Posted on 08/09/2017 5:23:46 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Vegetarians are almost twice as likely to suffer from depression as those who consume a conventional balanced diet, according to a new study.
The new Bristol University study of almost 10,000 from southwestern England found that vegetarians were more likely to develop depression due to vitamin and mineral deficiencies that can negatively impact their mental health.
The 350 committed vegetarians who participated in the study had a higher average depression score when compared to the meat-eaters, according to the study, which was published in the Journal of Affective Disorders.
The vegetarians’ diet tended to feature lower vitamin B12 consumption, as well as greater intake of nuts that contain omega-6 fatty acids, which have been linked with an increased risk of mental health problems.
Slightly more than 50 percent of vegans and 7 percent of vegetarians have a vitamin B12 deficiency, the researchers said. Vitamin B12 can be found in red meat, and plays an important role in affecting an individual’s mood.
“Other potential factors include high blood levels of phytoestrogens – consequent mainly on diets rich in vegetables and soya,” the report says. “Another potential contributing factor is that lower intakes of seafood are thought to be associated with greater risk of depressive symptoms.”
The lack of a balanced diet can influence the development of depression, and the research findings can also be attributed partially to iron deficiencies, the study says. Participants who had been consuming a vegetarian diet for longer periods of time had higher depression scores throughout.
But the researchers did not rule out the possibility that the vegetarians’ decisions to adopt their diet could have been a symptom of depression from the start.
This makes me happy. Because vegetarianism is unnatural and stupid.
My late father got B12 and iron shots when he was in his 70s.
Well you have no reason to worry.
You’ve been a meat eater since your late teens :)
Do the vegetables/lack of meat cause depression, or are already abnormal people attracted to yet another ostensibly “alternative lifestyle?”
B12???
Is that 12 slices of BACON?
Vegetarians are much more likely to be mentally unbalanced, both before and after they go on their dietary crusade.
Nothing lightens the mood like a nice medium rare sirloin
Yep.
My very dear friend, a nurse married to a doc, is a lifelong vegetarian, which has done nothing to lower her high cholesterol and now she’s getting glaucoma. She has a lot of energy and looks great but after reading this I wonder whether her ongoing fury with her husband is a form of depression.... But maybe he really is a jerk.
I tried to be a vegetarian a few times, but cannot walk or talk without meat. So I’d be one of those depressed people — or maybe just somnambulant.
Didn’t I read a story earlier today, about a Doctor, talking about euthanizing the depressed? Where do we sign up these euthanasia candidates that cannot eat meat? Why make them suffer any longer?
I love meat and potatoes
Vegs I have known never get more than minimal sunshine thus lack vitamin D. Vitamin D is the only actually effective medication for depression and works without eliminating all moods and feelings like Xanax et al seem to do. In the winter supplementing with 5 or 10k of Vitamin D3 will be proof against Winter Blues as well as against flue and colds.
Did I need to put a /sarc tag on that? “Oooops. You look tuckered out boy. Rest yourself. You punks look tuckered out too. Don’t go home.... Don’t go to eat... And I am paraphrasing here... Don’t do nothing that wouldn’t look good on my highway.”
Did I need to put a /sarc tag on that? “Oooops. You look tuckered out boy. Rest yourself. You punks look tuckered out too. Don’t go home.... Don’t go to eat... And I am paraphrasing here... Don’t do nothing that wouldn’t look good on my highway.”
I feel for them... As a compassionate human being. They have been mislead and probably do not realize the true reality that for tens of thousands of years men have even been eating other men. Feelings and guilt aside we are designed to eat meat whether we like it or not.
We would be an extinct species if we had not. But no worries, They always figure it out sooner or later when they look in the mirror and realize they have the physical appearance of a POW from Auschwitz and a real doctor tells them why.
Good. Keep it up, vegetarians.
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