Recommending a vegetarian or pescatarian diet can help reduce patients’ ischaemic heart disease risk but may place them at higher risk of stroke, a UK study of over 48,000 adults suggests.

Men and women (average age 45) on a vegetarian or vegan diet and no history of coronary heart disease had a 22% lower risk of ischaemic heart disease than meat eaters, Oxford University researchers report in the BMJ.

After following the participants for 18 years they found that those on a pescatarian diet also had a lower heart disease risk (13%) than meat eaters.

“[This] appears to be at least partly due to lower BMI and lower rates of high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol and diabetes associated with these diets,” the researchers wrote.