Maybe related: depression related to low fat diets, and thus low amounts of cholesterol in the brain. https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2021/02/19/ho...
Meat and mental health: Meat eaters suffer less depression, anxiety
61–70 of 231 posts
Re: Meat and mental health: Meat eaters suffer less depression, anxiety
#62I'd say the first big thing to highlight is that correlation is not causation - you wouldn't want someone to take this study as proof that eating meat makes you less depressed. I would imagine that vegans (in particular vegans who chose their diet on ethical grounds) are overall more concerned about the state of the world around them - or are at least subjected to more of an echo-chamber effect from their peers - whi…
I would reverse the causation. People become vegans because they are highly empathetic and emotionally driven - this personality type also is more susceptible to anxiety and depression
Not necessarily. I was a localvore before I went vegetarian, and the place where I got my chickens, pork, lamb and beef was ~10 miles from my house. (I live in a hipster city.) I did this because I liked meeting my animals and watching them be butchered. (Industrial meat production is wildly, horrifically cruel by comparison.)
Now I'm vegetarian because meat is just too effing expensive when purchased ethically. I can't justify $40 steaks and $20/lb chicken, and to be honest, steak just really isn't that tasty... and bacon is awful for you. I'm also tired of chicken for the most part. Now that I've found soy curls I make way more fake-meat dishes than ever before.
I'm not vegan because trying to get protein from vegan sources is too difficult. I still eat fish and eggs (but not milk, cuz cow milk is nasty) and I'll never give up cheese even though milk is taken from baby cows/sheep waaay to soon (they are switched to milk substitutes).
But I get it, I like to cook, and if you don't like to cook, nothing is easier than throwing a steak on a grill.
Re: Meat and mental health: Meat eaters suffer less depression, anxiety
#63Makes me concerned about the pressure to abstain from eating meat that I've been seeing recently. I wonder if, as a species, the trend away from meat eating will be to our collective detriment.
> trend away from meat
Don’t let your American (or Western European) viewpoint distort the overall world trend of increasing meat consumption. As more Chinese enter the middle class, their meat consumption rises drastically. It’s up 33% in the last 7 years.
* https://www.reuters.com/article/sponsored/china-appetite-sti...
Re: Meat and mental health: Meat eaters suffer less depression, anxiety
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think you're wrong. Ignorance is bliss, sometimes. If everyone had to meet the meat before their meals, we'd be able to bring consumption right down. (And by that I'd include the whole impact of cow breeding on the environment etc, right down to the execution.)
So you think hunters and people tend livestock eat less meat?
I think there would be some initial shock if we had to pull the trigger on the food we eat but eventually it would just be normal and those who enjoy meat would and those who don’t won’t. I would bet no one was squeamish at a food market several hundred years ago.
Re: Meat and mental health: Meat eaters suffer less depression, anxiety
#65Makes me concerned about the pressure to abstain from eating meat that I've been seeing recently. I wonder if, as a species, the trend away from meat eating will be to our collective detriment.
Not eating meat is one of the major things a person can do to reduce their carbon footprint, so I would imagine more people giving up meat would be very helpful collectively.
BS - the steak you didn’t eat yesterday doesn’t resurrect the cow, it just gets eaten by someone else.
Re: Meat and mental health: Meat eaters suffer less depression, anxiety
#66Disclosure: "This study was funded in part via an unrestricted research grant from the Beef Checkoff, through the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association."
Who else is going to find a study that might show meat is good?
Re: Meat and mental health: Meat eaters suffer less depression, anxiety
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
Many (most?) meat eaters are deficient in nutrients their body needs. The USDA found that only about 3% of people get their daily recommended amount of fiber. Eating meat doesn’t mean you get what your body needs
what diseases are linked to lack of fiber? you have a generous definition of "need". edit: I'm not disputing the benefits of fiber for the average person, but the implied necessity of fiber is just false. Fact: A zero fiber diet is not guaranteed cause disease, whereas essential nutrient deficiencies will cause disease.
A bottle of Metamucil, a psyllium husk fiber supplement, indicates on it that helps with "heart health by lowering cholesterol" and "healthy blood sugar levels". I'm sure you can find studies that both support and deny these claims, but I understand the general consensus to be that these claims are supported by science.
Heart disease is #1 killer of Americans, diabetes is #7 according to CDC [1].
[1] https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/leading-causes-of-death.htm
Re: Meat and mental health: Meat eaters suffer less depression, anxiety
#68I'd say the first big thing to highlight is that correlation is not causation - you wouldn't want someone to take this study as proof that eating meat makes you less depressed. I would imagine that vegans (in particular vegans who chose their diet on ethical grounds) are overall more concerned about the state of the world around them - or are at least subjected to more of an echo-chamber effect from their peers - whi…
I wonder if more bioavailable B vitamins from a meat-heavy diet has anything to do with it. Vegetarian diets, as I understand the common saying, need to actively contain or be supplemented with B vitamin sources. If you're veg but live on nutrient-poor junk food, I could see nutritional deficiencies entering the mix. I think it's relatively uncontroversial that malnutrition has mental health side effects.
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Re: Meat and mental health: Meat eaters suffer less depression, anxiety
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is easy to lack some vitamins or nutrients while going on a vegan diet. Some of them have an impact on mental health. Unless you are very comited into calculating your intake in every mineral and vitamin, I would recommend to take some supplements if you are going vegan (which is something I support but did not totally go through yet)
Many (most?) meat eaters are deficient in nutrients their body needs. The USDA found that only about 3% of people get their daily recommended amount of fiber. Eating meat doesn’t mean you get what your body needs
Fiber is a funny choice because it's good for digestive health, but by definition, is food content you body has no interest in.
Re: Meat and mental health: Meat eaters suffer less depression, anxiety
#70[deleted]