Sizzle,sizzle meat and gristle.

I was reading The Guardian, Australia Edition and there was some article promoting veganism. The article was a bit of fluff but I liked the little battle between the vegos and the meat eaters in the comments section. It was really interesting. The two sides brought up two recent articles.

Vegetarians are ‘less healthy and have a lower quality of life than meat-eaters’, scientists say
The Independent, Heather Saul,Thursday 03 April 2, 2014
The controversial study by the Medical University of Graz in Austria based on data from the Austrian Health Interview Survey compared the dietary habits and lifestyle differences between meat-eaters and vegetarians.

Basically they beleived vegetarians had lower BMI, drank less alcohol, self-reported poorer health and higher levels of functional impairment, more allergies, cancer, mental illness, were vaccinated less than all the other carnivore groups, made less use of preventative check-ups,  had a lower quality of life in the domains of “physical health” and “environment”. 

Within a day this report was slammed by an article in The UK’s NHS Choices website.

Vegetarians have ‘poorer quality of life’ study claims.
NHS Choices.Your health, your choices, Bazian¹, Friday April 4 2014
It states “Despite the media headlines, the results from this Austrian cross sectional survey provide no proof that vegetarians are in poorer health than meat eaters.”

They thought it was significantly flawed and here is an edited version of their response:

1. “The cross sectional study cannot prove cause and effect and that the dietary pattern is responsible for any of these self-reported differences.
2. Very general categories of “vegetarian” and three “carnivorous” groups were used. As the person’s dietary pattern was self-reported, and the categories were not defined, people grouped into these categories could in reality have had widely different dietary intake patterns, and some people could be incorrectly categorised. 
3. Very general categories of diseases were used. The researchers questioned the presence of 18 specific diseases, but these do not appear to have been medically verified and seem to have just been classed as being “present” or “absent” without having any idea of what this means.
4. They found links with three of these 18 diseases, but considering this study includes a relatively small sample of only 330 vegetarians; it is possible these may be chance observations. A sample of another 330 could have found different disease prevalence.
5. Similar to diseases and dietary groups, very crude measures of all health habits and health variables were also used.
6. The study includes only an Austrian sample who may have different dietary, health and lifestyle habits from other countries.“

They end with ” for a healthy lifestyle, all people should aim to eat a diet high in fruit and vegetables and low in saturated fats, salt and sugars, moderate alcohol intake, avoid smoking and take exercise in line with current recommendations.”

I myself wouldn’t reject the research totally. It has some significant flaws but I would say it raises some interesting questions and could be the start point for further investigation. I would like to see longrunning, combined studies on:

• Vegans
• Vegetarians

And the whole Omnivore spectrum including:

• Mediterranean Dieters
• Okinawan and Sardinian Dieters
• Paleo Practitioners
• ‘Normal’ Western Diet Eaters (who eat whatever they want)
• Western Diet Eaters who eat lots of junk foods
• Western Dietary Guideline Eaters
• Those closer to The Carnivore category who eat lots of meat

Personally, I’m an omnivore and I suspect, like the Mediterranean, Okinawan and Sardinian diets a palate predominantly vegetarian in nature but with small amounts of meat will be the best diet for promoting the ability to thrive AND live long. Combine this with plenty of exercise and a life long approach to preventative medicine and we will reach our optimum lifespans AND lifestyles.

 1. Bazian is a business which uses evidence-based medicine and comparative effectiveness research for health systems.
2. Photo sourced – Wikimedia Commons, Photographer Bubby, 365 Days Project 188/365: Saturday Night Grilling, flickr. Image unaltered.