Abstract
BackgroundTo investigate the prevalence of obesity and diabetes among adult men and women in India consuming different types of vegetarian diets compared with those consuming non-vegetarian diets.MethodsWe used cross-sectional data of 156,317 adults aged 20–49 years who participated in India’s third National Family Health Survey (2005–06). Association between types of vegetarian diet (vegan, lacto-vegetarian, lacto-ovo vegetarian, pesco-vegetarian, semi-vegetarian and non-vegetarian) and self-reported diabetes status and measured body mass index (BMI) were estimated using multivariable logistic regression adjusting for age, gender, education, household wealth, rural/urban residence, religion, caste, smoking, alcohol use, and television watching.ResultsMean BMI was lowest in pesco-vegetarians (20.3 kg/m2) and vegans (20.5 kg/m2) and highest in lacto-ovo vegetarian (21.0 kg/m2) and lacto-vegetarian (21.2 kg/m2) diets. Prevalence of diabetes varied from 0.9% (95% CI: 0.8-1.1) in person consuming lacto-vegetarian, lacto-ovo vegetarian (95% CI:0.6-1.3) and semi-vegetarian (95% CI:0.7-1.1) diets and was highest in those persons consuming a pesco-vegetarian diet (1.4%; 95% CI:1.0-2.0). Consumption of a lacto- (OR:0.67;95% CI:0.58-0.76;p < 0.01), lacto-ovo (OR:0.70; 95% CI:0.51-0.96;p = 0.03) and semi-vegetarian (OR:0.77; 95% CI:0.60-0.98; p = 0.03) diet was associated with a lower likelihood of diabetes than a non-vegetarian diet in the adjusted analyses.ConclusionsIn this large, nationally representative sample of Indian adults, lacto-, lacto-ovo and semi-vegetarian diets were associated with a lower likelihood of diabetes. These findings may assist in the development of interventions to address the growing burden of overweight/obesity and diabetes in Indian population. However, prospective studies with better measures of dietary intake and clinical measures of diabetes are needed to clarify this relationship.
Highlights
To investigate the prevalence of obesity and diabetes among adult men and women in India consuming different types of vegetarian diets compared with those consuming non-vegetarian diets
We hypothesized that exclusively vegetarian diets, such as vegan, lacto- or lacto-ovo vegetarian, are associated with a lower prevalence of diabetes and obesity compared with a non-vegetarian diet
Our finding suggest that persons consuming a lacto vegetarian, lacto-ovo vegetarian or semi-vegetarian diet had a lower likelihood of diabetes compared with those consuming non-vegetarian diet after adjustment for a number of socioeconomic and lifestyle factors
Summary
To investigate the prevalence of obesity and diabetes among adult men and women in India consuming different types of vegetarian diets compared with those consuming non-vegetarian diets. The contribution of the Indian diet to the increasing prevalence of diabetes in the country is not well understood. There is little information on whether the vegetarian diet confers a similar protective effect against obesity and diabetes that have been demonstrated in western studies. This is an important question given the ongoing preponderance of vegetarianism in certain social and religious groups in India coupled with an increase in meat eating associated with growth in western-style diets in some section of the Indian society. We hypothesized that exclusively vegetarian diets, such as vegan, lacto- or lacto-ovo vegetarian, are associated with a lower prevalence of diabetes and obesity compared with a non-vegetarian diet
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