How does a Vegetarian Diet Affect Ones Health?

Andrea David
Matthew Muzyliwsky

0793169
0761044

KIN 2020 Fundamentals of Nutrition

David Ma
University of Guelph-Humber
Wednesday, April 2, 2014

How Does a Vegetarian Diet Affect Ones Health?

Andrea David (0793169) & Matthew Muzyliwsky (0761044)
How does a Vegetarian Diet Affect Ones Health?
The idea of being vegetarian has become a more popular dietary practice these
recent years. This type of diet is basically consuming only plant-based products and
strictly no-animal product consumption. There are many different degrees of vegetarian
diets that eliminate certain products. The only question is how affective is it towards
ones health.
Its been expressed that this type of diet has numerous benefits to our health. Its
high nutrient content in fiber; Vitamin C and E, potassium and magnesium are just a few
examples (Craig, 2009, p. 1627S). Compared to an animal-based diet, vegetarians are
said to consume more unsaturated fats. These are just a few factors that decrease risk for
certain diseases such as high blood pressure or heart disease.
Determining whether or not plant-based diet interventions will have a positive
effect on health, individuals were examined in a study called the GEICO study. The
GEICO study recruited men and women, in their corporate offices, with a body mass
index (BMI) greater than 25kg/m2 and previously diagnosed with type-2 diabetes (Mishra
et al., 2013). For eighteen weeks, participants followed a low-fat vegan diet without
reduction of energy intake. They must avoid animal products and minimize the amount of
added oils to less than 3g of fat per servings. Registered dietitians and physicians
provided the workers their weekly lunch-hour classes. The effects of weight loss, heart
disease and diabetes were discussed during these meetings along with cooking
demonstrations and highlighting the low-fat options in the cafeteria. Participants were
asked to continue pre-existing medications and to not change their exercise patterns.
This plant-based dietary intervention provided positive results with significant
weight loss. The randomized, controlled trial method expressed sufficient improvements
in body weight and glycemic control among diabetics. Without caloric restriction and
exercise, loss of weight was found in participants. The weight loss may be a result of the
feeling of fullness because of the high fiber intake in the plant-based diet. This diet also
increased insulin sensitivity, allowing cells to metabolize glucose faster instead of being
stored as fat. With the fat decreases, LDL (bad) cholesterol levels circulating the body
lowered. Not only will plant-based/vegetarian diets decrease weight, according to another
study, it allows for sufficient amounts of protective nutrients and phytochemicals for the
body (Craig, 2009, p. 1627S). There seems to be a great positive outlook for the
vegetarian diet and its effect on health as a whole following a highly variable and
fortified energy intake.
Overall, there is an adequate amount of proof that a vegetarian diet has countless
positive affects to ones health. The only exception to this idea is that people who
undergo plant-based diets consume highly fortified foods and supplements to make up for
the loss of nutrients from not eating animal-based products. Its agreed that the study
performed is a reliable source due to it being a randomized control trial. The consistent
findings throughout these multiple article resources expressing that vegetarian diet
decrease risk of most common diseases shows good evidence towards this notion.

How Does a Vegetarian Diet Affect Ones Health?

Andrea David (0793169) & Matthew Muzyliwsky (0761044)
References
Craig WJ. (2009). Health effects of vegan diets. The American Journal of Clinical
Nutrition, 89 (5), 1627S 1633S.
Doi: 10.3945/ajcn.2009.26736N
Retrieved from http://ajcn.nutrition.orgCra/content/89/5/1627S.full.pdf
Craig WJ. (2010). Nutrition concerns and health effects of vegetarian diets. Nutrition in
Clinical Practice, 25 (6), 613 20. Doi: 10.1177/0884533610385707
Retrieved from
http://ncp.sagepub.com.subzero.lib.uoguelph.ca/content/25/6/613.long
Mishra S, Xu J, Agarwal U, Gonzales J, Levin S, Barnard ND. (2013). A multicenter
randomized controlled trial of a plant-based nutrition program to reduce body
weight and cardiovascular risk in the corporate setting: the GEICO study.
European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 67 (7), 718 724.
Doi: 10.1038/ejcn.2013.92
Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3701293/