Vegetarian and pescatarian diets are linked to lower risk of ischaemic heart disease, study finds

Following a vegetarian (including vegan) or pescatarian diet is linked to a lower risk of developing ischaemic heart disease than eating a diet that includes meat, research has found.

But the prospective cohort study,1 carried out by University of Oxford researchers, also found that vegetarians and vegans had a higher risk of haemorrhagic and total stroke than meat eaters, which could be due to low blood levels of total cholesterol or a low intake of certain vitamins.

The researchers used data from the EPIC-Oxford study to explore the risks of ischaemic heart disease and stroke in meat eaters (participants who consumed meat, regardless of whether they also consumed fish, dairy, or eggs; n=24 428), pescatarians …