Is being vegan making you depressed?
A meat-free diet is linked to higher levels of depression and anxiety than omnivorous eating, consistent with a recent analysis within the journal Food Science and Nutrition.
That analysis examined twenty studies on meat consumption and mental health and found an association between vegetarianism or veganism and poorer mental health outcomes.
“How many folks have you ever met that are both happy and diet all the time?” Urska Dobersek, a psychologist at the University of Southern Indiana who co-authored the analysis, told Insider. “Probably only a couple of and there is a strong, scientific reason for that restrictive diets make people unhealthy and unhappy within the future .”
Any potential causal link, however, is still debated. Although some studies suggest that nutritional deficiencies associated with vegan diets can be linked to depression, depression and anxiety may precede someone’s decision to go meat-free.
“Meat avoidance could even be both the ‘chicken’ and thus the ‘egg’ when it involves mental illness,” Dobersek said.
Cutting meat from your diet is not likely to improve mental health
The research included within the new analysis spans the years from the year 2001 to mid-2020 and includes nearly 172,000 participants across four continents. Of that group, about 158,000 people ate meat and 13,000 did not.
All but two of the studies relied on questionnaires during which respondents self-reported whether or not they ate meat or not, then answered prompts about whether or not they experienced anxiety and depression.
The analysis concluded that “meat abstention is said to poorer mental state .”
That was true no matter an individual’s sex, though the researchers were not ready to see whether other factors influence the correlation like an individual’s age, the actual types of meat they eat, their socioeconomic status, their history of mental disease, or how long they need to have abstained from meat.
Still, the finding builds on previous research demonstrating similar trends, so Dobersek said she was not surprised. Her team published an analysis last year that suggested abstaining from meat is said to be a better risk of depression, anxiety, and self-harm.
An August analysis from a team in Germany, meanwhile, also found that vegetarians were more depressed than meat-eaters.
“The concept we will become healthier or happier, by eliminating foods and beverages is simplistic, unscientific, and not supported by valid evidence,” Dobersek said.
Does veganism precede depression? Or the other way around?
However, there is no evidence a meat-free diet directly leads the psychological state to say no.
“We cannot say that meat-free diets cause mental disease. What we did find is that the research does not support the thought that eliminating meat can improve psychological state,” Edward Archer, who co-authored the 2020 paper with Dobersek, previously told Insider.
Although several studies have found that vegetarians are more depressed than meat-eaters, other research has shown the other. There is also the question of chronology: Do people stop eating meat first, then develop a better risk of depression? Or do more people that are already depressed chose to become vegan or vegetarian? Very few studies offer answers, though research from the year 2012 suggested that depression may precede a switch to vegetarianism.
Other possible explanations for the link, consistent with Dobersek and Archer, might be that folks try meat-free diets to deal with existing psychological state issues or people with depression could also be more likely to empathize with animals and make nutritional choices supported personal ethics.
“Individuals struggling with the mental state often alter their diets as a sort of self-treatment,” Dobersek said. “And it appears that a lot of individuals choose veganism as an ethical response to the cruelty inherent in ‘nature’ and human societies.”
It is possible, too, that individuals who are depressed or anxious about global climate change are more likely to make dietary choices that lower carbon emissions. Globally, the livestock industry is responsible for about fifteen per cent of annual emissions.
Dorset noted, though, that strict vegan diets can sometimes cause nutrient deficiencies, especially in pregnant women. That, in turn, can increase the danger of physical and mental state. For example, vitamin B-12, folate, and Omega-3 fatty acids are only in animal products, and a deficit of these nutrients is linked to depression, low energy, and poor metabolism.
The debate remains contentious
When Dobersek’s 2020 analysis came out, some who read it thought it demonstrated that meat-eating improves psychological state, but Archer said “that’s patently false.”
Additionally, critics of these same findings acknowledged that Dobersek had received quite $10,000 in grant money from the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association “to conduct a systematic review on ‘Beef for a Happier and Healthier Life.’”
The new analysis, too, was funded partially by a grant through the beef association. The authors noted, however, that the sponsor did not influence the research design, data collection, or study conclusions.
Dorset said she thinks the results could still have implications for the way dietary guidelines are created and communicated.
“With each edition, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans became more restrictive,” she said. (In 2020, as an example, federal recommendations suggested Americans limit their intake of meat, whereas no such recommendation was within the 2005 version.)
“Yet the United States of the American population has become more diabetic, more anxious, and more depressed,” Dobersek continued. “I do not think this is often a coincidence.”
SOURCE
https://www.businessinsider.com/vegans-report-higher-depression-anxiety-than-meat-eaters-2021-10