Current Events > Meat eaters experience lower levels of depression and anxiety compared to vegans

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://sapienjournal.org/people-who-eat-meat-experience-lower-levels-of-depression-and-anxiety-compared-to-vegans/

A systematic review of research published until June 18th, 2020 suggests that people who consume meat, on average experience lower levels of depression and anxiety.

It is estimated that 5% of Americans, 8% of Canadians, and 4.3% of Germans follow a vegetarian diet. A majority of Euro-Americans cite concerns about the impact of meat consumption and meat farming on the environment and animal welfare as reasons for their vegetarianism. Vegetarians in India, on the other hand, where they constitute 30% of the population, largely cite the ethic of purity or religious beliefs. Vegetarians who are not motivated by ethical, environmental, or purity concerns are instead motivated by the purported health-benefits of vegetarianism.

A recent meta-analysis by Urska Dobersek et al. examined the connection between meat consumption and two psychopathologies depression and anxiety. The connection between vegetarianism and mental health is a controversial issue in health science, with studies reporting both beneficial and detrimental effects of meat abstention. However, vegetarianism and veganism have steadily grown more popular as healthier lifestyles.

Researchers examined 20 papers published from 2001 to 2020, to examine differences in depression and anxiety between meat abstainers and meat consumers. The findings from 17 cross-sectional studies, 2 mixed cross-sectional and longitudinal studies, and 1 randomized controlled trial were used. According to researchers, studies included in the meta-analysis were selected for methodologic rigor (design, sampling and recruitment, specification and analysis of outcome, and interpretation and communication of results) and whittled down from a pool of nearly 7354 potentially relevant studies.

Researchers found a significant association between meat consumption/abstention and the incidence of depression and anxiety, with individuals who consumed meat having lower average depression and anxiety levels than meat abstainers. Crucially, they found that the difference in depression and anxiety levels was greater in high-quality studies compared to low-quality studies.

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Meat is amazing.

Well yeah vegans probably get depressed seeing a hamburger. Meat eaters don't get depressed seeing a salad.

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That explains my happiness as I bite into a delicious cheeseburger.

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I'm going to have to say FALSE.

I love meat in my mouth. It feels so good

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Revnir posted...

Meat eaters don't give a fuck. Generally, people who don't give a fuck have less anxiety than people who try to make the world a better place.

yep.
/topic

I have coworker who is a vegan for health reasons and he fucking hates it lol.

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Its because we know when the human race starves the vegans wont eat us before we eat them

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Revnir posted...

Meat eaters don't give a fuck. Generally, people who don't give a fuck have less anxiety than people who try to make the world a better place.

How do your own farts taste?

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i eat a good amount of meat but i think it's important that i reduce that. I think a lot of people who eat meat enjoy this headline because it eases their guilt for eating a lot of meat.

in reality we should all limit how much of it we're eating

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It's almost like humans evolved as omnivores over hundreds of thousands of years.

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Thanks for cross posting stuff from the reddit front page.

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s0nicfan posted...

It's almost like humans evolved as omnivores over hundreds of thousands of years.

Yeah. It's all well and good to promote fair treatment of animals and all, but our bodies want meat. When we don't eat meat, we're just...missing something. Beyond/Impossible stuff I think is a great substitute, but since I don't actually eat it very often I don't know if it's a good long-term replacement or not.

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s0nicfan posted...

It's almost like humans evolved as omnivores over hundreds of thousands of years.

This is an objectively bad take lmao
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Bio1590 posted...

This is an objectively bad take lmao

Found the vegan.

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ooger posted...

Thanks for cross posting stuff from the reddit front page.

Now we can view the same thing in two places all without creating original content! WEEEEEEEE

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for a board that seems to dislike reddit you guys sure do like their posts

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Bio1590 posted...

This is an objectively bad take lmao

Reality is a bad take?

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ooger posted...

Thanks for cross posting stuff from the reddit front page.

this but unironically because I don't use reddit

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I'd disappear if I didn't eat meat. I already can't put on any weight while eating it every day a long with a bunch of fruits and vegetables. Any day I don't eat meat, my body immediately feels like it's eating off itself and there's no fat to go after. And I can't afford to just swap it out with way more expensive food. If vegans really wanted to change the world, they'd make it more affordable to eat the stuff that tastes better. But they also put money first.

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"Researchers, however, caution against imputing causal relationships between meat consumption/abstention and depression or anxiety"

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its cuz meat eaters bully vegans

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Revnir posted...

Meat eaters don't give a fuck. Generally, people who don't give a fuck have less anxiety than people who try to make the world a better place.

If you think vegetarianism is any better for the planet I don't know what to tell you

Damn I must not be eating enough meat

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unnamedsoldier posted...

If you think vegetarianism is any better for the planet I don't know what to tell you

it is though? Im not a vegetarian but my understanding is that cutting down meat consumption is one of the new meaningful ways an individual can have an impact.

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Woozul posted...

*throws article out*

See the key to a good literature review is to only include articles that confirm ur assumptions

Im just posting it for full context. Relax.

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Woozul posted...

I know peoples goal here is to make me look bad, but i was posting that for the carnivores itt who only are here to bash people who dont eat meat

I see. I dont do that - like I said Im not a vegetarian but I did cut my meat consumption in half for health and environmental reasons.

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Almost like having a well-balanced diet makes you healthier and happier.

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As a meat eater, I wish this was true. Or if it is true, I guess I'm a depressed meat eater.

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Rharyx211 posted...

Almost like having a well-balanced diet makes you healthier and happier.

no. meat is not needed in 21st century. there are vitamin pills and protein powders these days

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This is why we need bug protein.

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Stalolin posted...

it is though? Im not a vegetarian but my understanding is that cutting down meat consumption is one of the new meaningful ways an individual can have an impact.

It's a lot more complicated than most people understand. The article below goes into way more detail, but the tl;dr is quite a few studies find that the opposite is true. It all comes down to what assumptions you make, such as how they might oversimplify diets, assume "meat" is specifically beef, don't consider processed foods in existing diets, or don't consider food waste in the calculations.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/12/18/being-a-vegetarian-might-make-you-feel-environmentally-superior-why-that-may-be-wrong/

A paper from Carnegie Mellon University researchers published this week finds that the diets recommended by the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which include more fruits and vegetables and less meat, exacts a greater environmental toll than the typical American diet. Shifting to the diets recommended by Dietary Guidelines for American would increase energy use by 38 percent, water use by ten percent and greenhouse gas emissions by six percent, according to the paper.

Some of the environmental impacts of individual foods are quite strikingly opposite what you might guess: On a per calorie basis, producing lettuce creates nearly as much greenhouse gas emissions as does beef, according to the CMU research; in fact, lettuce generates roughly three times what pork does. Fresh fish, too, is associated with surprisingly high levels of greenhouse gas emissions.

Including food waste tends to raise the environmental costs of fruits and vegetables because more of them tend to be wasted: According to Fischbeck and colleague Michelle Tom, while about 40 percent or more of fruit goes to waste, only about 33 percent of meat does.

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Interesting if true!

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Guide posted...

This is why we need bug protein.

Crickets are tasty tbh. Never tried other bugs.

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Among the other issues mentioned (including warning readers not to assume causation here, which of course the carnists are doing), seems pretty weird that they lump anyone and everyone who doesn't eat meat into the same category, be they vegetarians, vegans, or otherwise plant-based people.

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BloodMoon7 posted...

Crickets are tasty tbh. Never tried other bugs.

they are, no one respects that

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Woozul posted...

Only when they arent SJW posts or whatever

I mean, thats part of the thing with veganism - its not accessible or realistic for many people. As a society, we can generally cut back our use of animal products, but basically saying screw you, youre evil to people who have to take what they can get is fucking classist.

Super offensive to people who grew up or currently live in poverty, often being in a food desert as well (so sometimes even cheap proteins may not be buyable at the gas station and you cant afford to hop from bus to bus regularly to get actual groceries).

Turning a blind eye to reality to make yourself feel better than people who can barely feed themselves is fucking disgusting, and Im of the opinion that we NEED to reduce consumption of animal products by a substantial amount.

Large parts of the world are incidentally vegan or vegetarian precisely because they live in poverty. This assumption carnists like to make that everyone who avoids meat is rich and privileged is not only a ridiculous deflection but factually false. You don't need to buy expensive fake meat to go vegetarian/vegan. Also, most vegans are aware of the fact that yes, indeed some people do not have the opportunities to even buy produce and other cheap ingredients for whatever reason, so this straw-vegan you people love to create in your heads isn't even real in most cases.

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Revnir posted...

Meat eaters don't give a fuck. Generally, people who don't give a fuck have less anxiety than people who try to make the world a better place.

Also, yeah, this. I'm not a depressive or anxious person by any means, but I wouldn't be surprised if there are (well, obviously) other factors in play here, like this.

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Woozul posted...

Shocked it took 40+ posts tbh

I like how this is all you can post instead of actually grappling with anything I said.

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s0nicfan posted...

It's a lot more complicated than most people understand. The article below goes into way more detail, but the tl;dr is quite a few studies find that the opposite is true. It all comes down to what assumptions you make, such as how they might oversimplify diets, assume "meat" is specifically beef, don't consider processed foods in existing diets, or don't consider food waste in the calculations.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/12/18/being-a-vegetarian-might-make-you-feel-environmentally-superior-why-that-may-be-wrong/

The important thing is knowing the sources that sustain your flex diet. Of course, that requires some actual work.

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