Vegatarianism and Veganism has been a growing trend over the years, with more and more people turning to plant based diets either for health reasons or morality reasons. However, with the ever growing rise in people deciding to take meat off the table there has been increasing concerns over the long-term health affects of such a dietary choice.
Because meat offers a rich supply of vitamin B12 and D, calcium, and omega-3 fatty acids, just to name a few, many are left wondering if a plant-based diet could leave them nutritionally deficient, which in turn could lead to some long-term negative health effects.
Well, researchers from the University of Oxford have evaluated the results of eight prospective studies involving more than 100,000 vegetarians and a total of almost 280,000 participants and this is what they found:
A Vegetarian Diet reduced the following:
- Obesity
- Diabetes
- Arthritis
- Hyperthyroidism
- Cancer
- Heart Disease
- Eye Cataracts
- Diverticular disease
The research paper can be downloaded in it’s entirety [HERE]
Its worth noting though that the data is still relatively small in these studies and as the researchers conclude, more data is required to assess the implications on other potential health risks such as bone health and risk of stroke.
So as all scientific journals like to continually remind us, correlation doesn’t imply causation. But the probability of causation does increase with the more correlation that exists.
It’s a common belief that its not just the lack of meat in a Vegetarians diet that makes them healthier, typically speaking a vegetarian is more likely to be more health conscientious.
Vegetarians are statistically more likely to be more active, drink less alcohol, smoke less, get more exercise and live a healthier lifestyle all round. So this is why determining the causation of correlation can often prove troublesome.
But putting all the studies aside, meat quality has declined so much over the past couple decades that any positive nutritional benefits the meat should have to offer are drowned in a toxic, over medicated, fatty, tumour infested environment.
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