Posted on 09/05/2019 10:37:41 AM PDT by Red Badger
People who eat vegan and vegetarian diets have a lower risk of heart disease and a higher risk of stroke, a major study suggests.
They had 10 fewer cases of heart disease and three more strokes per 1,000 people compared with the meat-eaters.
The research, published in the British Medical Journal, looked at 48,000 people for up to 18 years.
However, it cannot prove whether the effect is down to their diet or some other aspect of their lifestyle.
Diet experts said, whatever people's dietary choice, eating a wide range of foods was best for their health. What does this study add?
It analyses data from the EPIC-Oxford study, a major long-term research project looking at diet and health.
Half of participants, recruited between 1993 and 2001, were meat-eaters, just over 16,000 vegetarian or vegan, with 7,500 who described themselves as pescatarian (fish-eating).
They were asked about their diets, when they joined the study and again in 2010. Medical history, smoking and physical activity were taken into account,
Altogether, there were 2,820 cases of coronary heart disease (CHD) and 1,072 cases of stroke - including 300 haemorrhagic strokes, which happen when a weakened blood vessel bursts and bleeds into the brain.
The pescatarians were found to have a 13% lower risk of CHD than the meat-eaters, while the vegetarians and vegans had a 22% lower risk.
But those on plant-based diets had a 20% higher risk of stroke. The researchers suggested this could be linked to low vitamin B12 levels but said more studies were needed to investigate the connection.
It is also possible that the association may have nothing to do with people's diets and may just reflect other differences in the lives of people who do not eat meat.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
They have a high risk of a lot ou f things due to the bioavailability problems with plants. Not to mention, epigenetic change potential related to carb processing.
My solution: steak and bacon.
Everyone on the planet could go vegan. But there will be one stubborn little group who won’t. And the veganocracy will go after them. I wonder if anyone can guess who the stubborn little group will be?
FReepers!
Lol. Good one. But I had another group in mind.
***
Good point.
There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding.
The mechanisms that produce them can be very different - clotting or plaque for ischemic, blood vessel weakening or high blood pressure for hemorrhagic. Clot-dissolving/blood thinning treatment for ischemic stroke is contra-indicated for hemorrhagic stroke.
They report the breakout across the total population of the study, but not for the vegetarians.
About a third of the strokes, across everyone in the study, were hemorrhagic, but even that might be skewed from the population at large, if the large sample of vegetarians (1/3 of participants, vs. ~5% of the general population) were very different from the meat eaters.
I told my wife that if I live to the age of 80, I am going to set an alarm clock. When the alarm goes off, I will go out and dig a ditch for 30 minutes, then smoke a cigar and drink whiskey. When drinking the whiskey, I am going to close my eyes and reset the alarm clock.
Oddly enough the only vegan I’ve ever known was a plump guy. Not obese, just plump.
Veganism will never be my cup of tea, but it is not the same as an eating disorder.
More like a mental disorder.
The terms, Vegan and Vegetarian, are far too generic.
I am an holistic nutritionist (not a registered dietician, which is required to follow allopathic medical protocol) with about thirty years of direct experience with most dietary approaches.
It is no more meaningful than lumping all carnivorous diets together as “meat eaters.”
It is possible, although difficult, to eat healthily long term as a vegan. Many do not do so, preferring convenience.
It is equally possible to eat healthily as predominantly (but not exclusively) a meat eater; it is also possible to eat very unhealthily.
“”So you do everything right and you live five years longer. Well guess what? Those are the bad years of your life.”
Thing is those last 5 bad years are probably going to be there regardless of when you die... unless you die in an accident.
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