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    Vegans are more likely to be depressed, study suggests
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    Vegans are more likely to be depressed, study suggests

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    1. socratic-meth on

      > The UK Biobank research found vegans are at higher risk of anxiety and depression because they drink plant-based milk

      “Because” or “correlates with”?

    3. Zealousideal_Day5001 on

      people who believe the industrialised abuse of animals is condoned by 95% of society “depressed” and “anxious”, study finds

      when it comes to being ‘woke’, ignorance is bliss. Being a progressively-minded person is not the route to happiness. You could look at Gaza with an aching heart, or you could look at it like Julia Hartley-Brewer

      edit: anyway I’m too dumb to be able to tell if the study is being fairly reported on but I don’t think it is: [https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11656347/](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11656347/)

    4. Sharp-Display-5365 on

      Could it be because they often have higher sensitivity or empathy especially towards animal suffering and environmental issues?

      Could heightened awareness make them more prone to the injustices leading to emotional distress?

      Nah let’s shit on almond milk and vitamin deficiency instead

    5. BluePomegranate12 on

      ““Milk is a rich source of nutrients such as lactose, lipids, protein, and minerals, which are essential for maintaining human health,” the scientists from the Southern Medical University wrote in their study.

      They say milk is a rich source of the mineral calcium, which has previously been shown to activate pathways in the body that can increase production of serotonin.“

      Hum, all the nutrients found in milk are easily found in a lot of vegan food, also, most plant based milk is fortified with those nutrients, especially calcium and vitamin D (just like normal milk…).

      And how is lactose essential for maintaining human health? What kind of bogus study is this?

    6. Salty_Nutbag on

      Surprised there’s no mention of vitamin B12, which is a major issue if you’re vegan.

      One of the symptoms of B12 deficiency is depression.

    7. davidpaintstuff on

      Or because they’re more concerned about animal welfare and the environment in general and so are less happy about the state of the world.

    8. gl_fh on

      Other people have touched on the correlation Vs causation issue, so I won’t.

      I would say that being vegan for almost 10 years, there is a sense of social isolation that is pretty much unavoidable.

    10. CagedRoseGarden on

      I’ve just spent 15 minutes trying to find the actual study. The only thing I could find is a study that was released by the University of Surrey to say that vegans and vegetarians who eat processed foods are at higher risk of depression. Or perhaps they eat more processed foods because they are depressed. Either way I couldn’t dig any deeper into it because the study in question is not accessible. Every farming and pro dairy website on the internet though has published this same article today, I wonder why.

    11. NathanDavie on

      I’m not a vegan, but this is another dumb article from people that don’t know what causation is. I’m assuming it’s the Telegraph being dumb, but it could just be dumb scientists.

      The people that care about animal exploitation are probably going to be depressed because of animal exploitation. This is a false dichotomy to rag on vegans.

      Ignorance is bliss is the only takeaway you can get from a study like this.

    12. dupeygoat on

      Jesus. What a headline. What an absolute load of drivel.
      No data on how long people had been vegan.
      It’s also funded heavily by big pharma and Amazon web services who own this medical data (which is from people with serious health problems) and are primed (sorry pardon the pun) to get in on this when the UK eventually goes that way.
      The only purpose this should serve is for a teacher to plonk it down in front of a classroom to prompt the kids to think about correlation rather than causation, and the obvious fact this would not be a primary factor in this matter.
      They give a lazy and basically stupid explanation of serotonin and obsess over the significance of calcium, which plant based milk is fortified with along with loads of other foods.
      You’re drinking a ton of milk if that’s the main source of calcium in your diet.
      The most noteworthy factor from this related to serotonin is the health of the gut, which is key to good production of serotonin and towards which a vegan diet, rich in anti-inflammatory foods, and absent of inflammatory animal product foods would be a beneficial.

    13. Tony_Percy on

      Was this article written by a social sciences correspondent?

      “The most popular group of antidepressant medications promotes the absorption of serotonin.”

      (The most popular group of antidepressant medications are Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs). Which block the reabsorption (reuptake) of serotonin, keeping it active in the synapse longer. Which increases the overall activity of serotonin in the brain.)

    14. spinosaurs70 on

      I tried going vegetarian until giving up to eat fish and seafood and that was hard enough, the notion that you can remove some of the most nutrient rich foods and end up fine without extremely careful dietary planning is absurd.

    15. Ok-Importance-6815 on

      people who really follow and care about politics have worse mental wellbeing, that’s probably the correlation

    16. romulent on

      Maybe related, but I switched to a Keto diet, which has a lot of meat and fat, and seemingly years of depression just evaporated within a week or two.

      I also lost a heck of a lot of weight very quickly whilst eating whenever I felt like it and subjectively my brain felt a lot sharper and less foggy.

    17. MrBiscuits16 on

      Being vegan can make social situations quite difficult, I found it hard starting Uni. Every time I made a meal or mentioned anything I ate, I would be barraded with the same stupid comments or jokes, and people would intentionally make negative comments about plant based foods in my presence. People seemed to just be offended by my personal dietary choices.
      I never tell people about it now, it is definitely socially isolating.

    18. RonnyReddit00 on

      Well when you see how cruel we are to animals on the daily just for the enjoyment of a meal it is quite disheartening (I’m specifically talking about UK meat here, other countries treat animals differently have different needs or whatever).

      Let alone the active hate towards vegans whether stupid memes (how do you know someone is vegan), digs by friends and family or constant advertisements of meat in your face. It can get pretty bleak and make you feel lonely.

      Source – Vegan. 

      Edit: I doubt its the food.

    19. TheNoGnome on

      “Followers of any particular diet are more likely to have concurrent poor health issues they are trying to manage and this will be worrying about more stuff in life than your average eat anything, I’m fine Flexitarian.”

      Continue to your next culture war story.

    20. OkGrapefruit7174 on

      Tbh doesn’t matter what your read from the telegraph about vegans, I don’t even have to open the article to know what they’re saying.

    21. NiescheSorenius on

      So, it just considers who drinks dairy milk and compare them to people who don’t drink it.

      It doesn’t consider any other factor.

    22. Old_Juggernaut_2189 on

      I doubt it is the veganism depressing people, but more that people trying to look after their health, being more in tune with their feelings or more concerned for the world gravitate towards a vegan diet.

    25. fish-and-cushion on

      Good news for people who aren’t vegan and had no intention of being.

      Absolutely irrelevant news for people who are vegan and watch the meat and dairy industry churn out this bollocks every few months.