mmmmmmmm....Well you see I'm not sure I believe this. I mean it has been shown, sometimes, that mortality is lower amongst vegetarian. But the Cornell China study was looking at changes in lifestyle amongst chinese (and not as you state between chinese and americans) And the biggest thing it threw up was changes in smoking habits leading to enormous increases in death from carcinoma of the bronchus and other cancers associated with smoking. In fact a lot of prople have suggested that the decrease in cancer mortality in vegetarians may be a result of lower rates of smoking.
On the side of us omnivores, vegetarians are more likely to die from suicide or in acts of aggression, and are generally more depressed. And there is a strong relatonship between vegetarianism and eating disorders.
I would have included many links, however my server crashes before I could record them. What I did write down (and if this makes it through the censors I'll be suprised) is a link to an article in the British Medical Journal which I'll admit I plan to email to all my vegetarian friends.
Scrooge
DDear Mcspotlight
My link didn't work properly, and I discovered i'd written it down wrrongly so here's the correct one. Soorrry
