# Vegetarians more likely to have mental issues vs omnivores but it's not the diet! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 5, 2015, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vegetarians-more-likely-to-have-mental-issues-vs-omnivores-but-its-not-the-diet/739491 "2015-12-05T04:03:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2015, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vegetarians-more-likely-to-have-mental-issues-vs-omnivores-but-its-not-the-diet/739491/1 "2015-12-05T04:03:41Z")
[Re these interesting studies from a few years ago](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3466124/). So a vegetarian diet _is_ safe but being in a vegetarian demographic not so much. > [@](#): > > The present study investigated associations between vegetarian diet and mental disorders. > > Methods > > Participants were drawn from the representative sample of the German Health Interview and Examination Survey and its Mental Health Supplement (GHS-MHS). Completely vegetarian (N = 54) and predominantly vegetarian (N = 190) participants were compared with non-vegetarian participants (N = 3872) and with a non-vegetarian socio-demographically matched subsample (N = 242). > > Results > Vegetarians displayed elevated prevalence rates for depressive disorders, anxiety disorders and somatoform disorders. Due to the matching procedure, the findings cannot be explained by socio-demographic characteristics of vegetarians (e.g. higher rates of females, predominant residency in urban areas, high proportion of singles). The analysis of the respective ages at adoption of a vegetarian diet and onset of a mental disorder showed that the adoption of the vegetarian diet tends to follow the onset of mental disorders. > > Conclusions > > In Western cultures vegetarian diet is associated with an elevated risk of mental disorders. However, there was no evidence for a causal role of vegetarian diet in the etiology of mental disorders. > [@](#): > > Besides differences in nutrition status, vegetarians and non-vegetarians differ in a number of psychological and socio-demographic characteristics that may influence their risk for mental disorders. Vegetarians are predominantly female [17], are more likely to live in urban areas and to be single [18]. All these socio-demographic factors are correlates of the presence of mental disorders [19]. Moreover, vegetarians tend to be more aware of the factors influencing their dietary intake and of the importance of a healthy lifestyle in general. A number of studies have shown that vegetarians tend to be slimmer, drink less alcohol, and exercise more than non-vegetarians [20-23]. In addition, vegetarians tend to define themselves negatively by emphasizing what they do not do; they tend to stress their dissimilarity from others and thereby accentuate their differences from the general society [24]. Moreover, some vegetarians base the choice of their diet more on an ethical motivation [25]. Thus, some psychological and socio-demographic characteristics of vegetarians, such as negative self-definition and dysfunctional eating attitudes, could have detrimental effects on mental health; other characteristics could have beneficial effects, such as a healthy lifestyle and ethical motivation . ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2015, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vegetarians-more-likely-to-have-mental-issues-vs-omnivores-but-its-not-the-diet/739491/2 "2015-12-05T05:15:55Z")
…and they are more likely to stay single and have fewer friends, because nobody except other vegetarians wants to have them over for dinner.