A Comparative Evaluation Of Vegan, Vegetarian And Omnivore Diets

Summary

Any group which is health-conscious will tend to pay careful attention to what they eat. To determine whether one dietary regimen would more closely approximate the current thinking on diet and good health than another, we investigated the diets of vegans, lacto-ova-vegetarians, whole food omnivores and average omnivores by analysing nine day weighed food intakes. Thirty-seven adults participated in this pilot study. The medical practitioner responsiblefor the physical measurements was Dr Andrew Lockie of Guildford. The pilot study showed that the weight for height for all participants fell within the desirable range given by the Royal College of Physicians (NACNE, 1983).

The vegan diet was high in dietary fibre and carbohydrates, and low in fats and cholesterol. It was low in riboflavin and vitamin B₁₂, but met all other United Kingdom dietary recommendations.

The lacto-ovo-vegetarian diet met all recommended requirements for nutrients. The diet had an ample quantity of dietary fibre, a moderate quantity of carbohydrates with a low sugar and alcohol content. Fats contributed 18 per cent of the energy and energy from animal foods represented 15.6 per cent of total energy but cholesterol levels were significantly lower than the omnivore diets.

The whole food omnivore diet had low levels of energy and sodium but contrary to expectations, dietary fibre was the lowest of the four diets and energy derived from animal fats was the highest. Whole grain cereals were eaten, but represented a small proportion of the diet.

The average omnivore diet had an excess of all nutrients. It had low levels of dietary fibre, carbohydrates and potassium and high levels of fat and sugar. Both dietary intake of cholesterol and blood levels were undesirably high. Apart from illustrating that better nutrition education is needed for the population in general, the study showed that more information on the nutritional content of foods is required by those people who arc trying to alter their eating habits.