Is eliminating meat from your diet good for cardiovascular health? Not so obvious, according to the results of a study presented at the American College of Gastroenterology in Las Vegas in the United States.
The vegetarian diet is one of the most popular diets in the United States, partly due to a public belief that it is considered healthier. However, there are few studies that examine the link between vegetarian diet,obesity and the cardiovascular illnesses. For example, scientists at Rutgers New Jersey School of Medicine in Newark, USA sought to estimate the prevalence of obesity and the risk of cardiovascular disease among vegetarians using the National Health Examination Survey. and Nutrition (NHANES). They followed 12,000 individuals over the age of 20, including 263 vegetarians (2.3%) for 3 years.
“We compared the health and weight of vegetarians to the general population using the Framingham test, a 10-year cardiovascular risk estimation tool that compiles factors such as age, gender, cholesterolblood pressure and smoking status,” the researchers explain.
The hearts of vegetarians would not be better protected than those of carnivores
If vegetarians are more likely to be young, less obese (having a smaller BMI / waist circumference) and a lower prevalence of metabolic syndrome, the analyzes showed that vegetarians displayed a cardiovascular risk of 2.7%, compared to 4.5% for non-vegetarians. “This difference is not statistically significant,” according to the researchers.
These results therefore seem to go against the idea that a diet rich in fruits, vegetables and whole grains prescribed by the majority of nutritionists would be good for heart health.
As this study was conducted over a fairly short time, the authors of the survey plan to continue their research to determine the benefits or not of a vegetarian diet on theobesity and health cardiovascular.
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