The children had a high IQ when entering adolescence have a lower risk of cardiovascular disease. This could explain the link between intelligence and health. "People with intelligent brains tend to have healthier eating patterns," said senior researcher at the University of Southampton, England, Catharine Gale, who led the research.
As we know, a vegetarian low-cholesterol, and rarely suffer from obesity and heart disease. So it's understandable why high-IQ children had a lower risk of heart disease as adults. Other studies also mentioned that the smart-witted child usually has a healthy lifestyle: not smoking, not overweight, normal blood pressure and diligent exercise.
In his research, Gale and his research team collected data from 8200 men and women aged 30 years, that his IQ had tested when they were aged 10 years. The results are interesting, many children with high IQs who become vegetarian when they were aged 30 years. Approximately 4.5 percent of respondents were vegetarian, 2.5 percent a vegan (refusing to eat meat or use products that use the tests on animals), and 33.6 percent said they were vegetarian but also ate fish and chicken.
Most are vegetarians are women or those from the upper social class or well educated. Even so, according to Gale, IQ remained a significant factor in determining a person's healthy lifestyle.
But this study is considered not able to answer all questions. Because no mention of whether the children grow up in a vegetarian or not. "We do not know how or lifestyle habits of their parents, or is there a specific cause or event that makes the kids grow up to be a vegetarian," said the professor from the University of Texas, Lona Sandon.
While the explanation for why more women are vegetarians, Sandon says that women are more concerned about health than men. "So if they (women) believe that vegetarians have health benefits, they will choose it," he added.