Given a substantial rise in plant-based diets, few metropolitan areas today lack restaurants boasting vegetarian or vegan options. However, despite an apparent increase in the number of people identifying as vegetarian, a recent Northwestern Medicine study found that an individual’s genetic makeup has a major impact on whether they have the ability to maintain a vegetarian diet.

The study, led by Feinberg Prof. Nabeel Yaseen, is the fully peer-reviewed, indexed study to explore the link between vegetarianism and genetics.

About 48%-64% of those who claim to maintain a vegetarian diet do, in fact, report eating some meat, according to Yaseen’s study, which was published Oct. 4 in science journal PLOS ONE. Yaseen said he believes this statistic reflects the fact that biological qualities can prevent some from holding to vegetarianism.

“Are all humans capable of subsisting long term on a strict vegetarian diet?” Yaseen said in a Wednesday news release. “This is a question that has not been seriously studied.”

Yaseen investigated this question in his recent study, which identified three genes that have a significant association with vegetarianism, as well as 31 others that possibly are associated.

Some of the genes, including two of the genes with the highest association, are involved in fat metabolism and brain function.

There are more people who wish to become vegetarian than actually are, and a genetic factor is to blame, Yaseen said in the release.

Yaseen’s study could pave the way for future investigations into how genetics influence an individual’s ability to maintain vegetarianism.

“We hope that future studies will lead to a better understanding of the physiologic differences between vegetarians and non-vegetarians, thus enabling us to provide personalized dietary recommendations and to produce better meat substitutes,” Yaseen said.

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @lmschroeder_

Related Stories: 

— National Vegetarian Museum opens exhibit at library

— Best Vegetarian: Blind Faith Cafe

— Evanston original Lucy’s Cafe becomes Roscoe Village’s only vegetarian brunch spot