Harvard Psychiatrist Challenges Vegan Trend, Insists Meat Is Essential for Brain Health
"The brain needs meat."
In a striking blow to prevailing dietary trends that favor veganism, Dr. Georgia Ede, a nutritional and metabolic psychiatrist with training from Harvard, asserts that animal products are crucial for mental health.
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According to Dr. Ede, contrary to widespread beliefs that plant-based diets offer the best nourishment for our brains, meat is actually indispensable.
In her recent discussions, including an insightful interview on Seattle’s Morning News, Dr. Ede, author of Change Your Diet, Change Your Mind, emphasizes the comprehensive benefits meat offers to mental well-being.
“The brain needs meat,” Dr. Ede unequivocally states, pointing out the unique nutritional profile of meat, which includes essential vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients critical for brain health.
She highlights that meat is “the only food that contains every nutrient we need in its proper form,” making it superior for managing blood sugar and insulin levels.
This regulation is not only vital for individuals with diabetes but for everyone, as stable blood sugar levels are linked to sustained brain energy, memory preservation, and mood stability.
Dr. Ede’s perspective offers a fresh look at the nutrient density of meat, emphasizing that its value extends beyond just providing protein.
The psychiatrist notes that meat is a rich source of “[v]itamins and minerals like B-12, Omega3 fatty acids, and zinc, and choline, and iron, and iodine,” nutrients that are difficult or sometimes impossible to obtain from plant sources.
Dismissing much of the prevailing nutritional advice disseminated through media, Dr. Ede criticizes many studies as “worthless” describing them as “wild guesses” rather than rigorous scientific research.
Her skepticism extends to popular claims about the health benefits of red wine and superfoods, which she believes are not backed by reliable evidence.
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The Daily Mail cites recent studies supporting Dr. Ede’s assertions that have shown concerning links between meat-free diets and adverse mental health outcomes.
A 2021 systematic review encompassing 18 studies with over 160,000 participants found that diets devoid of meat were associated with a higher risk of depression and anxiety.
Specifically, vegetarians were found to have a 35% chance of developing major depression, compared to 19% for meat-eaters, and a 31% chance of developing an anxiety disorder, compared to 18% for those who include meat in their diet.
Further research, including a 2022 survey of 14,000 Brazilians and a 2020 meta-analysis, corroborates these findings, showing a significant correlation between meat-free diets and increased rates of depression.
Moreover, a report by the United Nations (UN) Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in 2023 concluded after reviewing over 500 studies that animal-derived foods are “crucial sources of much-needed nutrients,” particularly for vulnerable groups such as children, the elderly, and pregnant and breastfeeding women.
The report warns of the difficulty in obtaining necessary macro and micronutrients from a vegan diet.
Echoing these concerns, a 2019 paper highlighted the risk of vitamin B12 deficiency in vegans, pointing out its potential to increase stroke risk by inhibiting protein clearance from the bloodstream, which can lead to inflammation and damage to blood vessels.
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Thanks for sharing. You can believe what you will, but I disagree.
I write as a whole food ethical vegan for more than 25 years. My brain and mood are fine.
Yes, some studies do say vegetarian and vegan mental health is lower, but many studies
show the opposite. Since vegetarians and vegans typically have empathy for farm animals
and marine life, perhaps depression comes from understanding animal suffering.
If anything, eating animals that did not want to die, and resisted their death, would sour anyone's mental health, rather than improve it, However, omnivores are consuming adrenaline and cortisol, both stress hormones from animals eaten, that act like a stimulating drug. And, dairy eaters are
consuming dairy that results in a caso-morphine effect in the human body.
Here are two videos, with multiple references, showing that mood IMPROVES with a plant-based dietary regimen:
https://nutritionfacts.org/video/plant-based-diets-for-improved-mood-and-productivity/
https://nutritionfacts.org/video/improving-mood-through-diet/