Metabolic profiles of male meat eaters, fish eaters, vegetarians, and vegans from the EPIC-Oxford cohort.
BACKGROUND
Human metabolism is influenced by dietary factors and lifestyle, environmental, and genetic factors; thus, men who exclude some or all animal products from their diet might have different metabolic profiles than meat eaters.


OBJECTIVE
We aimed to investigate differences in concentrations of 118 circulating metabolites, including acylcarnitines, amino acids, biogenic amines, glycerophospholipids, hexose, and sphingolipids related to lipid, protein, and carbohydrate metabolism between male meat eaters, fish eaters, vegetarians, and vegans from the Oxford arm of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition.


METHODS
In this cross-sectional study, concentrations of metabolites were measured by mass spectrometry in plasma from 379 men categorized according to their diet group. Differences in mean metabolite concentrations across diet groups were tested by using ANOVA, and a false discovery rate-controlling procedure was used to account for multiple testing. Principal component analysis was used to investigate patterns in metabolic profiles.


RESULTS
Concentrations of 79% of metabolites differed significantly by diet group. In the vast majority of these cases, vegans had the lowest concentration, whereas meat eaters most often had the highest concentrations of the acylcarnitines, glycerophospholipids, and sphingolipids, and fish eaters or vegetarians most often had the highest concentrations of the amino acids and a biogenic amine. A clear separation between patterns in the metabolic profiles of the 4 diet groups was seen, with vegans being noticeably different from the other groups because of lower concentrations of some glycerophospholipids and sphingolipids.


CONCLUSIONS
Metabolic profiles in plasma could effectively differentiate between men from different habitual diet groups, especially vegan men compared with men who consume animal products. The difference in metabolic profiles was mainly explained by the lower concentrations of glycerophospholipids and sphingolipids in vegans.
Cancer Epidemiology Unit, Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom;
Julie A
JA
Schmidt
International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France; and.
Sabina
S
Rinaldi
International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France; and.
Pietro
P
Ferrari
International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France; and.
Marion
M
Carayol
International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France; and.
David
D
Achaintre
International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France; and.
Augustin
A
Scalbert
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom.
Amanda J
AJ
Cross
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom.
Marc J
MJ
Gunter
Cancer Epidemiology Unit, Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom;
Georgina K
GK
Fensom
Cancer Epidemiology Unit, Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom;
Paul N
PN
Appleby
Cancer Epidemiology Unit, Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom;
Timothy J
TJ
Key
Cancer Epidemiology Unit, Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom; ruth.travis@ceu.ox.ac.uk.
Ruth C
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9571-0763
RC
Travis
D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood* / Q000737:chemistry; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004032:Diet / Q000009:adverse effects; D000067269:Diet, Vegan / Q000009:adverse effects; D014676:Diet, Vegetarian / Q000009:adverse effects; D004739:England; D005399:Fishes; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008460:Meat / Q000009:adverse effects; D055432:Metabolomics / Q000379:methods; D008875:Middle Aged; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D011446:Prospective Studies; D017747:Seafood / Q000009:adverse effects; D057566:Self Report; D053719:Tandem Mass Spectrometry
D015415:Biomarkers
EPIC-Oxford; mass spectrometry; metabolomics; vegan; vegetarian