We know that vegetarians tend to be thinner, but there is this perception that vegetarian diets may be somewhat deficient in nutrients. So what does a study of 13,000 people give that compares the nutritional intake of people who eat meat with that of those who do not?
They found that those who eat vegetarian get higher intakes of almost all the nutrients: more fiber, more vitamin A; more vitamin C, more vitamin E, more of the group B vitamins (thiamine, riboflavin, and folate), more calcium, magnesium, iron and potassium, while at the same time eating less harmful substances like saturated fat and cholesterol. And yes, they had enough protein.
And some of these nutrients are those of Americans really struggling to get enough fiber, vitamins A, C and E, calcium, magnesium, potassium, and those eating vegetarians got more from each of them. Despite that, however, just because they did better than the standard American diet is not saying much, they still don’t get as much as they should. I mean yes those vegetarians eating ate the darker green vegetables but barely sticking out two teaspoons of more greens.
In terms of weight management, vegetarians consumed an average of 363 calories less per day. It’s like what you do when you go on a diet and limit your food intake, but that seemed just like what vegetarians normally eat, so a vegetarian diet could be considered an all-you-care version – Eating a calorie restriction weight loss diet, which naturally induces weight loss and also help maintain healthy weight status in the long term. So just following a vegetarian diet alone, without focusing on reducing calories, could lead to weight loss.
How sustainable are the long term vegetarian diet? They are indeed among the only types of diets that have been shown to be viable in the long term, perhaps because not only do people lose weight, but they often feel so much better.
And there is no counting calories or portion control. Indeed, vegetarians can burn more calories in their sleep! Those who eat more plant-based diets appear to have an 11% higher resting metabolic rate. The vegetarians and vegans in this study naturally seemed to me to have a runaway metabolism compared to those eating meat.
That said, the vegetarian diet in this study included the consumption of eggs and dairy products, so that when they were significantly leaner than those who ate meat, they were still, on average, overweight. As we have seen previously, the only dietary pattern associated on average with ideal body weight is herbal for strict purposes. But still … this study does not dispel the myth that meatless diets are somehow nutrient deficient. Indeed, in response to the editor of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association asked, what could be more nutrient dense than a vegetarian diet?