Elizabeth Allison (Mailbox, Mailbox, March 30) says vegetarians have a lower rate of obesity, coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, large bowel disorders, cancers and gallstones.

I can only speak about those whose diets I know. My dad did die young – he was only 81!

I put that down to the fact that he was in the trenches in 1914 on his 16th birthday.

In the 1920s, he was in the coal mines. Later in life, he suffered with his chest until he died.

My mother lived until she was 93 and was active until the day before she died. She ate meat daily.

She had butter and bread, sugar by the spoonful and weighed about eight stone.

Dad's mum lived to 89. Dad's dad's diet broke all the rules.

Like all of us, he had a fried breakfast and fat meat for dinner.

He then took six spoonfuls of sugar in each cup of tea and ate boiled sweets.

He was still pushing a wheelbarrow down to his large garden until just before he died at the age of 97. His weight was 10 stone.

My two sisters and I would struggle to bring the scales down at 28 stones together. All are meat eaters.

Animals are God's creatures, I agree. So what do we do with all the animals if we go vegetarian? They still have to eat.

G A Wright, Leicester.