Scientific Updates

By Reed Mangels, PhD, RD

BLOOD CHOLESTEROL LEVELS ARE LOWER IN VEGETARIAN CHILDREN
A poster session at the Second International Congress on Vegetarian Nutrition in June of 1992 presented the results of a study of sixty-four 5- to 8-year-old children in Boston who had been on vegetarian diets for an average of six years. The vegetarian children were compared with non-vegetarian children of the same age living in the same area. The vegetarian children had significantly lower blood cholesterol levels. None were considered to be at risk for future heart disease based on blood cholesterol levels. Twenty-two percent of the non-vegetarian children had blood cholesterol levels which were associated with increased risk of developing heart disease in later life. The vegetarian children's lower cholesterol levels were believed to be a result of their diet, which was lower in fat and saturated fat and higher in polyunsaturated fat and fiber than the non-vegetarian children's diets. This study suggests that a vegetarian diet can provide levels of dietary fat and fiber which are in accord with the recommendations of the National Cholesterol Education Project and the American Academy of Pediatrics.