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Vegetarian and vegan diets have become increasingly popular in recent decades, promising to reduce the risk of diseases such as obesity, ischemic heart disease, hypertension and some types of cancer. However, scientists still do not understand how the abstention of animal products affects the body. Today, new research highlights a potential risk of vegetarian and vegan diets: the increased likelihood of stroke.
The study, published last week in the British Medical Journal, examined the risk factors associated with ischemic heart disease and stroke. It also tracked the health status of 48,188 men and women living in Oxford over 18 years of age. Each participant was grouped into three groups: vegetarian (including vegans), meat eater or fish eater. None of the participants had a history of ischemic heart disease, stroke, or angina (or cardiovascular disease), and the researchers took into account other factors. of risk, including physical activity, level of education, smoking and alcohol consumption.
The results showed that vegetarians were about 20% more likely to have had a stroke than meat eaters. However, vegetarians also had a 22% reduced risk of heart disease, an effect that could be attributed to researchers, as they tend to have high blood pressure, body mass index (BMI), cholesterol incidence of lower diabetes.
What explains the higher risk of stroke in vegetarians? The study could not provide an accurate biological explanation, but the researchers cited several studies showing:
"… that individuals consuming very few animal products had an increased incidence and mortality of hemorrhagic and total stroke, as well as a potentially higher risk of ischemic stroke mortality, suggest that some factors associated with the consumption of animal feed could have a protective effect stroke. "
The researchers noted that vegetarians could suffer from a lack of several essential nutrients.
"Vegetarians and vegans in the EPIC-Oxford cohort have lower circulating levels of several nutrients (eg, vitamin B12, vitamin D, essential amino acids, and long-chain n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids), and differences between some of these nutritional factors could: contribute to the associations observed. "
The results do not necessarily suggest that you should change your diet. The most important thing is probably to make sure you eat high quality foods. For meat eaters, a simple way to improve your diet is to avoid processed foods, which, according to a growing body of research, can shorten the life span and cause multiple diseases. In addition, for both vegetarians and meat eaters, the consumption of organic foods seems to be worth the slight increase in cost.
For example, a 2018 study found that people who eat organic foods are 25% less likely to develop certain types of cancer than people who eat "conventional" diets. The New York Times reported:
"Those who ate the most fruits, vegetables, dairy products, meat and other organic foods had a particularly sharp drop in the incidence of lymphoma and a significant reduction in breast cancer among menopausal women. "
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