‘Segregated diet’ makes vegans more introverted than meat eaters

VEGETARIANS and vegans are more introverted than meat eaters, scientists have found, and suggest it could be because their diets cause “segregation”.

A study revealed that being vegetarian or vegan is related to personality and the scientists, who studied the diets of more than 9,000 people and reported their findings in the journal Nutrients, hypothesised that the results could be due to those who don’t eat animal products being more “socially segregated” than those who do.

The research determined the subjects’ diets by means of questionnaires in which they were asked how often they had eaten individual animal products in the last 12 months – from “several times a day” to “never”.

Personality traits such as extroversion and neuroticism were assessed by means of a so-called personality inventory.

Study lead Dr Veronica Witte of the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive

and Brain Sciences in Germany, said: “It is difficult to say what the reason for this is. It could be because more introverted people tend to have more restrictive eating habits or because they are more socially segregated because of their eating habits.”

However, the study could not confirm that a plant-based diet is associated with a tendency towards neurotic behaviour or depression, as other studies suggested.

“Earlier analyses had found that more neurotic people were generally more likely to avoid certain groups of foods... We focused here solely on the avoidance of animal products and could not observe any correlation,” Dr Witte said.

The study also found that the smaller proportion of meat in a person’s diet, the lower their body mass index on average and thus their body weight.

Co-author Evelen Medawar, said: “Foods excessively rich in fat and sugar are particularly fattening... If you avoid animal foods, you consume fewer such products on average.”