title: Chemistry behind Vegetarianism.
abstract: This review summarizes the effect of a habitual vegetarian diet on clinical complications in relation to chemistry and biochemistry. Omnivores have a significantly higher cluster of cardiovascular risk factors compared with vegetarians, including increased body mass index, waist to hip ratio, blood pressure, plasma total cholesterol (TC), triacylglycerol and LDL-C levels, serum lipoprotein(a) concentration, plasma factor VII activity, ratios of TC/HDL-C, LDL-C/HDL-C and TAG/HDL-C, and serum ferritin levels. Compared with omnivores, vegetarians, especially vegans, have lower serum vitamin B₁₂ concentration and n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) levels in the tissue membrane phospholipids, which are associated with increased collagen and ADP stimulated ex vivo whole blood platelet aggregation, plasma 11-dehydrothromboxane B₂, and homocysteine levels and decreased plasma HDL-C. This may be associated with an increased thrombotic and atherosclerotic risk. It is suggested that vegetarians, especially vegans, should increase their dietary n-3 PUFA and vitamin B₁₂ intakes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Food Science and Nutrition, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China. duoli@zju.edu.cn
authors.forename: Duo
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D050197:Atherosclerosis; D001669:Biochemical Phenomena; D014676:Diet, Vegetarian / Q000009:adverse effects; D015525:Fatty Acids, Omega-3 / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D006710:Homocysteine / Q000097:blood; D006801:Humans; D009752:Nutritional Status; D009753:Nutritive Value; D010974:Platelet Aggregation; D012307:Risk Factors; D013927:Thrombosis; D014805:Vitamin B 12 / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D014807:Vitamin D; D015032:Zinc
chemical_list: D015525:Fatty Acids, Omega-3; D006710:Homocysteine; D014807:Vitamin D; D015032:Zinc; D014805:Vitamin B 12