The good – and bad – news about veggie diets

Vegan and vegetarian diets are linked to a lower risk of heart disease but may increase the risk of stroke, experts say.

A study from Oxford University found people who follow the diets have a 22% lower risk of heart disease than meat eaters, while those who eat fish but no meat have a 13% reduced risk.

However, vegetarians and vegans were a fifth more likely to suffer a stroke, which may be partly due to a lack of vitamins.

The study, published in the British Medical Journal, included data for 48,188 people with no history of heart disease or stroke. Over a follow-up of 18 years, 2,820 cases of ischaemic heart disease and 1,072 cases of stroke were recorded.

The researchers said: “We observed lower rates of ischaemic heart disease in fish eaters and vegetarians than in meat eaters, which appears to be at least partly due to lower body mass index and lower rates of high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol and diabetes associated with these diets.”

The higher rate of stroke was mostly due to haemorrhagic strokes, the type caused by bleeding in or around the brain.

The team said more study was needed, adding: “Vegetarians and vegans (in the study) have lower levels of several nutrients (eg vitamin B12, vitamin D, essential amino acids, and long chain n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids), and differences in some of these could contribute to the observed associations.”

Researchers also suggested that low blood levels of total cholesterol may play a role.