A recent article in the
Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry reviews
Chemistry behind Vegetarianism. There was a recent buzz around this article and most of the initial headlines were confusing and seemed to indicate that
Vegans at Higher Risk for Cardiovascular Disease. It was hard to discern this from the abstract but, luckily, Google was able to find
pdf of this article where you can find a table with relative benefits and risks of vegetarianism compared with omnivore. According to this table, omnivores have a significantly higher cluster of cardiovascular risk factors compared with vegetarians, including increased body mass index, waist to hip ratio, blood pressure, plasma total cholesterol, triacylglycerol and low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol levels. Compared with omnivores, vegetarians, especially vegans, on the other hand, have higher risk of blood platelet aggregation,
iron deficiency anemia,
vitamin B₁₂ deficiency and high levels of
homocysteine. The article concludes suggesting that vegetarians, especially vegans, could benefit from increased dietary intake of vitamin B₁₂ and n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid. The list of foods
high in vitamin B₁₂ includes ready-to-eat cereals, such as
wheat flakes,
bran flakes and
oatmeals. The list of foods
high in polyunsaturated fatty acids includes
safflower,
grapeseed,
flaxseed,
sunflowere oil and
walnuts.
Li D (2011). Chemistry behind Vegetarianism. Journal of agricultural and food chemistry, 59 (3), 777-84 PMID: 21204526
