Approaches to vegetarian diet and its nutritional risk in youngs

Sirbu, D. and Popa, M. and Curseu, D. (2009) Approaches to vegetarian diet and its nutritional risk in youngs. Acta Alimentaria, 38 (3). pp. 309-317. ISSN 0139-3006

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Abstract

Nowadays, vegetarian nutrition is getting more widespread. The risk of choosing vegetarian diet in young people remains a controversial subject. The aim of this paper is to assess the dietary intake and nutritional status of a vegetarian group aged 16–20 years and to compare the results with those of a non-vegetarian group. On the basis of 10 days of dietary records, the intake of vegetarian group tended to be lower in proteins (P<0.05), fat (P<0.05), cholesterol (P<0.001) and higher in carbohydrates (P<0.05) and dietary fiber (P<0.001). Vegetarians have a lower intake of calcium (P<0.001), and vitamin B12 (P<0.001) and higher intake of phosphorus, magnesium (P<0.001), iron, vitamin E (especially in males), folate and vitamin C (especially in females) than omnivores. In addition, none of the vegetarian subject was overweight and their anthropometric indicators were lower than those found in the nonvegetarian group. Triacylglycerol (P<0.05), total cholesterol (P<0.05), ionised calcium (P<0.05), seric iron (P<0.001) and vitamin B ₁₂ (P<0.001) are lower in vegetarians than in omnivores, but all are still in the normal range.

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