Diet, Stroke, Heart Disease: Vegetarians Have Greater Risk of Stroke; Meat Eaters Have Greater Risk Of Heart Disease

A study in the British Medical Journal indicates vegetarians and vegans have a lower rate of heart disease than people who eat meat but had a greater chance of stroke.

The study was conducted in the United Kingdom by researchers from the University of Oxford.

"It does seem that the lower risk of coronary heart diseases does exceed the higher risk of stroke, if we look at the absolute numbers," lead researcher Tammy Tong, a nutritional epidemiologist at the Nuffield Department of Population Health at Oxford, told CNN.

Vegetarians had a 20% greater risk of strike than those who ate meat, especially hemorrhagic stroke. Tong speculated low cholesterol levels may play a role, as well as deficiencies in such nutrients as vitamin B12.

For heart disease, those who ate fish had a 13% less chance of developing heart disease compared with meat-eaters while vegetarians and vegans had 22% lower risk.

The researchers noted there are 1.7 million vegans and vegetarians living in the UK and non-meat diets are becoming increasingly popular in part due to the perceived health benefits and concerns about the environment and animal welfare.

“Evidence suggests that vegetarians might have different disease risks compared to non-vegetarians,” the researchers said.

The researchers followed 65,000 men and women recruited across the country between 1993 and 2001. Participants were asked about their consumption of meat, fish, dairy products and eggs, and classified into four groups: those who ate meat, those who ate fish but no meat, those who ate dairy products and eggs but no meat or fish, and those who ate no meat, fish, eggs or dairy products. For purposes of the study, vegetarians and vegans were put into one group.

In addition to diet, participants also were asked about lifestyle, medical history, socioeconomic status, physical activities, alcohol consumption and smoking, Body mass index also was calculated.

Non-meat eaters tended to be younger and had a lower socioeconomic position. They also were more highly educated, tended to consume less alcohol and generally reported lower blood pressure, lower cholesterol and fewer instances of diabetes.

“Overall, the present study has shown that U.K. adults who were fish eaters or vegetarians had lower risks of ischaemic heart disease than meat eaters, but that vegetarians had higher risks of stroke,” the researchers said.

More than 100,000 U.K. residents suffer strokes annually, translating to a stroke every 5 minutes. About 7.4 million U.K. residents suffer from heart disease.