Does being a vegetarian reduce your risk of health problems?

Euronews

14-03-2025

Vegetarian and vegan diets are associated with both health benefits and risks, which is why it's important for people thinking of eating plant-based foods to pay attention to balancing their meals, a group of experts has said in two new reports.
Experts from France's Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (Anses) said there's moderate evidence that suggests vegetarian diets are linked to a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes compared with non-vegetarian diets.
There's also some weaker evidence that vegetarian diets could lead to a reduced risk of heart disease, ovulation disorders, certain cancers, eye problems, and gastrointestinal issues.
Some more tenuous evidence suggests, however, that plant-based diets could lead to a higher risk of bone fractures or congenital urethral malformations – though some experts posit there is not enough information on the possible link.
The two new reports – which include a wide-ranging scientific literature review and dietary recommendations – are the result of five years of work for Anses experts who said that vegetarian diets are becoming more popular in France.
'We know that it's a diet that is increasingly popular [so] Anses first carried out a systematic review of published studies to identify the link between vegetarian diets and health and established dietary benchmarks to enable vegetarians to optimise their nutritional intake,' Perrine Nadaud, deputy head of the French agency's nutritional risk assessment unit, told Euronews Health.
The scientific literature review included 131 studies on vegetarian diets' impact on health, while the dietary recommendations were created with an optimisation tool that considers nutrition, possible food contamination, and eating habits.
For associations based on weaker evidence, Nadaud said the experts were still able to come to a determination, but that 'new studies published in the future could make us adjust this conclusion a bit'.
The review also found that vegetarians had 'less favourable' levels of iron, iodine, vitamins B12 and D, and calcium-phosphate balance compared to non-vegetarians, with vegans also having a 'less favourable nutritional status for vitamin B2'.
Not getting enough of some of these vitamins, for instance, could put someone at a higher risk of bone fractures.
The UK's National Health Service (NHS) says that with 'good planning and an understanding of what makes up a healthy, balanced vegan diet, you can get all the nutrients your body needs'.
But they warn that without proper planning, vegans could miss out on 'essential nutrients'.
An IFOP survey in 2021 found that the vegetarian population in France remained 'marginal' at around 2.2 per cent, but at least 8 per cent of people were attempting to limit how much meat they consumed. It noted that meat is part of the country's culinary culture.
Some of the main reasons those surveyed had for limiting their meat consumption include concern for animals and the impact of eating meat on the environment.
A study published in the journal Nature in 2023 found that eating less meat reduced a person's environmental impact on greenhouse gas emissions, land use, water use, and biodiversity.
As part of its dietary recommendations, the French agency says that vegetarians and vegans should consume fruits, vegetables, legumes such as lentils, starchy carbohydrates or bread, nuts and seeds, brewer's yeast, dairy products, or a fortified vegan equivalent every day.
They noted that vegetarians can have a hard time meeting nutritional needs for certain Omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin D, and for vegans, it can be difficult to meet these needs for vitamin B12 and zinc in men.
'This is why we are developing these dietary guidelines: to help vegetarians improve their diets,' said Nadaud.
Europe saw the highest number of measles cases in more than 25 years in 2024, with more than 120,000 cases reported in the region.
That figure was double the number of cases in 2023, according to a report by the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF.
Measles cases in the European region, which includes parts of Central Asia, have been "generally declining" in Europe since a peak in 1997 with 216,000 cases, WHO and UNICEF said. There was a low of 4,440 cases in 2016.
UNICEF said that about 40 per cent of measles infections in Europe and Central Asia were in children under 5 and that more than half of all people sickened by measles had to be hospitalised.
Measles is among the world's most infectious diseases and is spread by an airborne virus.
Two doses of the measles vaccine are estimated to be 97 per cent effective in preventing the disease, which typically infects the respiratory system and causes symptoms including fever, cough, runny nose, and a rash.
In serious cases, measles can cause pneumonia, encephalitis, dehydration, and blindness.
"Measles is back, and it's a wake-up call," Dr Hans Kluge, WHO's Europe director, said in a statement. "Without high vaccination rates, there is no health security," he added.
Romania had the most measles infections, at more than 30,000, followed by Kazakhstan, which reported 28,147 people with measles.
WHO and UNICEF noted that in both Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro, fewer than 70 per cent and 50 per cent of children in those countries respectively have been vaccinated against measles for at least the past five years.
Scientists estimate that more than 95 per cent of the population needs to be immunised to prevent outbreaks.
"Measles is pretty much completely vaccine-preventable. Two doses of the measles vaccines prevent infection, illness, and thus transmission," said Dr Michael Head, senior research fellow in global health at the University of Southampton in the UK.
"With a high global uptake, the world could eradicate this disease. However, measles is incredibly infectious, more so than for example the COVID-19 variants. With even slight declines in vaccine uptake, outbreaks are inevitable," he added in a statement.
After a drop in immunisation coverage during the coronavirus pandemic, measles cases surged in 2023 and 2024, with vaccination rates in numerous countries still lower than what they were before COVID-19 hit.