A Danish study has found that people who eat meat may hold a health advantage over vegans in one specific area: a more varied gut microbiome. The finding was reported by Berlingske and summarized by Omni – Alla nyheter. Alla perspektiv. on Saturday, 31 October 2026. According to Professor Oluf Borbye Pedersen, meat eaters in the research had a broader range of bacteria in their intestines than those who avoid animal products.
The result runs against prevailing dietary guidance, which generally advises people to cut back on meat and eat more plant-based food. Omni – Alla nyheter. Alla perspektiv. notes that the study has drawn surprise from the research community.
Why it matters
Public health advice in many countries has moved in one direction for years: less meat, more plants. Omni – Alla nyheter. Alla perspektiv. reports that research has linked such diets to lower blood sugar, reduced cholesterol and less inflammation. Those are well-established benefits, and nothing in the new finding overturns them.
What the Danish work adds is a narrower point. A plant-based diet, according to the reporting, appears to leave people with fewer kinds of bacteria living in the gut. Microbial diversity is the advantage that vegans in the study did not show. Whether that difference carries real health consequences is not settled by the reporting, and the article does not claim that meat eating is healthier overall.
The story matters because diet advice is often presented as a single scoreboard, with one way of eating winning and another losing. This study suggests the picture is more complicated, with trade-offs that run in both directions.
What the study actually compared
The evidence behind the claim comes from a comparison of samples taken from 150 people, according to Omni – Alla nyheter. Alla perspektiv. The outlet does not describe how the participants were selected, how long they had followed their diets, or what else was measured.
Professor Pedersen's explanation for the gap is protein intake. His theory, as reported, is that differences in how much protein the participants consumed account for the variation in their gut bacteria. That remains a theory rather than a demonstrated mechanism; the reporting does not say the study proved protein was the cause.
The distinction is worth keeping in view. A measured difference between two groups is an observation. An explanation for why that difference exists is an interpretation, and this one is attributed to Pedersen himself.
A finding that cuts against the grain
Omni – Alla nyheter. Alla perspektiv. frames the result as a shock to researchers, and the framing is understandable. Most nutrition messaging aimed at the public treats reduced meat consumption as a straightforward good. A study pointing to a downside of going meat-free therefore lands awkwardly.
It is also the kind of result that tends to travel faster than its caveats. Headlines about meat beating greens can easily be read as a verdict on diet, when the underlying comparison concerns one measure among many. The same reporting that describes the bacterial advantage also restates the documented benefits of plant-heavy eating, including lower blood sugar, lower cholesterol and reduced inflammation.
Readers weighing the finding should also note what the source does not provide. There are no figures on how large the diversity gap was, no breakdown of what the meat eaters and vegans actually ate, and no information on the participants' age, health status or location beyond the study being Danish. The reporting names Berlingske as the original outlet and Pedersen as the researcher behind the comparison.
What to watch
The next step would be scrutiny from other researchers and, ideally, a fuller published account of the methods and results. Until the work is examined in detail, the safe reading is narrow: in one Danish sample, meat eaters showed a wider variety of gut bacteria, and the professor behind the study attributes that to protein.
