Vegetarian diets are associated with healthy mood states
A a cross-sectional study in Seventh Day Adventist adults showed vegetarians to have significantly “less negative emotions” than non-vegetarians. You can read the abstract here.
This could mean the vegetarians are making enough DHA.
June 4th, 2010 at 7:42 am
Does the study take into account that these people adhere to a religion and socialize with certain types of people that might have a significant impact on their mood?
In the presentation shown here (http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/dan_buettner_how_to_live_to_be_100.html) 7th Day Adventists are discussed in the context of aging. And it does appear that this group might be different from other vegetarians and vegans because of a number of other factors.
June 4th, 2010 at 7:58 am
I haven’t actually read the study, but judging from the abstract, yes and no. Since all the participants were SDAs, the religion and socialization should have been similar for all of them with the diet being the main difference. However, because the SDA religion embraces vegetarianism, the vegetarians might actually be more supported within their circles than the non-vegetarians. I also get the sense that SDA vegetarians are rarely animal activists and are less likely to have internalized the suffering and misery that animal advocates consider on a daily basis, not to mention that most animal advocate vegetarians’ diets are not supported in their community. My guess would be that SDA vegetarians tend to have better moods than non-SDA, animal advocate vegetarians, although we can also be very pleasant at times. 🙂