Thinking of going vegetarian for better health? Think again.

Home grown news right here in Australia of a study involving well over 200,000 people that looked at the effects on their overall mortality where a vegetarian diet was implemented vs where it wasn’t.

Research published late in 2016 from the University of Sydney and the Australian National University was based on over 260,000 people.  The research looked at the often cited health claims that a vegetarian diet will help with Type 2 Diabetes, hypertension and obesity. While there is evidence that vegetarians tend to have lower mortality rates, most studies aren’t population based and don’t consider factors beyond the diet at all.

This study looked at various forms of vegetarian diet and compared the statistics for all cause mortality. Having a group of 267,000 people to draw from makes this study pretty credible, as small sample results are easily skewed by a few outliers.

It might surprise you to learn that this study found no evidence that a vegetarian diet makes any difference to the mortality rate; Put simply, eating a vegetarian diet will not help you live longer.

So why do people believe the diet is better for you? As stated earlier, it is the case that vegetarians are generally more healthy than the overall population, but it’s not their diet that’s causing this improvement. Vegetarians are generally more health conscious than the general population, so they are less like to smoke, drink less, exercise more; The do all the things that help them live a healthier life.

The lesson here is simple – you don’t have to join up to fad diet cult to be healthy, but you do have to take an interest in your health, and look at all areas of your life to improve your wellness.