Low-Calorie Vegetarian Versus Mediterranean Diets for Reducing Body Weight and Improving Cardiovascular Risk Profile: CARDIVEG Study (Cardiovascular Prevention With Vegetarian Diet)

• Published in: Circulation (New York, N.Y.) N.Y.), 2018-03, Vol.137 (11), p.1103-1113
• Main Authors: Sofi, Francesco, Dinu, Monica, Pagliai, Giuditta, Cesari, Francesca, Gori, Anna Maria, Sereni, Alice, Becatti, Matteo, Fiorillo, Claudia, Marcucci, Rossella, Casini, Alessandro
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0009-7322; 1524-4539
• DOI: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.117.030088

BACKGROUND:Only a few randomized dietary intervention studies that investigated the effects of lacto-ovo vegetarian diet (VD) in clinically healthy omnivorous subjects are available. METHODS:We randomly assigned to overweight omnivores with a low-to-moderate cardiovascular risk profile a low-calorie VD compared with a low-calorie Mediterranean diet (MD), each lasting 3 months, with a crossover design. The primary outcome was the difference in body weight, body mass index, and fat mass changes between the 2 groups. Secondary outcomes were differences in circulating cardiovascular disease risk parameters changes between the 2 groups. RESULTS:One hundred eighteen subjects (mean age51.1 years, females78%) were enrolled. The total participation rate at the end of the study was 84.7%. No differences between the 2 diets in body weight were observed, as reported by similar and significant reductions obtained by both VD (−1.88 kg) and MD (−1.77 kg). Similar results were observed for body mass index and fat mass. In contrast, significant differences between the 2 interventions were obtained for low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, triglycerides, and vitamin B12 levels. The difference between the VD and MD groups, in terms of end-of-diet values, was recorded at 9.10 mg/dL for low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (P=0.01), 12.70 mg/dL for triglycerides (P