Vegetarians have 'poorer quality of life' study claims

Conclusion Despite the media headlines, the results from this Austrian cross sectional survey provide no proof that vegetarians are in poorer health than meat eaters. The study has simply compared a group of people with a “vegetarian” diet with three different groups of people following “carnivorous” diets on a range of different health and lifestyle measures to see if any differences are observed. The study has numerous limitations: The cross sectional study cannot prove cause and effect and that the dietary pattern is responsible for any of these self-reported differences. In fact it is possible the associations seen could be due to ‘reverse causality’: people with existing health problems might have switched to a vegetarian diet that may be perceived to be more healthy. Very general categories of “vegetarian” and three “carnivorous” groups were used. As the person’s dietary pattern was self-reported, and the categories were not defined, people grouped into these categories could in reality have had widely different dietary intake patterns, and some people could be incorrectly categorised.  Very general categories of diseases were used. The researchers questioned the presence of 18 specific diseases, but these do not appear to have been medically verified and seem to have just been classed as being “present” or “absent” without having any idea of what this means (for example whether the person actually met diagnostic criteria ...
Source: NHS News Feed - Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Food/diet Lifestyle/exercise Mental health Source Type: news