Can a vegetarian diet change the human DNA?

[_Doc]

telegraph[dot]co[dot]uk/news/2016/03/29/long-term-vegetarian-diet-changes-human-dna-raising-risk-of-canc/

So I found this article. And it talks about how generations of vegetarian diet can lead to a mutation that makes people susceptible to inflammation. Now this takes generations for this to happens but, it just makes feel bad. To think that I may cause my children's children to have inflammation just like me. I would say I rather save animals lives and have inflammation then kill animals so I don't have inflammation.

Do you think that this was well examined?
Could just a diet do this much?
Could it be that back then it was harder to get the right nutrients?

[AlexanderVeganTheist]

I'm fairly sure this article has been debunked. I remember an article that quoted the leading scientist in the quoted research that basically said "they interpreted it all wrong"... I can't find that article now, I did find this one: https://veggiemythsdebunked.wordpress.com/

I understood that article I can't find right now to imply that people that have this mutation, such as many Indians, are only at higher risk of heart disease and so on, if they do eat meat. It doesn't increase their risk across the board.

[brimstoneSalad]

There's another thread on this: http://philosophicalvegan.com/viewtopic ... 01&p=20394

It's Bullshit. A vegetarian diet doesn't change your DNA. Evolution does over generations, but only if there is differential reproduction.

These people ate very low amounts of Omega 6 (which is only a very specific type of diet low in a specific kind of fat, not a vegetarian diet in general), and over generations due to evolution their bodies got better at using Omega 6 and worse against defending against its effects.
Their descendants then started eating large amounts of Omega 6, which they had not evolved to do.

Omega 6 doesn't just mean meat, it could be from a large amount of any high Omega 6 oil (like corn oil).

This is an issue of changing diets, and particularly a sudden increase in this one nutrient. Through evolution, your descendants would only become better able to thrive on any diet your lineage is following.

You probably do not follow a very low Omega 6 diet, and aside from that, modern humans are under virtually no evolutionary pressure. All of this is irrelevant to you and your descendants.

The article is horrible fear mongering from scientifically illiterate morons who want to justify their cruel behavior.

The reasoning that you shouldn't be vegetarian because of this is like the reasoning that you shouldn't avoid eating large amounts of cyanide because if you do your descendants won't evolve a resistance to cyanide, and if some time in the future people start eating large amounts of cyanide your descendants will be at a disadvantage.
It's nonsense, and profound ignorance of how evolution works.

A more relevant argument would be: You should feed your children large amounts of cyanide so the ones who are most tolerant of cyanide will survive, and the others will die. Over generations this will create cyanide tolerant people, so just in case in the future there's nothing else to eat but food contaminated with cyanide, your descendants will be tops.
...Which is obviously cruel and stupid.

[PrincessPeach]

Here are some fun diet/genetic related mutations.
Sickle cell anemia is a genetic mutation that protects against malaria..
Hemochromatosis is a genetic mutation that increases iron absorption and is widely under diagnosed because the symptoms of iron overload mimic many other chronic diseases..
The associated benefits and risks of a nutritonally complete plant based diet always out weight the associated benefits and risks of a low carb animal based diet.