Background: There is convincing evidence that vegetarians have lower incidence of coronary heart disease, but there is a debate as to why this is the case. Objective: The aim of the study was to investigate whether a shift from a mixed diet to a lacto-vegetarian diet would lead to a decrease in risk for coronary heart diseases indicated by surrogate markers. Design: Twenty volunteers participat...

This study investigated the effect of switching normal diet to vegetarian diet rich in vegetables and fruits for school foodservice and home meal on the nutritional status, bowel habit improvement and stress reduction of teachers and adolescents. A total of 40 research subjects (26 students, 14 teachers) from one middle school voluntarily participated in the research. Questionnaire surveys and ...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Patients with advanced chronic kidney disease (CKD) are in positive phosphorus balance, but phosphorus levels are maintained in the normal range through phosphaturia induced by increases in fibroblast growth factor-23 (FGF23) and parathyroid hormone (PTH). This provides the rationale for recommendations to restrict dietary phosphate intake to 800 mg/d. However, the pro...

BACKGROUND The association between vegetarian diets and bone mineral density (BMD) is controversial because of conflicting findings from previous studies. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to estimate the effect of vegetarian diets on BMD by using a meta-analytic approach. DESIGN A systematic electronic literature search was conducted to identify all relevant articles on the association b...

OBJECTIVE The study objective was to compare dietary patterns in their relationship with metabolic risk factors (MRFs) and the metabolic syndrome (MetS). RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Cross-sectional analysis of 773 subjects (mean age 60 years) from the Adventist Health Study 2 was performed. Dietary pattern was derived from a food frequency questionnaire and classified as vegetarian (35%), sem...

BACKGROUND Despite the possible overall health benefits of a vegetarian diet, there is concern that some vegetarians and infrequent meat eaters, particularly females, may have inadequate iron status because of low or no heme-iron intakes. OBJECTIVE The objective was to investigate the nutritional intake and iron status of vegetarian women. DESIGN The nutritional intakes of 50 free-living ve...

OBJECTIVES The aim of present study was to investigate serum homocysteine levels in apparently healthy vegetarians and ominvores in Mithi, district Tharparker, Sindh, Pakistan. METHODS This study was conducted in the Department of Biochemistry, Basic Medical Sciences Institute (BMSI), Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center (JPMC), Karachi and blood samples were collected from Mithi, district Thar...

This is an investigation of the long-term effects of a shift from a mixed diet to a lacto-vegetarian diet and of a return to a mixed diet on the mutagenic activity in urine and faeces. The participants were 20 normal weight, non-smoking subjects. Dietary surveys and urinary and faecal samples were collected before and 3, 6 and 12 months after the dietary shift as well as 3 years after terminati...

This companion paper to the Position of the American Dietetic Association and Dietitians of Canada: Vegetarian Diets, presents a new food guide for vegetarians. Two graphic formats are presented, a rainbow and a pyramid. The guide will assist vegetarians in choosing diets that meet recent recommendations established by the Institute of Medicine for nutrients including protein, iron, zinc, calci...

A population-based sample of Seventh-Day Adventists was studied to determine the relationship between vegetarian status, body mass index (BMI), obesity, diabetes mellitus (DM), and hypertension, in order to gain a better understanding of factors influencing chronic diseases in Barbados. A systematic sampling from a random start technique was used to select participants for the study. A standard...