Dietary Quality in Vegetarian and Omnivorous Female Students in Germany: A Retrospective Study

Julia Blaurock, Birgit Kaiser, Tamara Stelzl, Michelle Weech, Rosalind Fallaize, Rodrigo Zenun Franco, Faustina Hwang, Julie Lovegrove, Paul M. Finglas and Kurt Gedrich
Additional contact information
Julia Blaurock: ZIEL-Institute for Food & Health, Technical University of Munich, 85354 Freising, Germany
Birgit Kaiser: ZIEL-Institute for Food & Health, Technical University of Munich, 85354 Freising, Germany
Tamara Stelzl: Analytical Food Chemistry, Technical University of Munich, 85354 Freising, Germany
Michelle Weech: Hugh Sinclair Unit of Human Nutrition, Department of Food and Nutritional Sciences, University of Reading, Reading RG6 6DZ, UK
Rosalind Fallaize: Hugh Sinclair Unit of Human Nutrition, Department of Food and Nutritional Sciences, University of Reading, Reading RG6 6DZ, UK
Rodrigo Zenun Franco: Globalyze, Virgílio Malta 17-76, 17014-440 Bauru, Brazil
Faustina Hwang: Biomedical Engineering, School of Biological Sciences, University of Reading, Reading RG6 6DH, UK
Julie Lovegrove: Hugh Sinclair Unit of Human Nutrition, Department of Food and Nutritional Sciences, University of Reading, Reading RG6 6DZ, UK
Paul M. Finglas: Quadram Bioscience Institute, Norwich NR4 7UQ, UK
Kurt Gedrich: ZIEL-Institute for Food & Health, Technical University of Munich, 85354 Freising, Germany

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 4, 1-15

Abstract: Vegetarian diets have gained in popularity, especially among highly educated women, and are considered beneficial to health. Comparative studies assessing the diet of vegetarians against omnivores are rather limited and often provide ambivalent results. Therefore, this study examined the nutrient intake and nutritional quality of vegetarian and omnivorous diets in a group of 61 female students in Germany. Habitual dietary intake was evaluated using a validated graphical online food frequency questionnaire (FFQ). Differences in nutrient intakes were analyzed by Mann–Whitney-U-Tests. Odds Ratios (OR) were calculated for vegetarians exceeding dietary reference values (DRV) compared to omnivores. The overall nutritional quality was assessed using the Healthy-Eating-Index-2015 (HEI-2015). In omnivores, intakes of total energy from saturated fatty acids (SFA), monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA), long-chain omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC-n3-PUFA), cholesterol, sucrose, lactose, retinol, and cobalamin were significantly higher than in vegetarians. Significantly lower intakes were observed for fiber, magnesium, and beta-carotene. Significant OR were detected for total fat (OR = 0.29), SFA (OR = 0.04), beta-carotene (OR = 4.55), and cobalamin (OR = 0.32). HEI-2015 scores were higher for vegetarians than for omnivores (79 points versus 74 points) and significant differences were recorded for the HEI-2015 components dairy, seafood & plant proteins, fatty acids, added sugars, and saturated fatty acids.

Keywords: vegetarian; omnivores; nutrient intake; food frequency questionnaire; healthy eating index; web application; personalized dietary advices (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/4/1888/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/4/1888/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:4:p:1888-:d:500034

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().