According to research carried out by the University of Southampton, on more than 8,000 volunteers, intelligent children are more likely to become vegetarians in later life. The study involved boys and girls, at the age of ten, sitting a series of tests designed to determine their IQ. Then at the age of 30 they were asked if they were vegetarians and their answers were compared to their childhood IQ score. The results show that the typical adult vegetarian had a childhood IQ of around 105 which is about five points higher than those who continued to eat meat as they grew up. The vegetarians were also more likely to have gained degrees and hold down high-powered jobs. However there was no difference in IQ between strict vegetarians and those who classed themselves as vegetarians but still ate fish or chicken.

Surely you can’t be classed as any type of a vegetarian if you eat meat whether it is chicken or fish. On the other hand you could be called a ‘non red meat eater’ (not a very snappy title) but definitely not a vegetarian. In addition vegans, those vegetarians who also avoid dairy products, scored significantly lower, averaging an IQ score of 95 at the age of 10. The researchers stated that the findings were partly related to better education and higher occupational social class, but the findings remained statistically significant after adjusting for these factors. Other findings were that vegetarians were more likely to be female, to be of higher occupational social class and to have higher academic or vocational qualifications than non-vegetarians. However, these differences were not reflected in their annual income, which was similar to that of non-vegetarians.

Ok, I take all of the research into consideration but I’m not convinced that vegetarians are smarter than non-vegetarians. After all I think that including people that call themselves vegetarians but eat chicken and fish taints the results ever so slightly IMHO. I also think the fact that vegans had lower IQs scores than vegetarians and non-vegetarians might indicate that overall a balanced diet is the best option.