Dietary Quality in Vegetarian and Omnivorous Female Students in Germany: A Retrospective Study

Vegetarian diets have gained in popularity, especially among highly educated women, and are considered beneficial to health. Comparative studies assessing the diet of vegetarians against omnivores rather limited often provide ambivalent results. Therefore, this study examined nutrient intake nutritional quality vegetarian omnivorous a group 61 female students Germany. Habitual dietary was evaluated using validated graphical online food frequency questionnaire (FFQ). Differences intakes were analyzed by Mann–Whitney-U-Tests. Odds Ratios (OR) calculated for exceeding reference values (DRV) compared omnivores. The overall assessed Healthy-Eating-Index-2015 (HEI-2015). In omnivores, total energy from saturated fatty acids (SFA), monounsaturated (MUFA), long-chain omega-3 polyunsaturated (LC-n3-PUFA), cholesterol, sucrose, lactose, retinol, cobalamin significantly higher than vegetarians. Significantly lower observed fiber, magnesium, beta-carotene. Significant OR detected fat (OR = 0.29), SFA 0.04), beta-carotene 4.55), 0.32). HEI-2015 scores (79 points versus 74 points) significant differences recorded components dairy, seafood & plant proteins, acids, added sugars, acids.