A heart surgeon, he lives in Loma Linda, California. Looking at him, you wouldn’t think he was a centenarian. In fact, it turns out that the area where Dr. Wareham lives is one of the five so-called Gray Zones – places where people have a much higher life expectancy compared to the rest of humanity. There are many vegetarians in this area, and Dr. Wareham himself believes that his good health and long life are primarily due to his diet. He is a vegan and has not eaten any animal products for more than 50 years.  

“You could say that I was never naturally inclined to a vegetarian diet. My parents were farmers and we always had meat, I just didn’t like animal food. When I completely gave it up, at first I was worried about whether I would get enough nutrients, but then I discovered that I could simply take additional vitamin B12.” Dr. Wareham has worked on many hearts as a cardiac surgeon. He says that 50 years ago, he and a group of surgeons traveled to Asian countries to perform open-heart surgery. And he discovered that people there suffer in a completely different way. “We operated mainly on patients with congenital heart defects. We almost never encountered cases of ischemic disease. This is a disease of developed countries.” It is hardly necessary to note that the inhabitants there eat mainly plant-based food.