Flickr photo by Sonny Abesamis

Bring up the topic of nutrition and dieting to anyone and there will be no shortage of opinions on the best diet to follow. From the popular named diets like South Beach, Paleo, or Atkins to the newest fad diet that restricts food to tree bark week one, adding in one plant or animal each week until your back up to pizza and beer, the number of choices are dizzying. One diet choice though that is always in the mix is the choice to be vegetarian. Be it because of the assumed health benefits or the desire to not harm animals, vegetarian or the more extreme vegan, where you don’t eat anything that has been made from an animal or even brushed against them continues to be a choice people make. This study looked at how a vegetarian diet compared to other diets that had varying levels of meat along with fruit and vegetables in it. The tree bark diet wasn’t studied. If you’re doing that one you probably don’t have a computer to read this and are also choosing to only wear clothes you’ve made yourself out of leaves that you can eat later.

This study brings to light some potential negative health consequences of choosing to eliminate or severely restrict animal products in our diet. The study surveyed over 1,300 people and found some surprising increases in chronic diseases in vegetarians but let’s start with the positive.

Vegetarians tended to have a lower BMI (Body Mass Index, or how overweight a person is) than those who ate meat and the increase in BMI was linear, meaning the more meat in the diet the higher the BMI. This should come as no surprise as meat has more calories and fat per serving than fruit and vegetables. The other positive association the study found between the diets was that vegetarians tended to consume less alcohol than the meat eaters. Maybe this is because you can’t grill a nice steak in the summer without a tasty beverage at your side?

Ok so the vegetarians tended to be thinner and drink less alcohol but are there any down sides to this diet choice? According to the study there most certainly is. Vegetarians had increased rates of cancer, allergies and mental health disorders and had a poorer quality of life with an increased need for health care. The increases in some of these chronic diseases may come as a surprise but if you look at how our bodies use and in some ways need the complete proteins and fats found in meat products it makes a little more sense.

First off, all fat is not bad. Our body needs some fat to produce hormones, protect our brain and nervous system and provide energy. Increases in certain cancers in this study could be because the vegetarian diet doesn’t give the person the healthy fat they need to balance and use hormones that protect their body like Vitamin D, a steroid hormone that is known to be a potent cancer fighter. Or they may not have the energy reserves to fight off cancers and other diseases.

Vegetarians in this study reported an increase in mental health disorders including anxiety and lower self reported quality of life with poorer social relationships. This can be explained by a basic understanding of the anatomy of our brain. Our brain, by weight, is mostly fat. The nerve cells make up a small part of our brain. The same goes for all of our nerves. All nerves in our bodies are wrapped in a protective covering of fat like the insulation on an electrical wire. This fat needs to come from our diet and animal sources are best. Actually the very best comes from fish as the fat in fish is the most fluid and allows our nerves the easiest path to make new connections. The number of nerve cells in our brain may not change but the connections those cells make does change and having a fluid fat makes that much easier. This is also why very stiff fats (trans-fats or hydrogenated fats and oils) are so bad for us. A vegetarian diet cutting out all animal products could be deficient in the healthy fats our brain and bodies need.

Now this study is certainly not a call to just eat a diet of grilled meats getting rid of all fruit and vegetables. Obviously fruits and vegetables are an important part of a healthy diet and should actually make up the bulk of our diet. But completely eliminating meat, especially fish, from the diet is a mistake. It is all about balance. We are omnivores designed to eat a varied, balanced diet including healthy fats and balanced proteins from preferably organic meats. And minimal tree bark, it’s natural but not exactly healthy.

Dr Scott Szela

 Nutrition and Health- The Association between Eating Behavior and Various Health Parameters: A Matched Sample Study
PLOS ONE Feb. 2014, Vol 9 Issue 2