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It's basically a very standard systematic review, that looked at studies of depression/vegetarianism association Most of the researchers were psychologists of one stripe or anotherpic.twitter.com/9hegpZK4ur
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The findings were, to be honest, extremely boring. A bunch of confounded studies showing vague associations between vegetarianism and depression, but nothing even remotely causal
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However, most of the reporting seems to have focused on the "most rigorous" study, including pretty much all of the numbers seen in the headlines (it's where the "1 in 3" line comes from)pic.twitter.com/d7WE5wlvKH
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Thing is, this "most rigorous" study is a retrospective analysis of 1998-99 data that included only 54 vegetarians (out of 4,000 participants) and ACTUALLY DEMONSTRATED REVERSE CAUSALITY (i.e. people get depressed THEN start a vegetarian diet)pic.twitter.com/OyVVGNpTEH
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The rest of the systematic review appears similarly biased. None of the research can be used for realistic inferences, but because it's all comparative (i.e. "more rigorous" rather than just "rigorous") it sounds like some research is actually good
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Essentially, what they found is that there may be an association between depression and vegetarianism, but even the most cursory of adjustments for reverse causality and the like seems to negate this (I.e. depression causes vegetarianism)
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But somehow the review is phrased to make it seem like vegetarianism is bad I wonder why that is? Well, let's look at the funding body
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TL:DR the National Cattlemen's Beef Association funded a systematic review that showed no real association between vegetarianism and depression, and certainly no benefit for meat But it was presented in the media as "vegetarianism causes depression, eat meat"
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