Most studies that are ever done regarding whether or not vegetarians are healthier than meat eaters all come back in favour supporting vegetarianism as a healthier way of life, with less risk of illness and disease. However most of these studies done are ‘observational’, meaning the researchers just look at trends and what ‘tends to happen’ with a group of people with similar habits but there are far too many confounding variables with studies like that. For example if ice cream sales increase and at the same time the murder rate increases, it’s not to say that ice cream causes someone to go round killing people. Bottom line, correlation does not mean causation.
So why do all these studies come back in favour of vegetarians? If we step back and apply some common sense, vegetarians on the whole tend to be more ‘health seeking individuals’. These people tend to drink less alcohol, smoke less, eat less fast food, they tend to exercise more, drink more water, obviously have a much higher vegetable intake and so on. So when we look at the meat eaters, who in all of these studies tend to smoke more, drink more alcohol, eat more trans fats, eat more fast food, eat less vegetables, exercise less etc how can they possible just point the finger of blame at meat? The people doing the studies attribute coronary heart disease, higher BMI, higher cholesterol, higher body fat, poor antioxidant profile and say it’s the meats fault, regardless of the fact these people were doing all of the other none health seeking behaviours in the world. I think you’ll agree these studies are not done very well.
However, a study done by Key et al. (1996) took 2 groups of people who were ALL health seeking, half of which ate meat and the other half full vegetarians, and found that there way NO significant difference in health markers between the 2 groups. There was also NO difference in the relative risk ratios of getting pretty much all diseases. So in my opinion, it’s just a matter of preference, there are obvious disadvantages of the vegetarian diet when it comes to muscle building and muscle preservation during a period of losing body fat because they aren’t getting as many (if any) quality sources of complete protein. However if we are just talking about general diet with regards to health, there are no health benefits to being vegetarian when compared to equally health seeking individuals that also eat meat. My advice is go with a diet that suits you, that you prefer, that you believe in and one that you can actually adhere to long term because if eating meat gives you a feeling that you’re violating your ethics and morals, perhaps due to an animal rights point of view which I totally understand, then maybe a vegetarian diet is the way to go for you.
What I would say is that for people who are choosing to go down the vegetarian route and are also in the pursuit of developing their physique, it is essential for you to supplement your diet with Branched Chain Amino Acids, Essential Amino Acids and Creatine. These supplements will help you are preserve muscle mass when in a calories deficit and are best taken pre and post workout with the dose being dependant on the individual. There are also a lot of vitamins and minerals that are very high in meats and not other areas so would also recommend the use of a potent multivitamin just to be safe.
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