It is the presence of hummingbird bacteria in meat that probably means that carnivores are more likely to suffer from urinary tract infection than vegetarians, say the researchers behind the new study.
- Previous studies have shown that vegetarians have a different bacterial flora in the gut. Now we wanted to find out if urinary tract infections also differed statistically, writes Chin-Lon Lin, one of the study's authors.
The researchers investigated the incidence of urinary tract infections in approximately 3,000 vegetarians and 6,500 non-vegetarians. The incidence of urinary tract infections was assessed over a 10-year period and one could see that the risk of getting urinary tract infection was reduced by 16 percent if a person ate a vegetarian diet.
"Vegetables can counteract bacterial growth"According to the researchers, the differences may be due to, for example, chicken and pork sometimes spreading hummingbird bacteria, but also that vegetarians eat more vegetables and that vegetables' fibers counteract the growth of hummingbirds in the body.
Immediately following the study's publication, a debate has erupted among researchers where some believe that the study, although interesting, has question marks. For example, Amee Manges at the University of British Columbia tells New Scientist that the study risks "exaggerating the relationship" between diet and urinary tract infection.
Urinary tract infections affect more than 150 million people every year.