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The article, at the end, says a British study of over 47,000 people did not find the same positive results from a vegetarian diet and it speculates that American vegetarians eat more fiber and vitamin C than do the British.
Interestingly, the investigators also found that the association between vegetarian diets and lower mortality was greater in men than in women. Men had a lower rate of cardiovascular disease and death from heart-related conditions.
I wouldn't be surprised if men did derive a greater benefit: They tend to have greater risk to begin with, they tend to consume greater quantities of everything, and they tend to be less health-conscious than women overall.
I don't get the title of this thread.... The article being cited is of a large study that shows that vegetarians and vegans live longer than non-vegetarians:
"Among a group of 70,000 participants, researchers determined that vegetarians had a 12% lower risk of death compared with nonvegetarians."
The study mentioned briefly at the end doesn't show that vegetarians "don't do well", it just didn't see a difference in morality rates. That could be due to a differences in the groups studied, or it could be due to a difference in the design of the study.
Regardless, so here we have one study that shows vegetarians live longer and another that is neutral....and the conclusion is that some vegetarians don't do well? Don't get it....
If people want to be "included" in a group, that is all fine. But no matter what ya do there is always something or someone against what ya believe. You do what you think is best for you and your family. Be it veg or omni, you know what is best for you.......take some of these "studies" with a grain of salt.
Go with what ya know, be flexible, and don't over think everything. If the family is happy, you'll be happy.
Bear in mind that a lot of people think cheese is a vegetable. Women put on and retain fat much more easily than men, and if they are eating half a pound of cheese melted over every meal nthinking is is healthy, you can expect them to have more health problems in many cases.
Go with what ya know, be flexible, and don't over think everything. If the family is happy, you'll be happy.
"Go with what ya know" is what most Americans do....not really working for them. People don't instinctively know what foods are good and not good, instead the food industry (because our government is ineffective) controls much of how people think of foods.
Regardless....I don't get how your comment relates to the article in the OP. It was of a large study on Americans that showed that the vegetarians/vegans lived longer. People aren't veg*n because they want to be "in a group", they are veg*n because they think its healthier, they don't want to harm animals, they think its bad for the environment, etc.
A lot of these studies that compare vegetarian vs. non-vegetarian diets suffer from major confounding. I have no doubt that the average vegetarian diet is healthier than the average meat eater's diet. Vegetarians usually eat more fresh vegetables, fruits, and herbs, eat less processed food and less white flour and sugar, smoke less, exercise more, have less body fat, and overall generally have more healthy habits.
From what I've gathered from this study (hard to know for sure since it requires a subscription) they controlled for some confounders like smoking, but there was no attempt to control for quality of the foods they ate and they were grouped in categories based solely on a self-assessment at the beginning of the study. As far as I know there was no attempt to account for intake of trans fats, white flour, sugary drinks, refined oils, etc. If you compare a quality vegetarian diet to a quality diet that includes meat and fish, e.g. a Mediterranean-type diet, I'm not sure there would be much difference, and the latter diet might be more favorable.
The British studies didn't find the same results, and they speculate that that might because British vegetarians don't eat as well as 7th Day Adventist vegetarians:
Quote:
“The lack of similar findings in British vegetarians remains interesting, and this difference deserves careful study. In both cohorts, the non-vegetarians are a relatively healthy reference group. In both studies, the nutrient profiles of vegetarians differ in important ways from those of non-vegetarians, with vegetarians (especially vegans) consuming less saturated fat and more fiber. It appears that British vegetarians and US Adventist vegetarians eat somewhat differently. For instance, the vegetarians in our study consume more fiber and vitamin C than those of the EPIC-Oxford cohort: mean dietary fiber in EPIC-Oxford vegans was 27.7 g/d in men and 26.4 g/d in women compared with 45.6 g/d in men and 47.3 g/d in women in AHS-2 vegans; mean vitamin C in EPIC-Oxford vegans was 125 mg/d in men and 143 mg/d in women compared with 224 mg/d in men and 250 mg/d in women in AHS-2 vegans. Individuals electing vegetarian diets for ethical or environmental reasons may eat differently from those who choose vegetarian diets primarily for reasons of perceived superiority for health promotion. We believe that perceived healthfulness of vegetarian diets may be a major motivator of Adventist vegetarians.”
The same is true for diets that include meat and fish. There's a big difference between fish or chicken and vegetables and cheeseburgers, fries and Dr. Pepper. There's also a big difference between quinoa, black beans, kale, and squash, and soyburgers on white bread buns with potato chips.
This study also included people who eat fish, but not meat (pesco-vegetarians), under the broad "vegetarian" category. If you look at the data, those who eat fish actually had the lowest hazard ratio out of all groups (not an uncommon finding):
Quote:
The adjusted HR for all-cause mortality in vegans was 0.85 (95% CI, 0.73-1.01); in lacto-ovo–vegetarians, 0.91 (95% CI, 0.82-1.00); in pesco-vegetarians, 0.81 (95% CI, 0.69-0.94); and in semi-vegetarians, 0.92 (95% CI, 0.75-1.13) compared with nonvegetarians.
They also included people who occasionally eat meat, those who eat meat monthly but no more than once per week (semi-vegetarians), in with the vegetarian group.
I believe most Americans eat too much meat, and the quality of the meat they eat usually is poor (factory farmed, filled with nitrates and hormones, etc.), but I think studies like this show the protective effects of eating a diet with lots of fresh fruits, vegetables, herbs, nuts, etc. more than anything.
Interesting. I've always been under the impression that the risk of death for vegetarians, vegans, and omnivores alike was 100%.
12% lower in the time frame that they observed, that is, the vegetarians were living longer.
Quote:
Originally Posted by EugeneOnegin
As far as I know there was no attempt to account for intake of trans fats, white flour, sugary drinks, refined oils, etc. If you compare a quality vegetarian diet to a quality diet that includes meat and fish, e.g. a Mediterranean-type diet, I'm not sure there would be much difference, and the latter diet might be more favorable.
7th Day Adventist tend to eat healthier whether or not they are vegetarian, so a lot of the confounding variables are dealt with when you study this population.
People always point out the possible confounding variables, as if researchers aren't aware of them, but there are studies that explicitly control for them as well. These studies, at least most of them, still have vegetarians living longer.
Potential health benefits is just one of the many reasons become vegetarian. Even if vegetarians didn't live longer, most current vegetarians would still be vegetarian because the ethical and environmental issues involved with meat.
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