From: taltar@beaufort.sfu.ca (Ted Altar) Newsgroups: rec.food.veg Subject: Obesity & Vegetarians Date: 23 Jul 94 15:14:24 GMT Organization: Simon Fraser University Lines: 150 Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: beaufort.sfu.ca American obesity costs Americans $22.2 BILLION or 19% of the total 116.9 billion spent annually on cardiovascular disease! Percentage of total costs attributed to obesity Diabetes (NNIDDM) 57% gallbladder (GB) 30% cardiovascular (CVD) 19% hypertension(HYPER) 20% cancer 2.5% ================================================================= Percentage Of Total Costs Attributed To Obesity: (U.S. Men & Woman, 1986) NIDDM GB CHD HYPER CANCER B C ---------------------------------------------- % of diagnosis among population of >29 kg/m2 61 33 27 26 48 43 % attributable to obesity 94 90 70 77 23 23 % of total costs 57 30 19 20 2.5 Annual total U.S. costs (billions) $19.8 $8 $116.9 $7.6 75.1 Costs $11.3 $ 2.4 $ 22.2 $1.5 1.9 attributable to obesity (billions) ==== Total (billion) 39.3 B = Breast Cancer C = Colon Cancer ================================================================= Studies have observed adult vegetarians to be suffering less from obesity than the rest of the (non-vegetarian) population. One study (2) found its sample of vegetarians to weigh an average of 10 lbs less than the rest of the population. Another study (3) suggested that adult vegetarians weigh 30 lbs less. Yet another study (4) found that it's sample of adult vegans had 30% less body fat than the non-vegetarian population. Does this mean that vegetarians are underweight? On the contrary. The sad fact is that the so-called normal population of meat-eaters is largely over-weight. Vegetarians, and particularly vegans, are simply closer to their ideal body weight, as should we all. Why are vegetarians are less at risk of obesity? One reason is the proportion of fat by calories in the diet. Ruth Papazian wrote the following in the FDA Consumer (5): Research indicates that obesity may be linked to the proportion of fat in the diet rather than to the amount of calories consumed, according to a survey of the diets and exercise habits of 107 men and 109 woman reported in Sept. 1990 issue of the Amer. J. Clin. Nutr. Researchers at Indiana University in Bloomington found that over-weight subjects got 35% of their calories from fat and 46$ from carbohydrates, compared to 29% of calories from fat and 53% from carbohydrates fro their slender counterparts. A recent U. of Vermont study suggests that limiting fat intake to about 29% of total calories enable chronically obese patients who failed to lose weight on a variety of reducing programs to lose an average of 20 to 30 lbs over the course of a year. She goes on to talk about the types of fats being important, exercise being important of course, and that weight-loss programs should maybe being to focus less on weight control and more on identifying individual risk factors and dietary patterns that have been associated with obesity. I would add that the dietary patterns of vegetarians provides one viable model and maybe the best one so far since vegetarians come closest as a mixed and varied group to meeting conservative standards of consuming no more than 30% calories by fat and no more than 10% of one calories being saturated fat. % of Total Energy from: fat animal fat ------------------------------------------------------- NACNE Guidelines 30 --- Vegans 32.6 --- Lacto-ovovegetarians 38.5 15.6 Omnivores 41.0 21.5 [from Carlson et al., 1985] Note that the vegans in this smample come closes to meeting the NACNE (1983) guidelines for protein and fat. The omivores are eat far too much fat, and even the lacto-ovovegetarians are not don't very well (but the lacto-ovovegetarians are doing far better than the ominovores with respect to the TYPE of fats, i.e., less saturated fats since they are eating less animal fats). Incidentally, most nutritionists now recommend an UPPER limit not of 30% fat by calories, but 25%. Some recommend 20% and even 15% as an upper limit. For those with heart disease, 10% fat by calories is the level one must reach before arterial plaque begins to decrease. Given that vegetarians are going to cost the nation far less in health care costs due to obesity related diseases, maybe vegetarians should maybe be getting some tax breaks or food subsidies for their foods as do the omnivores for their meat products? Alteratively, maybe the huge subsidies for meat production should be rescinded. ;-) ted REFERENCES: (1) Berg (1991) OBESITY AND HEALTH 5(6):95-96, (2) Ellis & Montegriffo (1970) "Veganism, clinical findings and investigations. THE AMER. J. OF CLIN. NUTR., 23(3):249 (3) Sacks et al. (1975) "Plasma lipids and lipoproteins in vegetarians and controls". THE NEW ENGLAND J. OF MED., 292(22):1148 [a minority of these "vegetarians" eat fish] (4) Ellis & Sanders (1977) "Angina and vegan diet" THE AMER. HEART J. 93(6):803 (5) Papazian (1991). FDA CONSUMER, 25(8):9-12 (6) Carlson et al. (1985). "A Comparative Evaluation of Vegan, Vegetarian and Omnivore Diets" JOURNAL OF PLANT FOODS, 6, 89-100.] -- Ted Altar (e-mail: taltar@sfu.ca) British Columbia, Canada