Photo: Ashim D’Silva via StockSnap, public domain.
Vegetarians had a 16% lower risk of urinary tract infections (UTIs) than non-vegetarians over 10 years, in a study of 9,724 people in Taiwan.
Researchers at Tzu Chi University and the Buddhist Tzu Chi Medical Foundation followed Buddhist volunteers who were free of UTIs from 2005 to 2014, recording 661 infections. They adjusted for age, sex, smoking, alcohol, diabetes and other conditions that raise UTI risk. The results are published in Scientific Reports, and the lower risk showed up mainly in women, never-smokers and uncomplicated infections.
Most UTIs are caused by particular strains of E. coli, known as extra-intestinal pathogenic E. coli (ExPEC), and research has found meat, including poultry and pork, is their major reservoir. As the authors write:
Vegetarians avoid meat and should theoretically have less exposure to ExPEC.
They also suggest the higher fiber content of vegetarian diets may help by lowering gut pH, which can curb E. coli growth, and call for further studies that identify the bacteria in urine samples. HCPLive has more on how the study was run.
It is one more reason to welcome the fiber in beans, whole grains and veg, and it adds to findings that a healthy plant-based diet is linked to a 14% lower risk of chronic kidney disease. We've written before about how the meat industry is breeding antibiotic-resistant superbugs, and the paper notes resistant ExPEC strains are a growing problem.
Plants keep finding new ways to look after us.