In the lifestyle article, entitled “Vegetarians may have difficulty maintaining balanced diet,” the reporter cites a Feb. 2014 Austrian study associating eating practices with a variety of health parameters. The findings were alarming: vegetarians had more health problems (allergies, cancers) and poorer quality of life than three groups of carnivores.

Unfortunately, the study actually offers up few useful results to chew on. I’ll just mention four significant methodological problems. First, the vegetarians (different types of vegetarians were lumped together) were not asked how long they had subscribed to the diet. The health benefits of a meatless diet accrues only over time. Second, given it was a cross sectional study, and the temporal sequence of events was not asked. Consequently one cannot make causal claims (as the authors of the article acknowledged). In fact, it is likely that at least some of the vegetarians were motivated or instructed to live that lifestyle as a consequence of their health problem (i.e., allergies or cancer). Third, there was a marginal (though statistically significant effect) on the quality of life variables. Whether that difference translated into a real difference in people’s lives is dubious.

This year at least two stronger studies on the topic have been published. In contrast, they find health benefits of a vegetarian lifestyle, as well as dramatically lower contributions to greenhouse gas emissions (e.g., Scarborough et al., 2014; Soret et al., 2014).

In sum, the original study cited was provocative but, little more than junk science. Vegetarians, such as myself, try to avoid junk—whether it be food or science.

Dr. George Holden

Dept. of Psychology