Abstract:

Objective To explore the effects of vegetarian type and duration on body composition in vegetarians. Methods Two hundred and thirty-five healthy adult vegetarians willing to be surveyed were enrolled from 10 vegetarian restaurants in Shanghai from April 2012 to July 2013. Vegetarians were assigned to vegan group (n=99) and lacto-ovo-vegetarian group (n=136) according to vegetarian type and <5 year group (n=157) and ≥ 5 year group (n=78) according to vegetarian duration. Vegetarians were surveyed with questionnaires. Their body height and weight were measured and body composition was detected by a human body composition analyzer. Results Multivariate analysis showed that differences in body composition indexes such as body protein, skeletal muscle, body mineral and body fat between the vegan group and the lacto-ovo-vegetarian group were not statistically significant after adjusted for age, sex and vegetarian duration (P>0.05). The difference in the risk of overweight/obesity between two groups was not significant after adjusted for age, sex, vegetarian duration and dietary energy intake (P>0.05), but the risk of central obesity in the lacto-ovo-vegetarian group was markedly lower than that in the vegan group (OR=0.164, 95%CI 0.048-0.554, P=0.004). The differences in above indexes between the <5 year group and the ≥ 5 year group was not statistically significant (P>0.05). Conclusion Different vegetarian types and durations have no obvious impact on body composition indexes. The risk of central obesity in lacto-ovo-vegetarians may be lower than that in vegans, but further studies are needed to confirm this finding.

Key words: vegetarian, vegan, lactoovovegetarian, body composition, obesity