Health Of Chinese Vegetarians Compared To Omnivores

This study compared 171 vegetarian men to 129 age-matched omnivores in China, to determine the effects on cardiovascular disease. The vegetarian men were healthier than meat-eaters on a number of factors: weight, blood pressure, arterial walls, cholesterol, and triglycerides.

From Article Abstract:

“Compared to the omnivores, the vegetarians had lower BMI, weight, systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure. Also, the levels of triglyceride, total cholesterol, HDL-Cholesterol, LDL-Cholesterol, ApoA1, ApoB, uric acid, albumin and g-glutamyltransferase were significantly reduced in vegetarians. Omnivores had significantly higher fasting blood glucose than that of vegetarians. However, there were no differences in fasting insulin, C- reactive protein and HOMA-IR between the two groups. IMT was thinner in the vegetarian group than in the omnivore group (0.59 ± 0.16 vs. 0.63 ± 0.10 cm, P < 0.05). The vegetarians were divided according to duration of vegetarian diet (< 6 years, 6 to ≤ 11 years, > 11 years), those in tertile 1 (< 6 years) and tertile 2 (6 to ≤ 11 years) had shown thinner IMT as compared to the omnivores, and tertile 3 had shown no reduction.”

“A decrease in multiple cardiovascular risk factors such as BMI, blood pressure and lipid profile was associated with vegetarian diet. Moreover, taking a low-calorie, low-protein, or vegetarian diet might have great beneficial effects on IMT through improved lipid profile, and the beneficial effects appeared to be correlated with the duration of vegetarian diet.”

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