For the gazillionth time, someone has funded a study that is reporting a conclusion mankind has known for centuries: Vegetarians live longer. Surprise, surprise.

The study looked at just over 73K Seventh-day Adventists (because the church promotes vegetarianism), and over the six years participants were tracked, those who didn't eat meat experienced 12 percent fewer deaths. Non-meat eaters fared especially better when it came to heart disease -- 19 percent less likely to die than meat-eaters -- and they also avoided kidney failure and diabetes.

Interestingly, though, vegetarians were just as likely to get cancer, and men were more protected by vegetarianism than women were.

Still, color me unimpressed. Vegetarians can take their slightly better longevity filled with years of eating beans and tofu. I'll keep my organic chicken burrito bowls and grass-fed steaks, thankyouverymuch.

No matter where you work, anyone who works in an office environment seems to have a common gripe: The neverending flow of junk food! From doughnuts in the morning to pizza for lunch, cupcakes for a special occasion, cookies someone with a penchant for baking always brings in, and candy that's seemingly offered up by the pound, it can feel like having amazing self-discipline is a must if you want to stay on track. Another possible solution: Working at a place like the nonprofit organization, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, which actually has a policy mandating that ONLY vegan food may be eaten in its office. No kidding!

The organization advocates for healthy eating, preventive medicine, and ethical clinical research, so they enacted the policy as a way to practice what they preach. They give potential employees a heads-up about the rule when they send an offer letter. Yep, they mean business. At PCRM, it's "go vegan or go home." Literally.

Jack Litsky and his wife recently became vegans to get their cholesterol under control. According to the Litskys, a lot of pasta isn't vegan (who knew?), so they decided to bring their own uncooked noodles to a restaurant in New Jersey. This is where you start to lose me, but AMAZINGLY, the restaurant went ahead and specially made their pasta dish using the Litsky’s pasta and the instructions the Litskys wrote on a card to make it easier for the kitchen staff.

Um, okay -- right there, that’s going WAY beyond the call of duty as a restaurant, but fine. The problem came after the Litskys' third trip to the restaurant, when they requested the same thing and instead of getting charged less, like they had the past two times, they were charged more for the special dish ...

I've been a vegetarian pretty much all of my life. Even as a kid, I cried if anyone tried to make me eat meat. By the time I was 12, my family gave up and I was allowed to drop meat from my menu -- though I still ate chicken occasionally, turkey on Thanksgiving Day, and fish. By the time I was 21, I dropped the turkey and chicken entirely. Now, I still eat fish once in a while but rarely (mostly sushi). That doesn't mean, however, that I've exclusively dated vegetarians. In fact, I've dated some meat lovers. Here are five ways I've made it work.

Carrie Underwood has never been shy about being a vegetarian. She revealed that she made the decision back when she was a little girl and saw calves being castrated by her parents on her Oklahoma farm. She said, “Mom after that was so mad at me cause I quit eating what the family ate. I couldn’t eat those precious cows. They were my babies. I bottle fed some of them. And now I knew where they went.” So, yeah, it makes perfect sense that she's no fan of meat. But her hubby, NHL player Mike Fisher, is. And so they go to steakhouses on the regular. Woo, that must be rough for Carrie, right? What does she eat then -- a baked potato? A side of asparagus?

Not exactly, she told Stylist magazine recently. Even though she said she's "100 percent vegetarian" and tries to be vegan, dining out with "special requests" isn't nearly as difficult as you'd think.

It can be lonely out there being a vegetarian. Depending on which survey you're reading, only about 3 to 5 percent of the American population bypasses the meat at suppertime. And if you actually sit down with them, it seems that a good chunk of them are lying about it.

Yes, I said lying. They know who they are, but as a woman who's been practicing real deal vegetarianism for 15 years, I'm willing to out them. If these people tell you they're vegetarians, you're allowed to roll your eyes:

In the midst of all the recalls we've been seeing of everyday foods that often land in our kids' lunch boxes or on the dinner table, you have to wonder what can be done -- and what is being done to make our food safer. Well, someone over at The Kansas City Star decided perhaps it was time to take a closer look at our country's food safety measures, particularly in the beef industry. What they found is seriously shocking, disturbing, and altogether disgusting, so if you haven't eaten your lunch yet ... consider yourself forewarned!

Over the course of a two-year beef investigation, they found evidence of serious health risks, like fecal contamination, which increases the risk of E. coli. GROSS! And that's just the tip of this stomach-turning iceberg ...

Would you believe -- there's a mayor on food stamps? Well there isn't, that we know of. But there is a mayor who's willing to live like he's on food stamps. Cory Booker of Newark, New Jersey has started a "food stamp challenge." For one week he will spend only $30 on groceries, nearly the equivalent of what New Jersey residents get if they qualify for the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

No eating out for Mayor Booker, that's cheating. And no meat, either -- he's a vegetarian. So the big question is: What is he eating? I think it might actually be easier to eat for $30 a week if you're avoiding meat.