Vegetarians Beware

Everything vegetarian may not be good :

Adapted from Ambika Satija etal. Healthful and Unhealthful Plant-Based Diets and the Risk of Coronary Heart Disease in U.S. Adults. Journal of the American College of Cardiology Volume 70, Issue 4, July 2017

Shown above on the right is a telling graph depicting food servings per day and the risk of heart disease found in a study of 2 lakh people over 2 decades to relate 3 kinds of diet with heart disease.

Ambika Satija, Shilpa N. Bhupathiraju and others report in the July 2017 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology that high adherence to a healthful plant-based diet index (hPDI)  (whole grains, fruits/vegetables, nuts/legumes, oils, tea/coffee) was independently inversely associated with CHD, whereas less-healthy plant foods (juices/sweetened beverages, refined grains, potatoes/fries, sweets) and animal foods received reverse scores.

In fact, less-healthy plant foods were worse than animal foods in being positively associated with coronary heart disease.

So, everything vegetarian is not good, especially if it contains the following sugar rich carbs:

·       Apple cider (nonalcoholic) or juice, orange juice, grapefruit juice, other fruit juices

·       Refined grains: Refined grain breakfast cereal, white bread, English muffins or bagels or rolls, muffins or biscuits, white rice, pancakes or waffles, crackers, pasta

·       Potatoes: French fries, baked or mashed potatoes, potato or corn chips 

·       Sugar sweetened beverages: Colas with caffeine and sugar, colas without caffeine but with sugar, other carbonated beverages with sugar, noncarbonated fruit drinks with sugar

·       Sweets and desserts: Chocolates, candy bars, candy without chocolate, cookies (home-baked and ready-made), brownies, doughnuts, cake (home-baked and ready-made), sweet roll (home-baked and ready-made), pie (home-baked and ready-made), jams or jellies or preserves or syrup or honey

Vegan or Mediterranean diet or vegetarian food made up of whole grains, fruits/vegetables, nuts/legumes, oils, tea/coffee) was associated with less inflammation and decreased incidence of coronary heart disease.

Other healthier veg food stuffs were:

Whole grains: Whole grain breakfast cereal, other cooked breakfast cereal, cooked oatmeal, brown rice, other grains, bran, wheat germ, popcorn        

Fruits: Raisins or grapes, prunes, bananas, cantaloupe, watermelon, fresh apples or pears, oranges, grapefruit, strawberries, blueberries, peaches or apricots or plums

 Vegetables: Tomatoes, tomato juice, tomato sauce, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, carrots, mixed vegetables, yellow or winter squash, eggplant or zucchini, yams or sweet potatoes, spinach cooked, spinach raw, kale or mustard or chard greens, iceberg or head lettuce, romaine or leaf lettuce, celery, mushrooms, beets, alfalfa sprouts, garlic, corn        

Nuts and Legumes: String beans, tofu or soybeans, beans or lentils, peas or lima beans

   

Hence choose your food wisely, even if it is vegetarian!