Vegetarians appear to have lower low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels, lower blood pressure and lower rates of hypertension and type 2 diabetes than meat eaters. Vegetarians also tend to have a lower body mass index, lower overall cancer rates and lower risk of chronic disease.
Reasons for following a vegetarian diet are varied but include health benefits, such as reducing your risk of heart disease, diabetes and some cancers.
And people who don't eat meat, called vegetarians, generally eat fewer calories and less fat. They also tend to weigh less. And they have a lower risk of heart disease than nonvegetarians do. Research shows that people who eat red meat are at a higher risk of death from heart disease, stroke or diabetes.
Con: You may have possible nutrient deficiencies.
Some essential nutrients, such as vitamins B12 and D, calcium and iron, aren't available in many plant-based foods. Vegetarian diets may provide these nutrients as long as food intake is planned properly, but supplementation is sometimes necessary.
Studies do show that vegetarians on average have lower body mass than non-vegetarians, but vegetarianism does not confer protection from stroke and diabetes and provides only minimal protection against heart disease. Some people do gain weight—lots of weight—on a vegetarian diet and many vegetarians are far too thin.
Many doctors, dieticians, and other health professionals advocate for a plant-based diet. In part, this is because of the health risks associated with animal products. There is an increasing body of evidence that links meat consumption—particularly that of red and processed meats—with chronic illness.
Vegetarian and vegan diets can be healthy, but they can lack certain nutrients. You may have to use a little creativity to ensure you get enough protein, calcium, iron, and vitamin B12. You can find many of these nutrients in eggs and dairy if you're vegetarian, and from plant sources if you're vegan.
Named one of the healthiest diets in the world, the Mediterranean diet is abundant in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes and olive oil. It features fish and poultry—lean protein sources—over red meat. Red wine is consumed regularly but in moderate amounts.
One of PETA's (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) main agendas is to encourage people to become vegan, or at the very least, vegetarian. The organization exposes the cruel, inhumane practices of the meat industry through video footage, informational pamphlets, and campaigns.
Vegetarians tend to be slimmer and less extroverted than meat eaters, study finds. Summary: The less animal products someone consumes, the lower his body mass index on average and the less he tends to be extroverted.
Due to insufficient time spent on the subject of nutrition, many doctors believe that you cannot get enough protein on a plant-based diet, and that you are at risk of becoming iron and calcium deficient.
So they expected to find the vegetarians would have higher incidences of issues like depression, anxiety, and mood problems. Instead, they found the opposite result. Vegetarians scored lower on depression tests and had better mood profiles than their fish- and meat-eating peers.
Being vegetarian didn't appear to influence the risk of stroke, the study found. But people who followed the healthiest plant-based diets were up to 10 percent less likely to have a stroke, and people who had the least healthy plant-based diets were up to 5 percent more likely to have a stroke.
Reducing animal product intake and following a primarily plant-based diet can decrease your risk of heart disease by minimizing the adverse effects of a gut-microbiome associated with increased risk of coronary heart disease, according to research published today in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
People who follow a vegan lifestyle — strict vegetarians who try to eat no meat or animal products of any kind — may increase their risk of developing blood clots and atherosclerosis or “hardening of the arteries,” which are conditions that can lead to heart attacks and stroke.
According to a new study, vegetarians have around twice as many depressive episodes as meat-eaters. The study, published in the Journal of Affective Disorders, is based on survey data from Brazil. It chimes with previous research that found higher rates of depression among those who do not eat meat.
Springmann's computer model study showed that, should everyone go vegetarian by 2050, we would see a global mortality reduction of 6-10%, thanks to a lessening of coronary heart disease, diabetes, stroke and some cancers.
Would they overrun the planet? Billions of farm animals would no longer be destined for our dinner plates and if we couldn't return them to the wild, they might be slaughtered, abandoned, or taken care of in sanctuaries. Or, more realistically, farmers might slow down breeding as demand for meat falls.
Of all the risk factors, hypertension is likely the most significant. In the INTERSTROKE study, the population-attributable risk of hypertension was 46% for all strokes (multiple studies have found that vegans and vegetarians have lower blood pressure than their meat-eating counterparts).
A number of motivations were identified by a majority of current vegetarians/vegans: health (69%), animal protection (68%), concern for the environment (59%), feelings of disgust about meat/animal products (63%), and taste preferences (52%).
While there are a variety of health benefits associated with following a vegan diet, eating a vegan diet won't make you age faster or slower in and of itself.
Simply, vegan face is a name for a slack, wasted look that is caused by an absence of protein in your diet. The skin is dry, sallow and flaky. Protein literally props up the face: it makes it look plump (in a good way) and fresh-faced and wakeful.
Animal products contain much more fat than plant-based foods. Because vegetarian diets are the only diets that work for long-term weight loss, it's no surprise that population studies show that meat-eaters have three times the obesity rate of vegetarians and nine times the obesity rate of vegans.
India is thought to have the most vegetarians globally, with up to 42% of the population avoiding meat products.
India is the leading country when it comes to the share of vegetarians amongst its population. Almost a quarter of respondents from Indian were following a vegetarian diet according to a survey carried out in 2021.