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Got as far as here
The full picture is rather more complex than it first seems. Scientists have found that a combined group of vegetarians and vegans appeared to have a higher risk of haemorrhagic stroke than did meat-eaters. But owing to the small number of vegans in the study, it is hard to draw firm conclusions. “Possible reasons might be related to lower cholesterol levels or a deficiency of some nutrients, such as vitamin B12,” says Tammy Tong, a researcher in the University of Oxford’s Nuffield Department of Population Health.
Vegans grouped together with vegetarians kinda defeats the purpose of investigating whether the plant based diet has a positive impact or not IMO. especially as it sounds like they only had a couple of vegans participate.
“Vegans are also at a higher risk of B12-deficiency, since the nutrient is only naturally available from animal foods. Low B12 levels may be linked to raised blood levels of homocysteine, which may be linked to higher risk of stroke.”
Thought it was generally understood that b12 is actually found in soil. And that most animals raised on processed feed are given it as a supplement, because they are also at risk of being deficient... or something 🤷♂️
MCamb-
Yes, what with vegetarians usually taking loads of dairy and definitely not being very comparable.
I get the impression from what I've read over the years that the main natural 'source' of B12 are insects, but that may be nonsense. It may explain it being in the soil, though, and vegetarian great apes are said to ingest it because they don't clean their food of insects.
Oliver Schick
This is a very long article on nutrition, and I haven't read it in full, but I thought I'd post it for those interested in that kind of angle:
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/dec/29/is-veganism-as-good-for-you-as-they-say
I don't know much about nutritional science, but I seem to remember quite a few studies which questioned veganism in similar ways that this article does, because they tend to examine the question of 'what makes us healthier?' in fairly limited ways.