Intelligent Kids More Likely to Become Vegetarians, Study Says

[Guest guest]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601102&sid=a3b7OwdS4N0M&refer=uk

 

By Eva von Schaper

 

Dec. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Children with a higher intelligence quotient at age

10 are more likely to become vegetarians later in life, according to a study

published online today by the British Medical Journal.

 

People with an IQ of 110 were two-and-a-half times more likely to avoid

eating meat, the lead author of the study, Catherine Gale of the University

of Southampton, said in a telephone interview. Researchers studied more than

8,000 men and women, and found vegetarians were more likely to be women,

belong to a higher social class, and have higher educational degrees.

 

``If you are bright, you are more likely to understand health information,

and more likely to act on it,'' Gale, a senior research fellow, said

yesterday.

 

The results backed up findings that intelligence is associated with lower

rates of heart disease.

 

While their intelligence may allow the vegetarian participants to be more

health literate, some vegetarians act on purely ethical reasons when they

give up meat, the study said.

 

The researchers studied participants at age 10, and followed up 20 years

later. About 4.5 percent of them said they were vegetarian. Some who

classified themselves as vegetarians found it acceptable to eat fish or

chicken.