Vegans report less stress and anxiety than omnivores

Beezhold, Bonnie; Radnitz, Cynthia L.; Rinne, Amy; Dimatteo, J

doi:10.1179/1476830514y.0000000164

Cited by 110 publications

(91 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…The finding that fish intake is protective against depression and that low serum vitamin B12 levels increase risk is interesting in light of the findings by Beezhold et al 37,38 that following a vegetarian diet is associated with healthy mood states given the lack of fish consumption by those adhering to this dietary pattern and that vegetarian vitamin B12 levels are lower than that of omnivores. 39 In one study by this group, the intake of both the omega-6 essential fatty acid linoleic acid and the omega-3 essential fatty acid alpha-linolenic acid was associated with better mood.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Evaluation of the potential antidepressant effects of soybean isoflavones

Messina

Gleason²

2016

Menopause

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Objective To determine whether isoflavones affect depressive symptoms in women. Methods Literature searches were conducted to identify clinical and epidemiologic studies that evaluated the impact of soy intake and isoflavone exposure on depressive symptoms. References from identified studies were also evaluated to identify eligible studies. Results Only limited epidemiologic research has evaluated the impact of soy or isoflavone intake on depression although several studies from China and Japan did find soy product intake was inversely related to risk of depression. However, often times, soy was evaluated only as a component of a summative dietary pattern (e.g., a “Japanese” or “Healthy” diet). Of the 20 intervention studies identified, roughly half found statistically significant reductions in depressive symptoms in response to isoflavones although several had design weakness. Of those studies reporting a lack of antidepressant effects of isoflavones, design limitations likely contributed to the lack of efficacy. In all but two trials, assessment of depression was, however, a secondary outcome. It is notable that both trials in which depression was a primary outcome found isoflavones significantly improved symptoms. Conclusions Although the data are inconsistent and limited, the clinical and epidemiologic evidence suggests that isoflavones may offer a safe, well-tolerated option for management of depression. Furthermore, the intervention doses used in the clinical studies fall well within the dietary range. The extant literature reveals key design features for future studies, which based upon the results of this review, are clearly warranted.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Evaluation of the potential antidepressant effects of soybean isoflavones

Messina

Gleason²

2016

Menopause

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“…Vegetarians and vegans tend to be more liberal, altruistic, universalistic, and empathic; and both ethical and economic reasons as well as health aspects are for them more important motivations for choosing their diets when compared to omnivores [2,5,18,19,37,51,59]. Differences regarding morals/ethics have been shown between omnivores, partial vegetarians, vegetarians, and vegans: The further along people are in the vegetarian spectrum, the more important moral and health reasons seem to become for their choice of food [2].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A notable number of studies have examined sociopsychological differences between vegetarians and omnivores and suggest that vegetarians have higher levels of empathy, altruism, and well-being, and that they are more likely to endorse universalistic values [2,5,18,19,38,53,54,55,56,57,58,59,60,61]. Results of a recently published survey suggest that authoritarianism and social dominance are more frequent in carnivores compared to vegetarians and vegans, most distinctively among carnivorous men [62].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, controversy on its exact definition and the definitions of its various subgroups (e.g., lacto-ovo-vegetarian, vegan) continues [2,3,4,5]. Vegetarian nutrition, in particular, vegan/plant-based nutrition, is gaining increasing public attention and importance in medical, psychological, social, ecological, and political contexts [2,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20]. …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Personality Profiles, Values and Empathy: Differences between Lacto-Ovo-Vegetarians and Vegans

Kessler

Holler

Joy³

et al. 2016

Complement Med Res

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Background: Vegetarian nutrition is gaining increasing public attention worldwide. While some studies have examined differences in motivations and personality traits between vegetarians and omnivores, only few studies have considered differences in motivations and personality traits between the 2 largest vegetarian subgroups: lacto-ovo-vegetarians and vegans. Objectives: To examine differences between lacto-ovo-vegetarians and vegans in the distribution patterns of motives, values, empathy, and personality profiles. Methods: An anonymous online survey was performed in January 2014. Group differences between vegetarians and vegans in their initial motives for the choice of nutritional approaches, health-related quality of life (World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF (WHOQOL-BREF)), personality traits (Big Five Inventory-SOEP (BFI-S)), values (Portraits Value Questionnaire (PVQ)), and empathy (Empathizing Scale) were analyzed by univariate analyses of covariance; P values were adjusted for multiple testing. Results: 10,184 individuals completed the survey; 4,427 (43.5%) were vegetarians and 4,822 (47.3%) were vegans. Regarding the initial motives for the choice of nutritional approaches, vegans rated food taste, love of animals, and global/humanitarian reasons as more important, and the influence of their social environment as less important than did vegetarians. Compared to vegetarians, vegans had higher values on physical, psychological, and social quality of life on the WHOQOL-BREF, and scored lower on neuroticism and higher on openness on the BFI-S. In the PVQ, vegans scored lower than vegetarians on power/might, achievement, safety, conformity, and tradition and higher on self-determination and universalism. Vegans had higher empathy than vegetarians (all p < 0.001). Discussion: This survey suggests that vegans have more open and compatible personality traits, are more universalistic, empathic, and ethically oriented, and have a slightly higher quality of life when compared to vegetarians. Given the small absolute size of these differences, further research is needed to evaluate whether these group differences are relevant in everyday life and can be confirmed in other populations.

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“…excluding animal-derived food, may be more or less prone to develop mood disturbances compared to those with omnivorous eating styles: large epidemiological studies (n = 6,422-90,380) showed higher depressive symptoms in vegetarians and vegans 15–17 and in those with orthorexic behaviour 18 . Yet other (smaller) cross-sectional (n = 620) and interventional (n = 39-291) studies proposed a positive effect of plant-based diets on well-being and subclinical depression scores 19–22 . Recently, it has been suggested that not meat-restriction per se, but the number of excluded food groups predicts higher depressive scores 17 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%