Comparison of Major Protein-Source Foods and Other Food Groups in Meat-Eaters and Non-Meat-Eaters in the EPIC-Oxford Cohort

Papier Papier,Key Key,Travis Travis,Knuppel Knuppel,Fensom Fensom,Bradbury Bradbury,Schmidt Schmidt,Tong Tong,Appleby Appleby,Perez-Cornago Perez-Cornago

doi:10.3390/nu11040824

Abstract

Differences in health outcomes between meat-eaters and non-meat-eaters might relate to differences in dietary intakes between these diet groups. We assessed intakes of major protein-source foods and other food groups in six groups of meat-eaters and non-meat-eaters participating in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC)-Oxford study. The data were from 30,239 participants who answered questions regarding their consumption of meat, fish, dairy or eggs and completed a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) in 2010. Participants were categorized as regular meat-eaters, low meat-eaters, poultry-eaters, fish-eaters, vegetarians and vegans. FFQ foods were categorized into 45 food groups and analysis of variance was used to test for differences between age-adjusted mean intakes of each food group by diet group. Regular meat-eaters, vegetarians and vegans, respectively, consumed about a third, quarter and a fifth of their total energy intake from high protein-source foods. Compared with regular meat-eaters, low and non-meat-eaters consumed higher amounts of high-protein meat alternatives (soy, legumes, pulses, nuts, seeds) and other plant-based foods (whole grains, vegetables, fruits) and lower amounts of refined grains, fried foods, alcohol and sugar-sweetened beverages. These findings provide insight into potential nutritional explanations for differences in health outcomes between diet groups.

Highlights

Vegetarian diets, characterized by the avoidance of meat, meat products and fish and vegan diets, characterized by abstention from all animal products, have become increasingly popular in Western countries [1]
Some studies were based on small numbers of vegetarians or vegans [14,16,17,18,19,21] and only one study investigated vegetarian diets in the UK [15]
The aims of the current study are to describe and compare intakes of major protein-source foods and other food groups in regular meat-eaters, low meat-eaters, poultry-eaters, fish-eaters, vegetarians and vegans participating in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC)-Oxford study

Summary

Introduction

Vegetarian diets, characterized by the avoidance of meat, meat products and fish and vegan diets, characterized by abstention from all animal products, have become increasingly popular in Western countries [1]. Studies that have investigated the health effects of substituting red meat with vegetarian protein sources have observed lower risks of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease [9], coronary heart disease [10], stroke [11] and total mortality [12]. Some previous studies have described food intakes of vegetarians and vegans [13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22] and reported that, compared to meat-eaters, non-meat-eaters consumed more soy and other legumes, nuts and seeds, whole grains, vegetables and fruits and less sugary drinks, refined grains, fried foods and alcohol. There is a need for more information on this in studies with a large number of vegetarians to further characterize the food intakes of non-meat-eaters

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