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Nutritional status of flexitarians compared to vegans and omnivores - a cross-sectional pilot study

BACKGROUND: In the Western world, there has been a notable rise in the popularity of plant-based, meat-reduced flexitarian diets. Nevertheless, there is insufficient data on the nutritional status of individuals following this dietary pattern. The aim of this study was to investigate the intake and...

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Autores principales: Bruns, Anja, Nebl, Josefine, Jonas, Wiebke, Hahn, Andreas, Schuchardt, Jan Philipp
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10685640/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/38017527
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40795-023-00799-6
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author Bruns, Anja
Nebl, Josefine
Jonas, Wiebke
Hahn, Andreas
Schuchardt, Jan Philipp
author_facet Bruns, Anja
Nebl, Josefine
Jonas, Wiebke
Hahn, Andreas
Schuchardt, Jan Philipp
author_sort Bruns, Anja
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: In the Western world, there has been a notable rise in the popularity of plant-based, meat-reduced flexitarian diets. Nevertheless, there is insufficient data on the nutritional status of individuals following this dietary pattern. The aim of this study was to investigate the intake and endogenous status of various nutrients in a healthy German adult study population consisting of flexitarians (FXs), vegans (Vs) and omnivores (OMNs). METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, dietary intake of 94 non-smoking adults (32 FXs, 33 Vs, 29 OMNs) between 25 and 45 years of age was assessed using 3-day dietary records. In addition, blood samples were collected to determine different endogenous nutrient status markers. RESULTS: 32%, 82% and 24% of the FXs, Vs, and OMNs respectively reported using dietary supplements. In the FXs, intake of total energy as well as macronutrients and most micronutrients were within the reference range. FXs had higher intakes of fiber, retinol-equ., ascorbic acid, folate-equ., tocopherol-equ., calcium, and magnesium compared to OMNs. However, cobalamin intake in FXs (2.12 µg/d) was below the reference (4 µg/d). Based on 4cB12, 13% of FXs showed a cobalamin undersupply [< -0.5 to -2.5] compared to 10% of OMNs, and 9% of Vs. The median 25(OH)D serum concentrations in FXs, Vs and OMNs were 46.6, 55.6, and 59.6 nmol/L. The prevalence of an insufficient/deficient vitamin-D status [< 49.9 nmol 25(OH)D/L] was highest in FXs (53%), followed by Vs (34%) and OMNs (27%). In FXs and Vs, the supplement takers had better cobalamin and vitamin-D status than non-supplement takers. Anemia and depleted iron stores were found only occasionally in all groups. In women, the prevalence of pre-latent iron deficiency and iron deficiency was highest in FXs (67%) compared to Vs (61%) and OMNs (54%). CONCLUSION: Our findings indicated that all three diets delivered sufficient amounts of most macro- and micronutrients. However, deficiencies in cobalamin, vitamin-D, and iron status were common across all diets. Further studies are needed to investigate the nutrient supply status and health consequences of meat-reduced plant-based diets. The study was registered in the German Clinical Trial Register (number: DRKS 00019887, data: 08.01.2020). SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40795-023-00799-6.
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spelling pubmed-106856402023-11-30 Nutritional status of flexitarians compared to vegans and omnivores - a cross-sectional pilot study Bruns, Anja Nebl, Josefine Jonas, Wiebke Hahn, Andreas Schuchardt, Jan Philipp BMC Nutr Research BACKGROUND: In the Western world, there has been a notable rise in the popularity of plant-based, meat-reduced flexitarian diets. Nevertheless, there is insufficient data on the nutritional status of individuals following this dietary pattern. The aim of this study was to investigate the intake and endogenous status of various nutrients in a healthy German adult study population consisting of flexitarians (FXs), vegans (Vs) and omnivores (OMNs). METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, dietary intake of 94 non-smoking adults (32 FXs, 33 Vs, 29 OMNs) between 25 and 45 years of age was assessed using 3-day dietary records. In addition, blood samples were collected to determine different endogenous nutrient status markers. RESULTS: 32%, 82% and 24% of the FXs, Vs, and OMNs respectively reported using dietary supplements. In the FXs, intake of total energy as well as macronutrients and most micronutrients were within the reference range. FXs had higher intakes of fiber, retinol-equ., ascorbic acid, folate-equ., tocopherol-equ., calcium, and magnesium compared to OMNs. However, cobalamin intake in FXs (2.12 µg/d) was below the reference (4 µg/d). Based on 4cB12, 13% of FXs showed a cobalamin undersupply [< -0.5 to -2.5] compared to 10% of OMNs, and 9% of Vs. The median 25(OH)D serum concentrations in FXs, Vs and OMNs were 46.6, 55.6, and 59.6 nmol/L. The prevalence of an insufficient/deficient vitamin-D status [< 49.9 nmol 25(OH)D/L] was highest in FXs (53%), followed by Vs (34%) and OMNs (27%). In FXs and Vs, the supplement takers had better cobalamin and vitamin-D status than non-supplement takers. Anemia and depleted iron stores were found only occasionally in all groups. In women, the prevalence of pre-latent iron deficiency and iron deficiency was highest in FXs (67%) compared to Vs (61%) and OMNs (54%). CONCLUSION: Our findings indicated that all three diets delivered sufficient amounts of most macro- and micronutrients. However, deficiencies in cobalamin, vitamin-D, and iron status were common across all diets. Further studies are needed to investigate the nutrient supply status and health consequences of meat-reduced plant-based diets. The study was registered in the German Clinical Trial Register (number: DRKS 00019887, data: 08.01.2020). SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40795-023-00799-6. BioMed Central 2023-11-28 /pmc/articles/PMC10685640/ /pubmed/38017527 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40795-023-00799-6 Text en © The Author(s) 2023 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
spellingShingle Research
Bruns, Anja
Nebl, Josefine
Jonas, Wiebke
Hahn, Andreas
Schuchardt, Jan Philipp
Nutritional status of flexitarians compared to vegans and omnivores - a cross-sectional pilot study
title Nutritional status of flexitarians compared to vegans and omnivores - a cross-sectional pilot study
title_full Nutritional status of flexitarians compared to vegans and omnivores - a cross-sectional pilot study
title_fullStr Nutritional status of flexitarians compared to vegans and omnivores - a cross-sectional pilot study
title_full_unstemmed Nutritional status of flexitarians compared to vegans and omnivores - a cross-sectional pilot study
title_short Nutritional status of flexitarians compared to vegans and omnivores - a cross-sectional pilot study
title_sort nutritional status of flexitarians compared to vegans and omnivores - a cross-sectional pilot study
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10685640/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/38017527
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40795-023-00799-6
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