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Application of a Modified Healthy Eating Index (HEI-Flex) to Compare the Diet Quality of Flexitarians, Vegans and Omnivores in Germany
Interest in plant-based nutrition has steadily increased in the western world in the recent years. The number of people following a meat-reduced, flexitarian diet is growing continuously. However, little is known about the diet quality of flexitarians compared to vegans or omnivores. Therefore, in t...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2022
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9330316/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35893892 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu14153038 |
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author | Bruns, Anja Mueller, Mattea Schneider, Inga Hahn, Andreas |
author_facet | Bruns, Anja Mueller, Mattea Schneider, Inga Hahn, Andreas |
author_sort | Bruns, Anja |
collection | PubMed |
description | Interest in plant-based nutrition has steadily increased in the western world in the recent years. The number of people following a meat-reduced, flexitarian diet is growing continuously. However, little is known about the diet quality of flexitarians compared to vegans or omnivores. Therefore, in this cross-sectional study, the food intake of 94 participants aged between 25–45 years was recorded via a validated food frequency questionnaire and 28 self-designed questions about the consumption of plant-based alternatives. An adapted Healthy Eating Index, HEI-flex, was developed to evaluate the diet quality of flexitarians, vegans and omnivores. Higher score points (SP) of the HEI-flex are associated with higher compliance with the official diet recommendations (V(max) = 100 SP). Finally, flexitarians scored significantly more highly when compared to omnivores (54 ± 8 vs. 47 ± 9 SP; p = 0.008) but lower than vegans (54 ± 8 vs. 61 ± 10 SP; p = 0.010). The results showed that the HEI-flex is a useful tool for assessing and comparing the diet quality of flexitarians, vegans and omnivores. Despite the consumption of highly processed plant-based alternatives, reduction in meat and meat products seems to be accompanied by increased overall diet quality. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9330316 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-93303162022-07-29 Application of a Modified Healthy Eating Index (HEI-Flex) to Compare the Diet Quality of Flexitarians, Vegans and Omnivores in Germany Bruns, Anja Mueller, Mattea Schneider, Inga Hahn, Andreas Nutrients Article Interest in plant-based nutrition has steadily increased in the western world in the recent years. The number of people following a meat-reduced, flexitarian diet is growing continuously. However, little is known about the diet quality of flexitarians compared to vegans or omnivores. Therefore, in this cross-sectional study, the food intake of 94 participants aged between 25–45 years was recorded via a validated food frequency questionnaire and 28 self-designed questions about the consumption of plant-based alternatives. An adapted Healthy Eating Index, HEI-flex, was developed to evaluate the diet quality of flexitarians, vegans and omnivores. Higher score points (SP) of the HEI-flex are associated with higher compliance with the official diet recommendations (V(max) = 100 SP). Finally, flexitarians scored significantly more highly when compared to omnivores (54 ± 8 vs. 47 ± 9 SP; p = 0.008) but lower than vegans (54 ± 8 vs. 61 ± 10 SP; p = 0.010). The results showed that the HEI-flex is a useful tool for assessing and comparing the diet quality of flexitarians, vegans and omnivores. Despite the consumption of highly processed plant-based alternatives, reduction in meat and meat products seems to be accompanied by increased overall diet quality. MDPI 2022-07-24 /pmc/articles/PMC9330316/ /pubmed/35893892 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu14153038 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Article Bruns, Anja Mueller, Mattea Schneider, Inga Hahn, Andreas Application of a Modified Healthy Eating Index (HEI-Flex) to Compare the Diet Quality of Flexitarians, Vegans and Omnivores in Germany |
title | Application of a Modified Healthy Eating Index (HEI-Flex) to Compare the Diet Quality of Flexitarians, Vegans and Omnivores in Germany |
title_full | Application of a Modified Healthy Eating Index (HEI-Flex) to Compare the Diet Quality of Flexitarians, Vegans and Omnivores in Germany |
title_fullStr | Application of a Modified Healthy Eating Index (HEI-Flex) to Compare the Diet Quality of Flexitarians, Vegans and Omnivores in Germany |
title_full_unstemmed | Application of a Modified Healthy Eating Index (HEI-Flex) to Compare the Diet Quality of Flexitarians, Vegans and Omnivores in Germany |
title_short | Application of a Modified Healthy Eating Index (HEI-Flex) to Compare the Diet Quality of Flexitarians, Vegans and Omnivores in Germany |
title_sort | application of a modified healthy eating index (hei-flex) to compare the diet quality of flexitarians, vegans and omnivores in germany |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9330316/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35893892 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu14153038 |
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