A new University of Graz study concludes that vegetarians  are more often ill and have a lower quality of living than meat-eaters. According to the German press release, vegetarians "have cancer and heart attacks more often". The release also says that they show more psychological disorders than meat eaters. Consequently, the report writes, they are a greater burden on the health care system. According to the press release the scientists evaluated data from the Austrian Health Interview Survey (AT-HIS), which is also part of an important and valuable EU survey (European Health Interview Survey). The scientists examined a total of 1320 persons who were divided up into 4 groups . All groups were comparable with respect to gender, age, and socio-economic status. The study also accounted for smoking and physical activity. Also the BMI was within the normal range for all four groups. The only thing that really was different among the four groups was the diet. The four groups were: vegetarians, meat-eaters with lots of fruit and veggies, little meat-eaters and big meat-eaters. The press release states that the results contradict _ that meat-free diets are healthier. Vegetarians have twice as many allergies as big meat-eaters, and they showed 166% higher cancer rates . Moreover, the scientists found that vegans had a 150% higher rate of heart attacks. In total the scientists looked at 18 different chronic illnesses. Compared to the big meat-eaters, vegetarians were hit harder in 14 of the 18 illnesses. In the analysis, the University of Graz found that vegetarians were also twice as likely to suffer for anxiety or depressions than big meat-eaters. That result was confirmed by the University of Hildesheim, which found that vegetarians suffered significantly more from depressions, anxiety, psychosomatic complaints and eating disorders. The University of Graz scientists also found that vegetarians are impacted more by ilnessses and visit the doctor more frequently. Big meat-eaters were also found to have a "significantly better quality of life in all categories", the study found. The four categories examined were: physical and psychological health, social relationships and environment-related life quality. What was the difference between the four groups in the experiment?
Gender, age and socio-economic status. Smoking and physical activity. Diet. BMI.