Or is it the other way around - kids with higher IQ scores move towards
vegetarian dietary habits. Perhaps both.

Also how can one be eating fish and chicken and yet be considered a
vegetarian? Vegetarians generally do not eat anything that bleeds
(blood).


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Kids With High IQs Grow Up to Be Vegetarians
December 15, 2006 08:40:46 PM PST
By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

Yahoo! Health: Children's Health News

FRIDAY, Dec. 15 (HealthDay News) -- As a child's IQ rises, his taste
for meat in adulthood declines, a new study suggests.

British researchers have found that children's IQ predicts their
likelihood of becoming vegetarians as young adults -- lowering their
risk for cardiovascular disease in the process. The finding could
explain the link between smarts and better health, the investigators
say.

"Brighter people tend to have healthier dietary habits," concluded lead
author Catharine Gale, a senior research fellow at the MRC Epidemiology
Resource Centre of the University of Southampton and Southampton
General Hospital.

Recent studies suggest that vegetarianism may be associated with lower
cholesterol, reduced risk of obesity and heart disease. This might
explain why children with high IQs tend to have a lower risk of heart
disease in later life.

The report is published in the Dec. 15 online edition of the British
Medical Journal.

"We know from other studies that brighter children tend to behave in a
healthier fashion as adults -- they're less likely to smoke, less
likely to be overweight, less likely to have high blood pressure and
more likely to take strenuous exercise," Gale said. "This study
provides further evidence that people with a higher IQ tend to have a
healthier lifestyle."

In the study, Gale's team collected data on nearly 8,200 men and women
aged 30, whose IQ had been tested when they were 10 years of age.

"Children who scored higher on IQ tests at age 10 were more likely than
those who got lower scores to report that they were vegetarian at the
age of 30," Gale said.

The researchers found that 4.5 percent of participants were
vegetarians. Of these, 2.5 percent were vegan, and 33.6 percent said
they were vegetarian but also ate fish or chicken.

There was no difference in IQ score between strict vegetarians and
those who said they were vegetarian but who said they ate fish or
chicken, the researchers add.

Vegetarians were more likely to be female, of higher social class and
better educated, but IQ was still a significant predictor of being
vegetarian after adjustment for these factors, Gale said.

"Vegetarian diets are associated with lower cardiovascular disease risk
in a number of studies, so these findings suggest that a such a diet
may help to explain why children or adolescents with a higher IQ have a
lower risk of coronary heart disease as adults," Gale said.

One expert said the findings aren't the whole answer, however.

"This study left many unanswered questions such as: Did the vegetarian
children grow up in a household with a vegetarian parent? Were meatless
meals regularly served in the household? Were the children eating a
primarily vegetarian diet at the age of 10?" said Lona Sandon, an
assistant professor of clinical nutrition at the University of Texas
Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas.

"In addition, we don't know the beliefs or attitudes of the parents of
the children, nor do we know if there was a particular event that led
these children to becoming vegetarian in their teens or adulthood,"
Sandon said.

As the study showed, more women than men chose a vegetarian diet,
Sandon noted. "Other research shows that women in general will focus
more on their health than men. So, if they believe that a vegetarian
diet will have health benefits, they are more likely to follow it," she
said.

Given these factors, "we cannot draw any solid conclusions from this
research," Sandon added.

Another expert agreed that a vegetarian diet is healthy.

"The evidence linking vegetarianism to good health outcomes is very
strong," said Dr. David L. Katz, the director of the Prevention
Research Center and an associate professor of public health at the Yale
University School of Medicine.

"Studies, for example, of vegetarian Seventh-Day Adventists in
California suggest that they have lower rates of almost all major
chronic diseases, and greater longevity, than their omnivorous
counterparts," Katz said. "Evidence is also strong and consistent that
greater intelligence, higher education, and loftier social status --
which tend to cluster with one another -- also correlate with good
health."

More information

There's more on vegetarian diets at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.