Vegetarians found more unhealthy. Interesting article.

mschicagocubs

http://www.science20.com/news_articles/vegetarians_found_to_have_more_cancer_allergies_and_mental_health_disorders-133332

Thought that was fascinating. One study, but I like bacon.

peleroja

Well, it's certainly not difficult to have more trouble getting the appropriate nutrients when you cut stuff out of your diet, so I'm not very surprised. Vegetarians have to work harder at balanced meals, and there are tons of vegetarians who seem to subsist on fries and white bread (especially young ones and those who are vegetarian for ethical reasons rather than health ones.) There's also a pretty substantial number of people with eating disorders who become "vegetarian" so it's easier to restrict food in public.

Ideally, everyone should be paying attention to their macro and micro nutrient intake and getting everything their bodies need, but vegetarians and other people who restrict their diets (paleo etc) need to be extra careful, obviously.

PaleoPath4Lyfe

I was aware of the mental illness being more prevalent due to most vegetarians eating very low fat in general which causes chemical imbalances in the brain.

Interesting findings on the rest of the stuff.

I will stick with eating my meat, vegetables and fruit.

Rocbola

Vegetarians tend to eat a lot of dairy. That stuff is terrible. Even the paleo crowd figured out to avoid it like the plague.

PaleoPath4Lyfe

Well, it's certainly not difficult to have more trouble getting the appropriate nutrients when you cut stuff out of your diet, so I'm not very surprised. Vegetarians have to work harder at balanced meals, and there are tons of vegetarians who seem to subsist on fries and white bread (especially young ones and those who are vegetarian for ethical reasons rather than health ones.) There's also a pretty substantial number of people with eating disorders who become "vegetarian" so it's easier to restrict food in public.

Ideally, everyone should be paying attention to their macro and micro nutrient intake and getting everything their bodies need, but vegetarians and other people who restrict their diets (paleo etc) need to be extra careful, obviously.

No need to throw paleo in with that. When you are eating an abundance of protein, fats, vegetables, fruit, nuts and seeds it is not hard at all to meet both your micronutrient and macronutrient needs.

One main reason my Doctor recommends the Paleo Lifestyle to his patients to get them off medications and just eating real food.

RGv2

IN...

eric_sg61

Science FTW
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navyrigger46

In, this one should go nuclear pretty quickly.

Rigger

salembambi

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm was vegetarian for 15 years and vegan almost 3 now

got all the blood work done to make sure I was getting all my needs when I went vegan & doctor said I was perfect

ahh yea so perfect

jwdieter

Woo hoo confirmation bias article for the carnivores!

nomeejerome

:huh:

TheGymGypsy

I've been a vegetarian all my life. I used to be fat and miserable because all I ate was cheese, bread, pasta, and ice cream. It's easy to be unhealthy as a vegetarian. Now my diet is full of fruits and veggies and I'm obviously in much better shape!

kayla_who

1. There are pros and cons to every diet. Choose your evils

2. This is one study, need more info

RunBakeLove

As a former vegetarian (and still light on the meat these days!), this is very interesting. Thank you for posting!

I can echo a lot of the comments made in this thread. It is incredibly hard to reach all your nutrients on a vegetarian diet. Not impossible but you have to pay SO MUCH MORE attention to it. I didn't cut out fat and the only thing that didn't make me a vegan was cheese so I can't agree with the overload in dairy comment. I've hated cow's milk since I was little. I made 98% of my food from scratch while being a vegetarian and lived what I thought to be a healthy lifestyle for a few years but it was hard to keep up with that kind of precision.

I still have several days a week that I eat as a vegetarian would. I eat a lot of fish and meat 1-2 times a week maybe. It isn't something I have "strived" to do, it is just naturally how I eat and what I crave. Not surprisingly, when I travel and have to eat out, my meat intake increases significantly. I think Micheal Pollan said it best...Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.

I do find it weird that the article referred to vegetarianism as a "fad"...I don't think it classifies as a fad. I know people who have been vegetarian for 20, 30 years.

peleroja

Well, it's certainly not difficult to have more trouble getting the appropriate nutrients when you cut stuff out of your diet, so I'm not very surprised. Vegetarians have to work harder at balanced meals, and there are tons of vegetarians who seem to subsist on fries and white bread (especially young ones and those who are vegetarian for ethical reasons rather than health ones.) There's also a pretty substantial number of people with eating disorders who become "vegetarian" so it's easier to restrict food in public.

Ideally, everyone should be paying attention to their macro and micro nutrient intake and getting everything their bodies need, but vegetarians and other people who restrict their diets (paleo etc) need to be extra careful, obviously.

No need to throw paleo in with that. When you are eating an abundance of protein, fats, vegetables, fruit, nuts and seeds it is not hard at all to meet both your micronutrient and macronutrient needs.

One main reason my Doctor recommends the Paleo Lifestyle to his patients to get them off medications and just eating real food.

I should have known I'd get the paleo police on my case here...they're like Betelgeuse except you only have to say the word once for them to appear.

Yes, whole foods are good. Restricting your diet from a huge number of foods can be bad if you're not careful.

Serah87

In. *munching on popcorn*

TheGymGypsy

You can be unhealthy and overweight no matter what you eat or don't eat. There are plenty of junk food options for vegetarians, vegans, and omnivores alike.

I_Will_End_You

I was a vegetarian for 18 years (I now eat seafood) and it's really not hard to eat a healthy, well balanced diet without meat.

Dewymorning

People may have adopted a vegetarian lifestyle if they were already unhealthy, for example.

This sentence popped out at me.

Correlation does not equal causation, though I do think this is an interesting study.

Also, I agree with a previous post that it is harder work to be healthy and vegetarian, and so some vegetarians could be missing out on important nutrients without realizing it.

lavaughan69

in

ahamm002

I thought it was interesting that vegetarians tended to be thinner on average than omnivores, yet still had poorer overall health. Of course the study is just an epidemiology study. There are too many possible confounders to really draw any conclusions other than "more studies are needed."

mschicagocubs

Just one study, ya'll. Let's not get crazy.

Also, they don't factor in genetics to this.

But I will say that I found it most interesting about Mental Health. My sister was diagnosed bipolar & she was told to basically eat clean.

ms_nomered

If you read the fine print under the graph in the article, it states these numbers are "probability values"

Also, if you read the full sample study it says only 0.2% of the interviewees were pure vegetarians.

Most of the data I have read regarding vegetarianism states the opposite; that a well balanced vegetarian diet provides ample health benefits. The key words are well-balanced, it has to be done right.

LoseYouself

This article is interesting because there ARE vegetarians out there who just take meat out of their diet, but never replace those lost nutrients with other sources and then eventually face health problems. It should never be able excluding, but replacement. A lot of people fail to realize this when they jump into vegetarianism.

However, health issues really depend on the INDIVIDUAL diet of each person, vegetarian or not. For example, you can have people who eat meat and are very healthy, and pay attention to proper nutrition. They may eat mostly meats, eggs, fruit, veggies, whole grains, etc, and maybe some processed foods or junk food in moderation (for those who follow IIFYM). Then on the flip side you can have other people who also eat meat that have very poor diets that are low in nutrition. Obviously both groups of people eat meat, but both are not equal, just like vegetarians aren't. It's about their diet as a whole and people's diets vary so greatly.

My point is that the exact same thing goes for any other group of people (such a vegetarians). There's always two sides; the people who are conscious of getting sufficient nutrients, and those who are not.

The American Dietetic Association recognizes vegetarian diets as nutritionally sound when they are properly balanced. "It is the position of the American Dietetic Association and Dietitians of Canada that appropriately planned vegetarian diets are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases." The key words are "appropriately planned" though. Many fail to do this, making it more likely to seem unhealthy to outsiders.

Oh well, live and let live.

Mini_horse_lover

what about vegans?

Rocbola

Science FTW
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Really?


Two can play that game...

eric_sg61

Science FTW
[img][/img]

Really?


Two can play that game...

yep two can play
EDITED

RunBakeLove

If you read the fine print under the graph in the article, it states these numbers are "probability values"

Also, if you read the full sample study it says only 0.2% of the interviewees were pure vegetarians.

Most of the data I have read regarding vegetarianism states the opposite; that a well balanced vegetarian diet provides ample health benefits. The key words are well-balanced, it has to be done right.

0.2% of the 15,000+ interviewees were pure vegetarians, which is the pool they based their sample size on. All of the 330 vegetarians in the actual study ate vegetarian...but there is no indication or tracking of how long they were vegetarians and whether they were in good health before switching to vegetarian. Interesting information but seems to be more correlation than causation data.

mschicagocubs

Yeah now that I read the full study...seems to not be real good data.

I still like bacon.

ValGogo

You know.....I try to be informed. I don't too much about too much, but I always had this feeling that milk is not really good for us. I don't know why....maybe it's the hormones, maybe it's because as babies we stop drinking our mom's milk and shouldn't be drinking some other "mom's" milk. Granted I love cheese but I DO see how dairy affects my body when I ingest it, specifically digestion.

I was thinking about vegetarianism as a way of avoiding the bad stuff that is in the meat (placed there by mass manufacturing). I'm not a vegetarian, but I've considered it. However, I don't generally eat a lot of flesh these days because of money but I like a piece of steak once in a while or some grilled chicken breast or a nice baked thigh. I love eggs.

don't know where I'm going with this; just some stream-of-consciousness stuff, I guess.

eric_sg61

I understand that there is a disagreement here, but this is just being a bully.

How so? When vegans preach about everyone dying of cancer and crap becuase they eat meat and dairy isn't?