A study released Wednesday by the British Medical Journal claims that vegetarians could have a higher risk of a stroke than meat eaters.
The study followed more than 48,000 participants in the UK for nearly 18 years. The study placed participants in three groups: Meat eaters, fish eaters and vegetarians.
The study claims that vegetarians were 20 percent more likely to have a stroke than meat eaters, which equaled to be three additional haemorrhagic stroke victims per 1,000 participants.
Before you change your eating habits, you should know that meat eaters were more likely to develop a heart disease than vegetarians. The difference between meat eaters and vegetarians was 10 additional cases of heart disease per 1,000 participants.
According to the British Medical Journal, previous studies on the correlation between a vegetarian diet and strokes only reported stroke mortality. In those studies, there was no significant difference between vegetarians and meat eaters in stroke mortality.
The study did adjust for self reported high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, diabetes, and body mass index, which suggests that part of the associations might be attributed to these factors, it says.
"However, the lower risk in vegetarians and vegans remained marginally significant after adjustment for all of these factors," the study said.
To read the full study, click here .
