Study: Vegetarians not healthier

[Guest guest]

This may provide some mild vindication for us proud carnivores :-)

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From:

http://www.health24.co.za/news.asp?action=art & SubContentTypeId=0 & ContentID=1

8710

Vegetarians not Healthier

September 11, 2002 Vegetarian teens are not necessarily healthier than their

meat-eating peers, says new research, because despite their healthy diets,

they are not more likely to adopt other healthy practices like exercising

more or cutting back on smoking or drinking alcohol.

In a study of Swedish and Norwegian vegetarian teenagers, researchers from

the Umea University in Sweden found that contrary to findings from other

studies, a low-meat diet does not guarantee other healthy habits.

Weight concerns not the motivation

Lead study author Dr Christel Larsson surveyed over 2 000 Swedish and

Norwegian 15- to 16-year-old students, of whom 149 reported being low-meat

consumers. Almost three-quarters of these students were female.

The low-meat eaters did not differ from the meat-eating students in weight

or body mass index, Larsson and her colleagues reported in the Journal of

Adolescent Health.

The low-meat eaters were also similar in their opinion about their weight,

indicating that a concern about weight gain was not the major reason for the

students choosing a low-meat diet, the researchers report.

Meat-eaters healthier

Health reasons were also not behind the choice to avoid meat, the report

found. In fact, those students who ate meat were more health conscious and

tended to be healthier than the vegetarians.

Women on low-meat diets reported being sick more often than their peers,

while low-meat eating men found that they were tired and experienced

headaches more often than their peers. Both the men and women also reported

being depressed more often than the meat-eaters.

The researchers found no difference in exercise habits, alcohol or smoking

habits between the low-meat eaters and the meat-eaters.