Vegetarians are less at risk of urinary tract infections
The vegetarian diet is associated with a lower risk of urinary tract infection. However, the study has some limitations that mean the results are still unclear.
The infections are usually caused by intestinal bacteria that enter the urinary tract. Chicken and pork are a major reservoir of Escherichia coli, a bacterium that often causes urinary tract infections. Chin-Lon Lin from Tzu Chi University in Taiwan and his colleagues examined whether vegetarians are less at risk of UTI than people who eat meat.
“We know that vegetarians have a different intestinal flora. We tried to determine whether the infection rate in vegetarians was statistically significantly lower than in non-vegetarians. And we are proving that it really is, ”says Lin.
The study examined 9724 people in Taiwan over a 10-year period, and found that the likelihood of a urinary tract infection was 16 percent lower in vegetarians than in meat eaters.
When the researchers analyzed the diet of men and women separately, they found that the protective effect of a vegetarian diet was present in women but not in men. Urinary tract infections are more common in women due to the shorter length of the female urinary tract.
According to Lin, vegetarians may have a lower risk of urinary tract infections because they have a lower risk of exposure to E. coli. It's also possible that the high dietary fiber content helps vegetarians avoid constipation, reducing the risk of E. coli in their gut, he says.
Research shows that nutrition is a “very important element” in preventing UTI, Lin says, although he adds that the group may not reflect the general population in the study. The study participants were, for example, all Buddhists from Taiwan who had to quit alcohol and smoking. About a third of the participants abandoned meat for environmental and animal welfare reasons.
There are several other reasons why the study may have overestimated the link between a vegetarian diet and a lower risk of urinary tract infections, says Amee Manges of the University of British Columbia in Canada.
The study initially looked at nutrition only once, so meat eaters may later become vegetarian and vice versa, says Manges. People under 20 years of age and those who previously had a urinary tract infection were not included. This could have meant that many younger women – whose age affects the risk of a urinary tract infection – were also not included. While the researchers tried to take various factors into account, they did not consider pregnancy, which is a major risk factor for urinary tract infections.
“I'm glad you did the study, but the results are probably overrated,” says Manges.
You can read more about the study in the journal Nature.
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