Body composition assessment of vegetarian-vegan and omnivore young women – an exploratory study

Diet is commonly accepted as a determinant of body composition, especially when related to specific lifestyles. Vegetarian-vegan diets, which involve a reduction or elimination of animal product consumption, are believed to be more “healthy,” facilitating weight control and reducing the incidence and clinical course of different diseases, in particular those related to overweight and obesity. Global reviews and metanalysis on these issues, however, are still insufficient. Our preliminary approach addresses the total body composition differences among vegetarians-vegans and omnivorous individuals. This cross-sectional study involved ten healthy women, five vegetarian-vegan, and five omnivores (mean 28.10 years old). Body composition was assessed using a dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA Lunar Prodigy Advance - General Electric Healthcare®). Other general and sociodemographic variables were also collected by trained dietitians. Our results have shown that the vegetarian-vegan group had a non-significantly lower volume of all types of body mass (total bone, fat, lean, tissue, and fat-free) evaluated. Additionally, the vegetarian-vegan group presented higher values of visceral adipose tissue and subcutaneous adipose tissue (286.20 and 11138.40 cm3, respectively, p > 0.05) compared to the omnivore group. These differences will be further confirmed in subsequent studies.