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If being a vegetarian is so healthy, why is hypertension & diabetes on the rise in vegetarian Indians?
I'm constantly hearing about how Indians are the perfect models for vegetarianism, how they live so long, are healthy, etc. But do these same proponents realize that diabetes & hypertension have risen significantly over the years in the ovo-lacto-vegetarian Indian population (which is the majority-you'd be hard-pressed to find a vegan Indian-even they know enough to include eggs and milk in their diet).
Their diet, high in legumes, whole cereals, fiber-rich vegetables and low-fat dairy products, is generally regarded by health institutions as "healthy" and good for reducing hypertension. But why, then, is it causing the exact opposite effect?
A couple things that stood out in the article I linked to is that 25% of men in the study had hypertension, while only 12% of the women had it. Furthermore, out of the men in that 25%, 70% led a sedentary lifestyle. Only 8-12% of these hypertensive men were agricultural laborers. This leads me to conclude that a vegetarian diet is not healthy unless you're very active (I highly doubt that exercising for a half hour every other day counts as "active".) Advances in technology and India's increasing mobility (trains, cars & buses) mean that Indians don't have to work as hard to get where they're going, and have equipment and machines to do their jobs instead of having to do it themselves.
http://www.jacn.org/cgi/content/full/23/3/239
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Davie--
While you are correct that Indians' increasingly sedentary lifestyle (aka Western influence) is the reason for most of their health problems, wouldn't that also debunk the myth that eating meat is what is causing health problems in our society? If both the US and India have sedentary lifestyles in common, yet one eats lots of meat and the other is vegetarian, and both populations are growing fatter and having more heart disease (among other ills of modern society), that basically shoots a hole in the argument that 'vegetarianism is healthier than omnivorism'.
It's sedentary living that is killing us, not meat or fats.
8 months ago
Lang Lang
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Part of the reason is not the type of food, but the preparation, variations and balance of the foods eaten.
Preparing vegetables by boiling removes a lot of the vitamins present in those foods, which reduces what the consumer is intaking. Frying foods also increases the trans-fats and the saturated fats. Over salting the foods has a negative effect as well, including fluid retention, hypertension, etc.
Balance is also a large component of healthy eating, such as eating a variety of foods, which contain different types of nutrients, including carbs, proteins, fats, vitamins and minerals. Overloading on any single group can cause significant results, such as the Atkins diet does by eliminating carbs. An overconsumption of various vitamins and minerals will actually reverse the benefits that they provide to the human body. And we all know what a glut of fatty foods will do to us.
It comes down to the fact that diet AND exercise are important for a healthy lifestyle.
8 months ago
Um because of increasing western influences in their diet? Unless you can name some other variable you believe to be causative. You ask not about health, but about a change in health.
There is no one "vegetarian diet".
All this means is that meat is not eaten.
That can mean either binging on pizza and chips,
or eating only organic, raw, fruits and vegetables.
Have you been to India? You know what all those people eat with the legumes and rice?
Ghee.
Clarified butter. They put it on EVERYTHING.
They eat rice and love their sweets too. Plus smoking is very popular and they love to eat sweets with their chai. Seriously, the eat clarified butter the whole time.
Isn't one of the results: "No significant association was found between occupation or activity level and hypertension (p > 0.2) in these subjects."?
wow wow
I've had hypertension for a few years and otherwise have zero early signs of heart disease thanks in part to avoiding animal products. My doctor narrowed it down to genetics, too little exercise, and too much sodium intake. I have control over the two latter factors and the hypertension goes away if I exercise and avoid salt. Salt and sugar are vegetarian (though sugars are not always vegan), so living this lifestyle is not automatically healthy. Health is not just about meat or no meat, but acquiring the proper nutrients, not eating junk food, healthy preparation of food, adequate exercise, genetics, and environmental factors (stress, etc.). Rather than making the research support a particular opinion, each individual should do what works for their body. With the economic climate changing in India, individuals will have to start making healthier choices - but I really doubt being meatless is directly causing their health issues.
Sarah* Sarah*
That is an interesting study about India.
However, we know the real problem is taking too many calories IN and not getting enough OUT. It doesn't matter what you eat. If you eat more than you burn, you're going to gain weight. If you eventually become obese, that is where the heart disease, hypertension, and diabetes come into play.
Also, I want to mention that there are elements of a vegetarian diet that is healthy, and elements of an omnivore diet that is healthy. Humans need a balanced diet. A huge problem in the US is that we eat TOO MUCH meat, and red meat at that. Red meat should be kept to a few times a week. Lean meats like chicken and turkey should be eaten more, and "meat eaters" should be able to EXPERIMENT with protein rich vegetarian meals. If you have a balanced diet, exercise, and just so happen to eat meat, you should be healthy. ( As long as you're not screwed over via genetics ).
I mean, I come on this section and will see some vegetarians/vegans with questions regarding how tired and fatigued they are. Yes, if you are a vegetarian/vegan, and don't watch what you eat, you will find you are deficient in iron, B-12 and some of the fatty acids, like omega-3 and linoleic acid. That being said, people can have any diet they want. Knowledge is power. They can take B-12 supplements, or foods foritified in B-12 and iron. However, iron in plant based foods are not as easily absorbed as iron from animal meat.
Also, this is not to say you can't be a vegan and eat more calories than you burn. Yes, even that will pack on the pounds.
This has been well explained. In the womb, they are typically very malnourished, so their metabolism adjusts, sacrificing muscle development and sending nutrients to the brain and vital organs instead. As they grow up, become more affluent and take on a more "normal" diet, their bodies aren't set up to handle the relatively high calorie load. If you look at the people there with diabetes, they aren't overweight by Western standards, but they have extremely low muscle mass. The muscle would normally burn the sugars, so they end up with sugar-overload (in basic terms).
"Researchers are finding the pattern begins before birth: Underfed mothers produce small, undernourished babies with metabolisms equipped for deprivation and unable to cope with plenty..."
Combine the higher calories with the lower manul labor, and this is what happens.
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Davie Eatson Davie Eatson
You state that most of the people here are inactive, and this is a huge issue. You state that vegetarianism seems to be unhealthy because LATELY Indians have been succumbing to diabetes and hypertension. Keeping in mind that much of India has been vegetarian for thousands of years, it seems that the mere omission of meat is not to blame. After all, if you're trying to claim that vegetarianism is causing diabetes and hypertension (despite the fact that another answerer quoted the study showing there was no statistical significance), then you would believe that in places with high meat consumption, like the United States, diabetes and hypertension are non-existent...which you and I both know to be 100% false.
Because this rise is RECENT and India's vegetarianism is NOT recent, the fault is not due to the lack of meat but the change in diet...like the addition of fast food and also the lack of exercise. You know, all the same stuff we see causing diabetes and hypertension in meat eaters.
In other words, I don't see what you're trying to suggest. I mean, I see what you're TRYING to suggest, but it makes no logical sense.
As a side note, not all Hindu vegetarians eat eggs. They are considered "Rajasic" along with meat, garlic, spicy food, fish, peppers and pickles, believed to promote restlessness of the mind, among other things. The most desired foods are of the "Sattvic" quality, which is entirely vegan (plant foods only). Sattvic foods are believed to "ensure a pure heart, long life, cheerful spirit, strength, health, happiness and delight" and also lead one to "The Truth" (enlightenment).
EDIT: "that basically shoots a hole in the argument that 'vegetarianism is healthier than omnivorism'"
Well, I never argued that ditching meat in and of itself was automatically healthy, so I absolutely agree. Just giving up meat does not a healthier diet make! 
I just posted something on another question about the health issues with meat. It's part of a larger powerpoint presentation I gave about veganism that has zip to do with morality or animal welfare and comes complete with 48 sources...not PETA or meatlessmondays.com but stuff like the American Heart Association, Harvard, the United Nations and the World Health Organization (WHO). I've provided a link to that in the sources section.
Casein, which is a milk protein making up 80% of the protein in milk, has been shown to promote ovarian, prostate and colorectal cancers. Estrogen has as well, and it is also found in milk (before anyone argues soy, keep in mind that the body processes "plant estrogen" differently from mammalian estrogen). High protein diets have been shows to harden the arteries and shrink the brain. The Harvard Nurses Study of Osteoporosis (done over 12 years with over 75,000 women) showed that women who drank the most milk in the study were more prone to osteoporosis. Meat also promotes arterial scarring by producing homocysteine when digested.
This is assuming you hunt/fish or have your own small farm. If you buy your meat from a factory farm like most people do, you're at risk for things like E.Coli. The slaughterhouses process 400 cattle an hour, which means they don't have time to clean them properly. When tested, store-bought meats average 3600 CFU, even after chlorine baths (approved by the FDA, by the way) when the max limit is 133 CFU. That's pretty gross. Speaking of, in order to help kill off the nasty bacteria in things like ground beef, pellets soaked in ammonia are mixed into the beef prior to shipping. Again, this isn't from PETA but reported in the New York Times (you can google it). The reason all this crap goes on is because lobbyists for the meat industry allow the meat industry to police itself...meaning it's illegal for the USDA to come in and routinely test the products. The meat industry is supposed to do this themselves, which doesn't happen. The FDA in 1972 performed about 50,000 safety inspections, which dropped to under 2,200 in 2006.
Hope this better answers your question!
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Powerpoint Presentation: http://www.mediafire.com/?90eani72hro80f%E2%80%A6
Since this was designed to be viewed in bullet points and elaborated on during the presentation, feel free to contact me if you want me to elaborate on any of the bullet points.
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Avocado Avocado
If you do further research into it, dairy consumption is on the rise, as well. The traditional diet of vegetarian Indians used to contain far less dairy and eggs. Dairy and eggs contain cholesterol, a contributing factor to diabetes.
Being vegetarian isn't an automatic health certificate; it just makes it easier to BE healthy if one wanted to. It is certainly possible to get diabetes and hypertension on a vegetarian diet, since you are still consuming animal-based cholesterol. On average, though (and on a global scale), vegetarians tend to have FEWER CASES of diabetes and hypertension, but of course that isn't a universal rule.
Also, and important note to make: most Indians are not vegetarian.
@Deer Hunter: Eating seafood is MUCH different than eating red meat. The type of protein is very different. You also conveniently forgot to mention that vegetarians and vegans around the world, on average, fare better than their omnivore counterparts (even in Japan). Hm...biased much? http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18603818
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clarke clarke
well according to the objective they are looking at lack of certain nutrients causing hypertension.
"With the increasing knowledge about the antioxidant potential of many micronutrients such as zinc and vitamin C, their roles in oxidative stress related health disorders have been postulated. This study therefore investigated low micronutrient status as a predisposing factor for hypertension in a traditionally lacto-vegetarian population like Indians." this doesn't mean that vegetarians can't get these nutrients,but that the one's that they are studying don't.
"even they know enough to include eggs and milk in their diet"
you sound like you have a low opinion of Indians or something, and definitely veg*ns. you can't be objective if you're mad.
8 months ago
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Deer Hunter Deer Hunter
UN statistics on longevity shows Japan, the largest consumption of meat (fish/seafood) per capita is the healthiest society (out of 194) on earth. India on the other hand, with approximately 35-50% of the population being vegan/vegetarian ranks 134th. The US, with its "typical unhealthy diet" ranks 23rd. By the way, also in India, the number one killer in rural areas, where you would find the highest density of plant based diet because of poverty, is cardiovascular disease. Even more ironic, India has one of the highest diabetic cases in Asia. Vegan healthier? No, definitely not.
Well Avocado, I really only know a few vegetarians. All of which are fat and out of shape. Have a nice day.