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Vegetarians

News & Research:

• Vegetarians 'cut heart risk by 32% - BBC News, 1/30/13 - "A study of 44,500 people in England and Scotland showed vegetarians were 32% less likely to die or need hospital treatment as a result of heart disease ... vegetarians had lower blood pressure, lower levels of "bad" cholesterol and were more likely to have a healthy weight"
• Vegetarian diet may protect against common bowel disorder - Science Daily, 7/19/11
• What you body is missing when your diet goes all-veggie - The Daily, 5/24/11 - "The finding, recently published in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry, point to the most prominent deficiencies associated with vegan and vegetarian lifestyles: iron, zinc, vitamin B12 and omega-3 acids. Andrew Weil, founder and director of the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine, said, “Inadequate intake of these nutrients can set the stage for many disorders including anemia, osteoporosis and neurologic problems, and lessens the effectiveness of the immune system, increasing the risk of infections.” Moreover, these deficiencies often lead to elevated blood levels of homocysteine and decreased levels of HDL, the “good” form of cholesterol. Both are risk factors for heart disease."
• Vegetarians may be at lower risk of heart disease, diabetes and stroke - Science Daily, 4/13/11 - "Vegetarians experience a 36 percent lower prevalence of metabolic syndrome than non-vegetarians ... It indicates that lifestyle factors such as diet can be important in the prevention of metabolic syndrome ... On average, the vegetarians and semi-vegetarians were three years older than non-vegetarians. Despite their slightly older age, vegetarians had lower triglycerides, glucose levels, blood pressure, waist circumference, and body mass index (BMI). Semi-vegetarians also had a significantly lower BMI and waist circumference compared to those who ate meat more regularly"
• Vegans' elevated heart risk requires omega-3s and B12, study suggests - Science Daily, 2/2/11 - "meat eaters are known for having a significantly higher combination of cardiovascular risk factors than vegetarians. Lower-risk vegans, however, may not be immune. Their diets tend to be lacking several key nutrients -- including iron, zinc, vitamin B12, and omega-3 fatty acids. While a balanced vegetarian diet can provide enough protein, this isn't always the case when it comes to fat and fatty acids. As a result, vegans tend to have elevated blood levels of homocysteine and decreased levels of HDL, the "good" form of cholesterol. Both are risk factors for heart disease"
• Vegetarian Diets Can Help Prevent Chronic Diseases, American Dietetic Association Says - Science Daily, 7/1/09
• Veterinarians At High Risk For Viral, Bacterial Infections From Animals - Science Daily, 5/15/09

Abstracts:

• Risk of hospitalization or death from ischemic heart disease among British vegetarians and nonvegetarians: results from the EPIC-Oxford cohort study - Am J Clin Nutr. 2013 Jan 30 - "Vegetarians had a 32% lower risk"
• Vegetarian diets and the incidence of cancer in a low-risk population - Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2012 Nov 20 - "cancer incidence among 69,120 participants of the Adventist Health Study-2 ... The multivariate HR of overall cancer risk among vegetarians compared to non-vegetarians was statistically significant (HR=0.92; 95%CI: 0.85, 0.99) for both genders combined. Also, a statistically significant association was found between vegetarian diet and cancers of the gastrointestinal tract (HR=0.76; 95%CI: 0.63, 0.90). When analyzing the association of specific vegetarian dietary patterns, vegan diets showed statistically significant protection for overall cancer incidence (HR=0.84; 95%CI: 0.72, 0.99) in both genders combined and for female-specific cancers (HR=0.66; 95%CI: 0.47, 0.92). Lacto-ovo-vegetarians appeared to be associated with decreased risk of cancers of the gastrointestinal system (HR=0.75; 95%CI: 0.60, 0.92)"
• Vitamin B-12 supplementation improves arterial function in vegetarians with subnormal vitamin B-12 status - J Nutr Health Aging. 2012;16(6):569-73 - "Vegetarians are more vascular-healthy but those with subnormal vitamin B-12 status have impaired arterial endothelial function and increased intima-media thickness ... Vitamin B-12 (500µg/day) or identical placebo were given for 12 weeks with 10 weeks of placebo-washout before crossover (n=43), and then open label vitamin B-12 for additional 24 weeks ... After vitamin B-12 supplementation but not placebo, significant improvement of brachial FMD (6.3±1.8% to 6.9±1.9%; p<0.0001) and in carotid IMT (0.69±0.09mm to 0.67±0.09 mm, p<0.05) were found, with further improvement in FMD (to 7.4±1.7%; p<0.0001) and IMT (to 0.65±0.09mm; p<0.001) after 24 weeks open label vitamin B-12" - See vitamin B-12 at iHerb.
• Vegetarian diets and blood pressure among white subjects: results from the Adventist Health Study-2 (AHS-2) - Public Health Nutr. 2012 Jan 10:1-8 - "Covariate-adjusted regression analyses demonstrated that the vegan vegetarians had lower systolic and diastolic BP (mmHg) than omnivorous Adventists (β = -6.8, P < 0.05 and β = -6.9, P < 0.001). Findings for lacto-ovo vegetarians (β = -9.1, P < 0.001 and β = -5.8, P < 0.001) were similar. The vegetarians (mainly the vegans) were also less likely to be using antihypertensive medications. Defining hypertension as systolic BP > 139 mmHg or diastolic BP > 89 mmHg or use of antihypertensive medications, the odds ratio of hypertension compared with omnivores was 0.37 (95 % CI 0.19, 0.74), 0.57 (95 % CI 0.36, 0.92) and 0.92 (95 % CI 0.50, 1.70), respectively, for vegans, lacto-ovo vegetarians and partial vegetarians. Effects were reduced after adjustment for BMI ... CONCLUSIONS: We conclude from this relatively large study that vegetarians, especially vegans, with otherwise diverse characteristics but stable diets, do have lower systolic and diastolic BP and less hypertension than omnivores. This is only partly due to their lower body mass"
• Diet, vegetarianism, and cataract risk - Am J Clin Nutr. 2011 Mar 23 - "There was a strong relation between cataract risk and diet group, with a progressive decrease in risk of cataract in high meat eaters to low meat eaters, fish eaters (participants who ate fish but not meat), vegetarians, and vegans. After multivariable adjustment, incidence rate ratios (95% CIs) for moderate meat eaters (50-99 g meat/d), low meat eaters (<50 g meat/d), fish eaters, vegetarians, and vegans compared with high-meat eaters (≥100 g meat/d) were 0.96 (0.84, 1.11), 0.85 (0.72, 0.99), 0.79 (0.65, 0.97), 0.70 (0.58, 0.84), and 0.60 (0.38, 0.96), respectively (P < 0.001 for heterogeneity). Associations between cataract risk and intakes of selected nutrients and foods generally reflected the strong association with diet group"
• Effect of vegetarian diets on bone mineral density: a Bayesian meta-analysis