Metabolic profiles of male meat eaters, fish eaters, vegetarians, and vegans from the EPIC-Oxford cohort.

The hypothesis of this study was that men who ate a meat-free diet will have a different metabolic profile then the men who ate meat. This study looks at amino acid intake, metabolites, fat, protein and carbohydrates in males who ate a meat-based diet, fish-based diet, vegetarian diet and a vegan diet. They tested 379 men through a food frequency questionnaire, lifestyle questions, body size questions, previous diseases and blood samples. Through these questions it was found that these men ate between 800-4000 calories a day and none of the men disclosed any diseases through their questionnaires. It was also found that vegan men had the most differences, metabolically, when looking at all other men in this study.

Each diet group had over 90 men in it: there were 95 men who included meat in their diet, 97 who ate a fish-based diet, 91 who were vegetarians and 96 who were vegans. Each questionnaire had 130 food and drink based questions, while 113 of these questions were vegan or vegetarian friendly. They also took alcohol and tobacco (in cigarette form) in to account when conducting this study. In the results it shows that the highest BMI was seen in meat eaters and then in descending order: fish eaters and vegetarians. Vegans had the lowest BMI collectively. Meat eaters had the highest amount of energy intake and then vegetarians, fish eaters and vegans being the ones who consume the least amount of energy. Vegans had the highest intake of carbohydrates, while meat eaters had the lowest intake of this macronutrient. Fat intake varied greatly but alcohol intake was most prevalent in fish eaters. BG.

Schmidt, J. A., Rinaldi, S., Ferrari, P., Carayol, M., Achaintre, D., Scalbert, A., & ... Travis, R. C. (2015). Metabolic profiles of male meat eaters, fish eaters, vegetarians, and vegans from the EPIC-Oxford cohort. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 102(6), 1518-1526. doi:10.3945/ajcn.115.111989