Vegetarianism
From Ganfyd
Web Resources for Vegetarianism
Relevant Clinical Literature
UK Guidance
Other Wikis
Medpedia on Vegetarianism (Less technical, good quality control)
Wikipedia on Vegetarianism (Less technical, ? quality control)
Diet avoiding meat. Different sub-groups:
- Lacto-ovo-vegetarianisms
- animal-derived products, e.g. egg and dairy products.
- Veganism
- no animal-derived products
There appear to be health benefits associated with the diet, but the evidence is based on epidemiological which often cannot totally exclude confounding factors. A vegetarian diet may be simply part of a wider type of healthier lifestyle that and picking out a individual component of a diet as a panacea is unlikely to work, fibre intake being a prime example.[1]
Evidence
- Mortality from ischaemic heart disease is 24% (95% confidence interval 6% - 38%) lower in vegetarians than in meat eaters[2]
- Cardioprotective component not straight forward. That vegetarian diets lowers cholesterol known since 1954[3] but there are multiple active components in nuts, whole grains, unsaturated oils, fruit, and vegetables that may act on immune, platelet and coagulation properties relevant to atherosclerosis as well as risk factors like diabetes mellitus and hypertension.
- Subtypes of vegetarian diets are important with a trend to better health cardiovascular parameters in vegans[4]
- Colon cancer differential is inconsistent between American[5] and more recent British[6] studies.
References
- ↑ Park Y, Hunter DJ, Spiegelman D, Bergkvist L, Berrino F, van den Brandt PA, et al. Dietary fiber intake and risk of colorectal cancer: a pooled analysis of prospective cohort studies. JAMA : the journal of the American Medical Association 2005;294:2849-57. (Direct link – subscription may be required.)
- ↑ Key TJ, Fraser GE, Thorogood M, Appleby PN, Beral V, Reeves G, Burr ML, Chang-Claude J, Frentzel-Beyme R, Kuzma JW, Mann J, McPherson K. Mortality in vegetarians and non-vegetarians: a collaborative analysis of 8300 deaths among 76,000 men and women in five prospective studies. Public health nutrition. 1998 Mar; 1(1):33-41.
- ↑ HARDINGE MG, STARE FJ. Nutritional studies of vegetarians. II. Dietary and serum levels of cholesterol. The Journal of clinical nutrition. 1954 Mar-Apr; 2(2):83-8.
- ↑ Fraser GE. Vegetarian diets: what do we know of their effects on common chronic diseases? The American journal of clinical nutrition. 2009 May; 89(5):1607S-1612S.(Link to article – subscription may be required.)
- ↑ Singh PN, Fraser GE. Dietary risk factors for colon cancer in a low-risk population. American journal of epidemiology. 1998 Oct 15; 148(8):761-74.
- ↑ Key TJ, Appleby PN, Spencer EA, Travis RC, Roddam AW, Allen NE. Cancer incidence in vegetarians: results from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC-Oxford). The American journal of clinical nutrition. 2009 May; 89(5):1620S-1626S.(Link to article – subscription may be required.)
This article is a work in progress. Please feel free to contribute to it.
