed that the report was "full of inaccuracies and speculation" and described the staffer who wrote it as "uninformed and reckless." Interesting choice of words: Who's looking reckless now, SeaWorld?

But wait—there's more! According to a former SeaWorld trainer quoted in the Los Angeles Times' blog, Unleashed, because Tilly is a male orca being forced to live in unnaturally close quarters with females in a matriarchal society, he is a fish out of water, so to speak—he has no solid position in the pecking order. As a result, he has to be kept separated from the other whales with gates. In a somewhat cryptically worded statement, the former SeaWorld trainer mentioned that "threat-displays" and "less room to maneuver because of his massive size" have resulted in Tilly's teeth being "broken off." In short, "he doesn't have any viable teeth left." Reading between the lines, we can only wonder if Tilly is so frustrated and maddened by his plight that he has systematically broken off all his own teeth by gnawing on and bashing his head against gates. Wow, aside from that little matter of killing three people, he sounds so happy and well-adjusted, doesn't he?

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You can read more about SeaWorld's miserable and short-lived orcas in an essaypenned by Debbie Leahy, PETA's director of captive animal rescue and enforcement, that appeared in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune and several other newspapers.

Written by Alisa Mullins