Re: Vegetarianism and sub clinical malnutrition, high homocysteine and atherogenesis

On Sep 3, 12:30 pm, Susan <su...@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
x-no-archive: yes

Nutrition. 2011 Aug 26. [Epub ahead of print]

Vegetarianism produces subclinical malnutrition, hyperhomocysteinemia
and atherogenesis.

Ingenbleek Y, McCully KS.

Source

Laboratory of Nutrition, Faculty of Pharmacy, University Louis
Pasteur, Strasbourg, France.

Abstract

OBJECTIVE:

To explain why vegetarian subjects develop morbidity and mortality
from cardiovascular diseases unrelated to vitamin B status and
Framingham criteria.

METHODS:

A study of 24 rural male subjects 18 to 30 y old and 15 urban male
controls was conducted in the Sahel region of Chad. Food consumption
was determined from a dietary questionnaire, and overall health status
was assessed by body weight, body mass index, serum albumin, plasma
transthyretin, urinary nitrogen, and creatinine. Plasma lipids,
vitamins B6, B9 and B12, homocysteine, and related sulfur amino acids
were measured as selected cardiovascular disease risk factors.

RESULTS:

Body weight, body mass index, blood, and urinary markers of protein
status were significantly lower, with an estimated 10% decrease of
lean body mass in the study group compared with urban controls.
Neither lipid fractions nor plasma levels of vitamins B6, B9, and B12
were significantly different between the two groups. Although the mean
consumption of sulfur amino acids (10.4 mg•kg(-1)•d(-1)) by rural
subjects was significantly below the recommended dietary allowances
(13 mg•kg(-1)•d(-1)), plasma methionine values were similar in the two
groups. In contrast, homocysteine concentration was significantly
increased (18.6 μmol/L, P < 0.001), and the levels of cysteine and
glutathione were significantly decreased in the study group,
demonstrating inhibition of the trans-sulfuration pathway. The strong
negative correlation (r = -0.71) between transthyretin and
homocysteine implicated lean body mass as a critical determinant of
hyperhomocysteinemia.

CONCLUSION:

The low dietary intake of protein and sulfur amino acids by a plant-
eating population leads to subclinical protein malnutrition,
explaining the origin of hyperhomocysteinemia and the increased
vulnerability of these vegetarian subjects to cardiovascular diseases.

Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

PMID: 21872435 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Are you saying a study of a malnurished (as stated in the paper)
African population has any relevance to non-malnurished vegetarians?
Especially when non- malnurished vegetarians consistently show better
health outcomes than non-vegetarians.

I suggest your review a similar thread you started a few months ago
implying bad outcomes for vegetarians.

Randy

And - I eat most everyday, sometime twice a day.
.

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