And so does alcohol!
However, I think the person who wrote this article http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/HealthSci/Eating_veggies_shrinks_the_brain/articleshow/3480629.cms is an alcoholic vegetarian.
(and what the hell, the VB code for a link has change? Or am I doing something wrong?_
That article didn’t seem very well-written to me, so I’m already suspect. And, it said beer drinkers were better off than wine drinkers, but they had smaller hippocampuses (hippocampi?). I thought this shrinkage was a bad thing? So confused.
It’s a completely unnatural diet. Humans are supposed to eat meat. What other animal denies itself its natural diet? Of course it’s going to cause brain damage. I eat lots of meat. I especially like it blood rare. My brain is humongous.
Like most science reporting, I suspect it’s being played up in a way which grabs attention but distorts the facts. The link is not actually with vegetarianism as such, but with B12 deficiency. As the the lead researcher says (in another article), “Simply adjusting our diets to consume more vitamin B12 through eating meat, fish, fortified cereals or milk may be something we can easily do to prevent brain shrinkage and so perhaps save our memory”. You’ll note that vegetarians have no problems with dairy. Vegans have more difficulty with this (a vegan diet really is much more unnatural), but any vegan worth his salt already realizes B12 deficiency is a potential problem and should be taking steps to compensate; I believe it’s generally the first warning/piece of advice given to any new vegan.
I’m a vegetarian. I like my meat rare-to-never. I don’t exactly know how my brain compares to others, but I’ve had no complaints.
Looking at the actual press release from Oxford (the university which carried out the research), no mention is made of vegetarianism at all. All that is discussed is B12 deficiency.
And here I thought my brain shrinkage was due to working with some of the dumbest individuals on the face of the planet…
I didn’t know we had a member of the white house staff at the SDMB…
I’m going to eat twice as much meat now.
At least this vegetarian (who knows about the importance of B-12!) can figure out when a topic has already been posted.
Might as well link to the old Straight Dope column on this.
As far as the B12 deficiency goes, it makes me glad I’ve been practically mainlining cheese ever since I became a vegetarian. Brain strong, chest kinda hurts. 
That might be the prions.
Sailboat
My research may be out of date, but I thought having a smaller brain was a good thing* because a brain with more connections and wrinkles is going to be smaller.
*Obviously this is only true to a certain point.
Big brain, or little brain?
Yeah, very confusing article. Possibly written by someone who disagreed and yet had to write the story anyway?
Since this thread has popped back up, I’m going to merge it with the one that was started today on the same topic.
::Messes with space-time continuum::
Might just be a lower standard at the Times of India. I have a friend who lived and worked in India for a few years, and I seem to recall that she never thought much of that paper.
What is brain?
Oh no! The Givers of Pleasure and Pain have arrived! (But why is one of them named “Ludovic”?)