A study has suggested that vegetarian women are less likely to suffer from the misery of cystitis.
The study researchers recruited 9,274 people and tracked them for nearly a decade to see if vegetarians got fewer urinary tract and kidney infections.
When other potential influences were taken into account, including age, sex and smoking habits, vegetarians were 16 per cent less likely than meat-eaters to develop a UTI.
The effects were greater in men, but women are far more likely to be burdened with cystitis generally.
Meat, especially chicken and pork, is believed to carry the E.coli bacteria which cause up to three quarters of bladder infections such as cystitis.
Study leader Dr Chin-Lon Lin of Tzu Chi University in Taiwan suggested women who repeatedly suffer from UTIs should try becoming vegetarian.
Urinary tract infections are extremely common and affect more than half of women and around one in eight men at some point during their lives.
In the US, there are around 8.1million doctor's appointments because of UTIs every year, according to the American Urology Association – this could be about equal to 1.6m in the UK.
The infection is caused when disease-causing bacteria attack the urethra, the tube carrying urine out of the body.
This causes pain in the stomach, back and legs and while anyone can develop the condition, women are more commonly affected because their bladder is closer to their back passage.
Sufferers often feel a frequent need to urinate and sleep and sex lives can also be affected. They can also develop into a more serious kidney infection if the bacteria travels further up the bladder.
