Vegetarians less healthy?

Usually the elites laud vegan and vegetarian diets because they are associated with a low risk of heart disease.

Yeah. Not a lot of heart disease in the African bush (although here in the rural Philippines, we see hypertension related heart attacks, also meth induced heart attacks).

Monkeys eat other monkeys and sometimes small animals.

Presumably this is an evolutionary way to get extra protein. Indeed, some evolutionary biologists think that the discovery of using fire by Homo erectus allowed them to cook meat, making it easier to chew and digest, and led to the fairly fast evolution of a thinking brain.

So WesleySmith's blog links to an article saying vegetarians are less healthy.

A new study out of Austria has now cast doubt on a claim often made by vegetarian proselytizers that one should forego meat and animal products for health reasons. From the study:

Overall, vegetarians are in a poorer state of health compared to the other dietary habit groups. Concerning self-reported health, vegetarians differ from each of the other reported groups toward poorer health.
Moreover, these subjects report higher levels of impairment from disorders. Vegetarians additionally report more chronic diseases than those eating a carnivorous diet less rich in meat. Significantly more vegetarians suffer from allergies, cancer, and mental health ailments (anxiety, or depression) than the other dietary habit groups (Table 3).
Subjects who eat a carnivorous diet rich in meat more often report urinary incontinence. No differences between individuals consuming different forms of diet were found regarding their vascular risk.

The study doesn’t claim that vegetarianism causes these poorer outcomes.

one should ask if the vegetarians are pure plant eaters or if they supplement their diets with milk and eggs and fish.

And remember: When you read an article on "healthy" Japanese or Chinese diet, remember those diets are also high in salt and fish...and there is a high rate of hypertension.

Vegetarians of India usually use milk products (hence the "Sacred cow": if you get hungry in a famine and kill your cow, you may die of protein malnutrition...hence the taboo).

As for Africa: yeah. We saw high blood pressure and ASCVD in the educated on "european" type diets, but not in the rural areas 40 years ago...but our rural folks died easily of minor infections. Hence the high mortality in kids of measles etc.

And now, with McDonalds, I suspect the story has changed in many places there also...