Abstract
Background
The vast majority of the world population declares affiliation to a religion, predominantly Christianity and Islam. Many religions have special dietary rules, which may be more or ...less strictly adhered to.
Methods
Religious food rules were collected from holy books and religious websites as well as their translation into dietary practices. The literature was searched for potential associations between these rules and potential nutritional consequences.
Results
Jewish, Islamic and Indian religions support prolonged breastfeeding. Religious avoidance of alcohol is probably beneficial to health. When strictly applied, a few rules may lead to nutritional inadequacies, mainly in populations living in unfavourable socio-economic or environmental conditions. In Jewish and Muslim observants, animal slaughtering procedures may increase the risk of iron deficiency. Jews may be at risk of excess sodium intake related to home-prepared foods. A vegan diet, as observed by some believers, often by drifting from original precepts, or by some Hindus or Buddhists, may result in vitamin B12, calcium, iron, zinc, selenium and n-3 fatty acids deficiencies.
Conclusion
When implemented in accordance with the rules, most religious food precepts are not detrimental to health, as suggested by the fact that they have more or less been followed for millennia. Nevertheless, some practices may lead to nutritional inadequacies, such as iron, calcium, vitamin D and vitamin B12 deficiencies. Patients with low socio-economic status, children and women of childbearing age are of particular risk of such deficiencies. Being aware of them should help health professionals to take an individualized approach to decide whether to supplement or not.
Early human food cultures were plant-based. Major religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism have recommended a vegetarian way of life since their conception. The recorded history of vegetarian ...nutrition started in the sixth century bc by followers of the Orphic mysteries. The Greek philosopher Pythagoras is considered the father of ethical vegetarianism. The Pythagorean way of life was followed by a number of important personalities and influenced vegetarian nutrition until the 19th century. In Europe, vegetarian nutrition more or less disappeared during the Middle Ages. In the Renaissance era and in the Age of Enlightenment, various personalities practiced vegetarianism. The first vegetarian society was started in England in 1847. The International Vegetarian Society was founded in 1908 and the first vegan society began in 1944. Prominent vegetarians during this time included Sylvester Graham, John Harvey Kellogg, and Maximilian Bircher-Benner. A paradigm shift occurred at the turn of the 21st century. The former prejudices that vegetarianism leads to malnutrition were replaced by scientific evidence showing that vegetarian nutrition reduces the risk of most contemporary diseases. Today, vegetarian nutrition has a growing international following and is increasingly accepted. The main reasons for this trend are health concerns and ethical, ecologic, and social issues. The future of vegetarian nutrition is promising because sustainable nutrition is crucial for the well-being of humankind. An increasing number of people do not want animals to suffer nor do they want climate change; they want to avoid preventable diseases and to secure a livable future for generations to come.
To summarize and evaluate the evidence on the health impact of a vegan diet, we conducted an umbrella review of systematic reviews and meta-analyses. PubMed, Cochrane Library, Web of Science and ...Epistemonikos were searched up to September 2021. Meta-analyses were recalculated by using a random effects model. The certainty of evidence (CoE) was evaluated by the GRADE approach. For the general healthy population, a vegan diet was effective for reducing body weight MD (95% CI): −2.52 kg (−3.06, −1.98), n = 8 RCTs; moderate CoE and was associated with further health benefits (with low CoE), including a lower risk of cancer incidence SRR (95% CI): 0.84 (0.75, 0.95), n = 2 and a trend for lower risk of all-cause mortality SRR (95% CI): 0.87 (0.75, 1.01), n = 2, as well as lower ApoB levels MD (95% CI): −0.19 µmol/L (−0.23, −0.15), n = 7 RCTs). The findings suggested adverse associations for a vegan diet with risk of fractures SRR (95% CI): 1.46 (1.03, 2.07), n = 3; low CoE. For persons with diabetes or at high CVD risk, a vegan diet reduced measures of adiposity, total cholesterol, LDL and improved glycemic control (CoE moderate to low). A vegan diet may have the potential for the prevention of cardiometabolic health, but it may also impair bone health. More well-conducted primary studies are warranted.
It is assumed that diet influences the composition of gut microbiota, which in turn may affect human health status. This systematic review aimed to summarize associations of a vegan or vegetarian ...diet with the composition of microbiota. A literature search was conducted in PubMed and Embase for eligible human studies with vegan or vegetarian diets as an exposure and microbiota composition as an outcome in healthy adults. Furthermore, data from our cross-sectional study with vegan participants were included. Out of sixteen included studies, six investigated the association between gut microbiota composition in both vegans and in vegetarians, six in vegans and four studies in vegetarians compared to omnivores, respectively. Among 5 different phyla, 28 families, 96 genera and 177 species, Bacteroides, Bifidobacterium and Prevotella were the most reported genera, followed by the species Prevotella copri, Faecalibacterium prausnitzii and Escherichia coli in all diets. No consistent association between a vegan diet or vegetarian diet and microbiota composition compared to omnivores could be identified. Moreover, some studies revealed contradictory results. This result could be due to high microbial individuality, and/or differences in the applied approaches. Standardized methods with high taxonomical and functional resolutions are needed to clarify this issue.
Display omitted
•Alternate proteins (APs) are healthier, more sustainable, and environmentally friendly.•Vegan proteins can be recovered from plant sources, fungi, algae and cell culture.•Some APs ...have reduced bioavailability, nutritional equivalency and digestibility.•Processing technologies can change the digestibility and bioavailability.
Alternate proteins are gaining popularity as a more sustainable and environmentally friendly alternative to animal-based proteins. These proteins are often considered healthier and are suitable for people following a vegetarian or vegan diet. Alternative proteins can be recovered from natural sources like legumes, grains, nuts, and seeds, while single cell proteins (mycoproteins), and algal proteins are being developed using cutting-edge technology to grow fungus, yeast and algal cells in a controlled environment, creating a more sustainable source of protein. Although, the demand for alternative protein products is increasing, there still happens to be a large gap in use among the general consumers mainly stemming from its lower bioavailability, lack of nutritional equivalency and reduced digestibility compared to animal proteins. The focus of the review is to emphasize on various sources and technologies for recovering alternative proteins for vegan diets. The review discusses physicochemical properties of alternative proteins and emphasise on the role of various processing technologies that can change the digestibility and bioavailability of these proteins. It further accentuates the nutritional equivalency and environmental sustainability of alternative protein against the conventional proteins from animals. The food laws surrounding alternative proteins as well as the commercial potential and consumer acceptance of alternative protein products are also highlighted. Finally, key challenges to improve the consumer acceptability and market value of plant-based proteins would be in achieving nutrient equivalency and enhance bioavailability and digestibility while maintaining the same physicochemical properties, taste, texture, as animal proteins, has also been highlighted.
•Optimal default menus nudge consumers toward sustainable, vegan entree choices.•Vegan food familiarity does not moderate the effect of menu format on entree choice.•Encouraging consumers to choose ...vegan entrees does not result in greater food waste.•Defaults are a tool for the dining industry to transition to more sustainable foods.
Vegan diets confer less adverse environmental impact than omnivore and vegetarian diets. While many consumers have shifted to more environmentally sustainable diets in recent years, additional strategies are needed to encourage these choices. As some vegan foods are unfamiliar to mainstream diners, food neophobia may deter the selection of such items. The current research applied a behavioral economics strategy, optimal defaults, to menu design in a two-part study that aimed to increase selection of vegan menu choices. Two experiments were conducted in analogue internet and college dining hall settings to investigate the effect of menu default presentation (optimal default, suboptimal default, or free array) on choice of vegan and omnivore menu items, stratified across familiar and unfamiliar vegan food options (six menu conditions total). Two-hundred ninety-nine young adults without dietary restrictions completed the analogue internet experiment and 209 college students completed the college dining hall experiment. Participants were randomly presented with one of the six experimental menus and asked to choose their entree. Chi-square and binomial logistic regression analyses were used to assess the independent and interactive contributions of menu format and vegan-item familiarity level on entree choice (vegan or omnivore). Results showed that in both simulated and real-world settings, optimal default menus were more successful at nudging consumers toward sustainable, vegan entree choices than no-default, free array menus and, in the dining hall experiment, did not result in greater food waste. Vegan food familiarity level did not moderate the effect of menu format on entree choice. Optimal default menus could be a feasible and effective tool for the dining industry to transition to more sustainable, including less familiar, food offerings.
For >50 y, dietary guidelines in the United States have focused on reducing intakes of saturated and total fat. However, rates of obesity and diabetes rose markedly throughout this period, with ...potentially catastrophic implications for public health and the economy. Recently, ketogenic diets have received substantial attention from the general public and nutrition research community. These very-low-carbohydrate diets, with fat comprising >70% of calories, have been dismissed as fads. However, they have a long history in clinical medicine and human evolution. Ketogenic diets appear to be more effective than low-fat diets for treatment of obesity and diabetes. In addition to the reductions in blood glucose and insulin achievable through carbohydrate restriction, chronic ketosis might confer unique metabolic benefits of relevance to cancer, neurodegenerative conditions, and other diseases associated with insulin resistance. Based on available evidence, a well-formulated ketogenic diet does not appear to have major safety concerns for the general public and can be considered a first-line approach for obesity and diabetes. High-quality clinical trials of ketogenic diets will be needed to assess important questions about their long-term effects and full potential in clinical medicine.
Pelagra: una enfermedad antigua en un mundo moderno López, Diego; Otero, Gabriela
Nutrición hospitalaria : organo oficial de la Sociedad Española de Nutrición Parenteral y Enteral,
06/2021, Volume:
38, Issue:
3
Journal Article
Open access
Resumen Introducción: la pelagra es una enfermedad sistémica secundaria a la deficiencia de vitamina B3 o de su precursor, el triptófano. La vitamina B3 es necesaria para varios procesos metabólicos, ...de señalización celular y reparación del ADN. Se caracteriza por la tétrada clásica de dermatitis, diarrea, demencia y muerte. La misma es considerada una enfermedad rara hoy en día; sin embargo, con el auge de las dietas restrictivas sin la adecuada suplementación, como es el caso del veganismo, se ha visto un aumento de los casos en los últimos años. Caso clínico: exponemos el caso de una paciente adulta joven, vegana estricta, a la cual se le realizó el diagnóstico de pelagra y se le instauró un tratamiento de forma precoz, con una excelente evolución. Discusión: el interés del caso radica en la importancia de la sospecha clínica y la anamnesis dirigida a factores sociales y nutricionales, adaptados a la época actual, para poder hacer el diagnóstico de una enfermedad rara e infradiagnosticada que es potencialmente mortal de retrasarse el inicio del tratamiento.
ABSTRACT
Background
Vegetarian diets may promote weight loss, but evidence remains inconclusive.
Methods
PubMed, EMBASE and UpToDate databases were searched through September 22, 2014, and ...investigators extracted data regarding study characteristics and assessed study quality among selected randomized clinical trials. Population size, demographic (i.e., gender and age) and anthropometric (i.e., body mass index) characteristics, types of interventions, follow-up periods, and trial quality (Jadad score) were recorded. The net changes in body weight of subjects were analyzed and pooled after assessing heterogeneity with a random effects model. Subgroup analysis was performed based on type of vegetarian diet, type of energy restriction, study population, and follow-up period.
Results
Twelve randomized controlled trials were included, involving a total of 1151 subjects who received the intervention over a median duration of 18 weeks. Overall, individuals assigned to the vegetarian diet groups lost significantly more weight than those assigned to the non-vegetarian diet groups (weighted mean difference, −2.02 kg; 95 % confidence interval CI: −2.80 to −1.23). Subgroup analysis detected significant weight reduction in subjects consuming a vegan diet (−2.52 kg; 95 % CI: −3.02 to −1.98) and, to a lesser extent, in those given lacto-ovo-vegetarian diets (−1.48 kg; 95 % CI: −3.43 to 0.47). Studies on subjects consuming vegetarian diets with energy restriction (ER) revealed a significantly greater weight reduction (−2.21 kg; 95 % CI: −3.31 to −1.12) than those without ER (−1.66 kg; 95 % CI: −2.85 to −0.48). The weight loss for subjects with follow-up of <1 year was greater (−2.05 kg; 95 % CI: −2.85 to −1.25) than those with follow-up of ≥1 year (−1.13 kg; 95 % CI: −2.04 to −0.21).
Conclusions
Vegetarian diets appeared to have significant benefits on weight reduction compared to non-vegetarian diets. Further long-term trials are needed to investigate the effects of vegetarian diets on body weight control.
Introduction: The data in the literature on the appropriateness of vegetarian diets during pregnancy and the impact on the birth anthropometric parameters of the newborn are divergent and ...conflicting. The aim of the present study is to compare the birth anthropometric parameters of three groups of children distinguished according to the dietary pattern followed by their mothers during pregnancy. Moreover, the second aim is to study the cultural inference of vegetarianism.
Materials and methods: Between September 2017 and May 2018, from the Pediatric Service of the Campus Bio-Medico University Hospital of Rome and vegetarian-oriented societies, detailed information have been provided to all mothers who showed interest in participating in the study. More than 100 mothers gave their consent, but in consideration of the criteria of inclusion and exclusion only 55 with the respective children (for a total of 63 kids) have been enlisted in the study. Based on the dietary pattern followed by women during pregnancy, the participants have been divided into three groups: vegan group, lacto-ovo-/lacto-vegetarian group, and omnivorous group. The data necessary for the study have been collected through a questionnaire previously created and sent electronically to 55 enrolled mothers.
Results: From our statistical analysis, it has emerged that birth weight, both when expressed in grams and when expressed in growth percentiles, of the vegan mothers' children is lower than that of the omnivorous mothers' children. No significant difference has emerged from the comparison for the length, cranial circumference and BMI at birth between the three groups.
Conclusion: Although from our study statistically significant differences in birth weight between the vegan group and the omnivorous one has emerged, the values of this anthropometric parameter were all included within the physiological range decided by the experts in the field. From this, it emerges that the planning of any type of diet with experts in the field is indispensable to ensure a physiological development of the fetus, but given the limited number of participants we cannot draw unequivocal and certain conclusions on this subject.
PDF
