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Vegetarian diets have many health benefits, but there may be one downside - weaker hip bones. A recent study conducted in the UK found that women following a vegetarian diet had a higher risk of hip fractures (compared to women who ate meat regularly - 5 or more times a week).

In other words, meat eaters were at a lower risk for a hip fracture. Occasional meat-eaters (less than 5 servings a week) or pescatarians (ate fish, but not meat) were also at a lower risk of hip fracture. Meat products appear to be important for bone health. Other studies also find more hip fractures among persons following a vegan or vegetarian diet.

The researchers point out that vegetarian diets have a lower intake of nutrients important for bones (bone mineral density), and which are more abundant in animal products than in plants (e.g., protein, calcium, vitamin D, vitamin B12, certain fatty acids).

From Medical Xpress: Vegetarian women are at a higher risk of hip fracture

A study of over 26,000 middle-aged UK women reveals those with a vegetarian diet had a 33% higher risk of hip fracture compared to regular meat-eaters. ...continue reading "Vegetarian Diets and a Higher Hip Fracture Risk"

The evidence keeps growing that cutting back on how frequently a person eats meat may have health benefits such as lowering cancer risk  A recent study found that eating a low-meat diet (5 or less times a week), or just eating fish and not meat, or a no meat diet (vegetarian or vegan) all are associated with a lower risk of cancer - when compared to those who eat meat more than 5 times per week.

Just keep in mind that they only asked people about their diets one time (at the study start) in an eleven year time period - thus it doesn't account for dietary changes over time. Also, other studies also find that there are health benefits (including lower risks of cancer) to eating less meat and more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, seeds, nuts  - think along the lines of a Mediterranean diet.

From Science Daily: Low-meat and meat-free diets associated with lower overall cancer risk

Eating meat five times or less per week is associated with a lower overall cancer risk, according to a study published in the open access journal BMC Medicine. ...continue reading "Eating Meat Less Frequently Associated With a Lower Risk of Cancer"

Surprising results (to me at least) from research comparing various diets and incidence of several cancers in 11,082 individuals in the Netherlands over a 20 year period. I expected the daily meat eaters to have higher rates of the 3 cancers studied, but no....

According to this study, looks like frequent meat consumption is OK when looking at lung, postmenopausal breast, and prostate cancer. Meat consumption did not increase the risk for these cancers.

Their main conclusion: vegetarians, pescatarians (eats fish, but no meat), and low-meat consumers did not have a reduced risk of lung, postmenopausal breast, and overall prostate cancer when compared with individuals consuming meat on a daily basis. This is after taking confounders such as smoking into account (because smokers have higher rates of cancers such as lung cancer).

The researchers do point out that some other similar studies had mixed results, but that perhaps those studies did not take confounders (variables that distort the results) such as smoking, physical activity levels, alcohol consumption, etc. into account.

From the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition: Vegetarianism, low meat consumption and the risk of lung, postmenopausal breast and prostate cancer in a population-based cohort study

The few prospective studies that examined lung, female breast and prostate cancer risk in vegetarians have yielded mixed results, whereas none have studied the effects of low meat diets. ... The Netherlands Cohort Study—Meat Investigation Cohort (NLCS-MIC)— is an analytical cohort of 11,082 individuals including 1133 self-reported vegetarians (aged 55–69 years at baseline). At baseline (1986), subjects completed a questionnaire on dietary habits and other risk factors for cancer and were classified into vegetarians (n=691), pescetarians (n=389), 1 day per week (n=1388), 2–5 days per week (n=2965) and 6–7 days per week meat consumers (n=5649).

After 20.3 years of follow-up, 279 lung, 312 postmenopausal breast and 399 prostate cancer cases (including 136 advanced) were available for analyses. After adjustment for confounding variables, we found no statistically significant association between meat consumption groups and the risk of lung cancer. As well, no significant associations were observed for postmenopausal breast and overall prostate cancer. After adjustment for confounders, individuals consuming meat 1 day per week were at a 75% increased risk of advanced prostate cancer compared with 6–7 days per week meat consumers.

Vegetarians, pescetarians and 1 day per week meat consumers did not have a reduced risk of lung, postmenopausal breast and overall prostate cancer compared with individuals consuming meat on a daily basis after taking confounders into account.

Although vegetarian diets are primarily defined by the absence of meat and fish, they are also shown to be associated with high intakes of fruits and vegetables and a favorable distribution of non-dietary factors.1, 2 Consequently, vegetarian diets may reduce the risk of different types of cancers through multiple mechanisms, depending on the etiology and preventability of the tumor.3, 4

We previously reported a nonsignificantly reduced risk of vegetarian and low meat diets on colorectal, and especially rectal, cancer5 and set out to study its effect on three other major cancers.

Although meat consumption has been hypothesized to be implicated in the etiology of lung, female breast and prostate cancer, data are not consistent across studies and meat subtypes.6, 7, 8However, on the basis of the existing body of literature, vegetarians may be at a lower risk of developing lung cancer (because of lower smoking rates) and to postmenopausal breast cancer (because of lower alcohol consumption, lower body mass index and higher physical activity levels).

Results from this prospective cohort study showed that, in age- and sex-adjusted models, vegetarians and pescetarians were at a reduced risk of lung cancer compared with individuals consuming meat on a daily basis. This effect disappeared after taking confounders, especially smoking, into account. We did not observe an association between the meat consumption group and the risk of post-menopausal breast and overall prostate cancer.

Our null findings regarding post-menopausal breast cancer risk are in line with other prospective studies comparing vegetarians with non-vegetarians and a pooled analysis of five cohort studies on breast cancer mortality. In contrast, the UK Women’s Cohort Study reported a lower post-menopausal breast cancer risk among non-meat consumers compared with high meat consumers,14 although this was not observed in their dietary pattern analyses.15 Vegetarian diets are rich in fiber and soy. Fiber was associated with a reduced risk of breast cancer in a meta-analysis of prospective studies,19 and soy contains isoflavones, which have previously been associated with a significant reduced risk of postmenopausal breast cancer in Asian populations.20 However, compared with the average soy intake in four Asian countries (ranging from 38 to 134 g/day21), the soy product intake among vegetarians in our population was likely too low to exert an effect (~15g per day).

These results go against the medical advice we've been hearing for years (why am I not surprised?). The new advice: High-fat dairy  yes, low-fat dairy no. I also think processed meat (with nitrates) should not be lumped together with unprocessed meat. From Science Daily:

Consumption of high-fat dairy products associated with lower risk of developing diabetes

People with the highest consumption of high-fat dairy products -- eight or more portions per day -- have a 23 percent lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes (T2D) than those with the lowest consumption -- one or less per day, a new study shows.

The study included 26 930 individuals (60% women), aged 45-74 years, from the population-based Malmö Diet and Cancer cohort. Dietary data was collected with a modified diet history method. During 14 years of follow up, 2860 incident T2D cases were identified. 

The researchers found that high intake of high-fat dairy products was associated with a 23% lower incidence of T2D for the highest consuming 20% of participants (or quintile) (median=8 portions/day) compared with the lowest consuming 20% (median=1 portion/day).

In contrast to these findings, there was no association found between intakes of low-fat dairy products and risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

High intakes of meat and meat products were, regardless of fat content, associated with increased risk, but the increased risk was higher for lower fat meats (increased risk of type 2 diabetes for high fat meats 9%, for low fat 24%), both referring to the risk in the highest-consuming versus lowest-consuming 20%). The highest consuming group for the high-fat meat had 90g or more per day, and for the low-fat meat 80g per day.

Same research, some extra details in write-up. From Medscape:

Big Intake of High-Fat Dairy May Be Protective for Diabetes

Previous research led by Nita Forouhi, MD, program leader and public-health physician at the MRC Epidemiology Unit, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom, published in August this year, suggested that molecules with odd numbers of carbon atoms (15 and 17), which are found in dairy products such as yogurt, cheese, and milk, appeared to have a protective effect.

This contrasts with evidence suggesting that even-chain saturated fatty acids, as found in alcohol or margarine, are associated with a greater risk for type 2 diabetes.