Long-term health of vegetarians & vegans

The Nutrition Society Paper of the Month for February is from Proceedings of the Nutrition Society and is entitled 'The long-term health of vegetarians and vegans'.  The study findings were presented at the 2015 Summer Conference on ‘The future of animal products in the human diet: health and environmental concerns’ during symposium three which focused on alternatives to meat.  Vegetarians are defined as people who do not eat any meat, poultry or fish. They may be sub-classified as lacto-ovo-vegetarians who eat dairy products and/or eggs and vegans who do not eat any animal products. Although vegetarians represent a small proportion of the global population, probably less than 10% overall, calls for a worldwide reduction in the consumption of animal products have meant that their long-term health is a matter of considerable interest. Extensive research into the nutritional adequacy of vegetarian diets has shown that a well-planned vegetarian or vegan diet can supply all of the nutrients required for good health, but less is known about the long-term health of vegetarians and vegans. In our review paper we summarise the main findings from large cross-sectional and prospective cohort studies in western countries with a high proportion of vegetarian participants. The findings show that vegetarians have a lower prevalence of overweight and obesity and a lower risk of ischaemic heart disease compared with non-vegetarians from a similar background, whereas the data are equ...
Source: The Nutrition Society - Category: Nutrition Authors: Source Type: news