Research Alleges Link Between Meat Consumption, Cataracts

A recent study based on a 27,670 cohort enrolled in the European Prospective Investigation in Cancer and Nutrition has allegedly concluded that participants who limited their intake of meat and animal products reduced their risk for developing cataracts by as much as 40 percent. Paul Appleby, et al., “Diet, vegetarianism, and cataract risk,” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, published online March 23, 2011. Dividing subjects into groups ranging from those with the highest meat consumption to those who avoided meat and animal products altogether, researchers evidently found “a strong relation between cataract risk and diet group, with a progressive decrease in risk of cataract in high meat eaters to low meat eaters, fish eaters (participants who ate fish but not meat), vegetarians, and vegans.” The results reportedly indicated that, compared with those who ate the most meat, vegetarians reduced their cataract risk by 30 percent and vegans by 40 percent.