Are vegetarians more likely to suffer depression than meat eaters ?

A new study coming out of the University of Alabama is stating that vegetarians and vegans are more likely to suffer from depression then meat eaters. The other inference is that vegetarians have in the past had an episode of anxiety and depression in their lifetime. 

It may seem an odd piece of research to conduct but there has been anecdotal evidence in the past from studies into the mental and well-being aspects of people on various diets. Obviously there is a danger such research falls into the line of false news but there is this underlying concern that vegetarians are generally less happy their meat-eating counterparts.

Looking at recent data in this study, meat-eaters do not appear to have taken prescription drugs for as often for depression and other types of mental illness as those who were on a plant-based diet. In fact, when the researchers compared meat-eaters with plant only-eaters, the latter were twice as likely to have taken prescription drugs for depression and have contemplated suicide nearly three times as often.

The research does not support meat eating  and neither does their study support the idea of voiding consumption to improve overall psychological health benefit. The lead author is quoted as saying:-

‘While the risks and benefits of vegan and vegetarian diets have been debated for centuries, our results show that meat eaters have better psychological health.’

He further suggests that vegans and vegetarians or indeed anyone making a change to their dietary lifestyle should consider their mental health when doing so.

Is Diet Associated with Depression – The Research

The scientists examined 18 studies which involved 160,257 people. They assessed the association between meat eating and mental health and well-being.

One aspect was this suggestion that resorting to a vegetarian or vegan diet was a ‘behavioural marker’. This means that those individuals resorting to such a diet were already experiencing poor mental health.

A great deal of time and effort was spent checking the quality of the data and assessing the limitations which they acknowledge are there. However, bias aside, the study reflects on future directions for study such as ‘if meat consumption per se has psychological benefits’. They point out that a number of vegans and vegetarians return to meat eating over time. There is evidence that former vegans/vegetarians now outnumber current meat abstainers (Faunalytics, 2016). 

The research makes no suggestion about cause and effect because of the quality of the data. What they cautiously say is the study ‘does not support avoiding mean consumption for overall psychological health benefits’.

The study will no doubt stimulate great debate amongst vegetarians and vegans who are disturbed by the idea that eating animals is somehow beneficial. Reading the comments from various newspapers has already sparked a range of views.

The study, entitled ‘Meat and Mental Health: A systematic review of meat abstention and depression, anxiety and related phenomena’, is published in the journal Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition ( Dobersek et al., 2020 – Article).

The study was funded by an unrestricted research grant from Beef Checkoff via the the National Cattleman’s Beef Association in the USA. The sponsor has had no role in the study, including data collection, analysis, interpretation or any writing of the report.

References

Faunalytics. (2016) A summary of Faunalytics’ study of current and former vegetarians and vegans. Faunalytics. https://faunalytics.org/a-summary-of-faunalytics-study-of-current-and-former-vegetarians-and-vegans/.