Grant Ross, Bilgin Ayse, Zeuschner Carol, Guy Trish, Pearce Robyn, Hokin Bevan, Ashton John
School of Medical Sciences, University of NSW, and Australasian Research Institute, Sydney Adventist Hospital, Sydney, Australia 2076.
Asia Pac J Clin Nutr. 2008;17(1):107-15.
Childhood obesity is a widespread health problem in Australia. Overweight in childhood can lead to adult overweight and the development of risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD). Effective strategies for reducing childhood obesity are urgently required. A vegetarian diet has been shown to be an effective prophylactic to many lifestyle diseases in the adult population and may therefore be beneficial in children. However the metabolic demands of adolescents are different to adults and the impact of a vegetarian diet on CVD markers in this demographic is not certain. We compared key physiological and biochemical markers of health against responses to a modified, Schools Physical Activity and Nutrition Survey (SPANS) using one-way and two-way Analysis of Variance. 215 adolescents (14-15 yrs) from 5 Adventist secondary schools in the Sydney and Hunter regions of New South Wales, Australia, participated in this study. Adolescents consuming predominantly vegetarian foods showed significantly better scores on markers of cardiovascular health, including, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, Cholesterol/High density lipoprotein ratio and low density lipoprotein. Adolescents consuming nuts more than once per week, also showed lower scores for BMI and serum glucose irrespective of their vegetarian status. Markers of general health including haemoglobin and average height were not different between groups; however a lower serum level of vitamin B12 was apparent in the vegetarian cohort. Surprisingly, exercise on its own was not statistically associated with any of the risk factors tested suggesting that diet may be the most significant factor in promoting health in this age group.
儿童肥胖是澳大利亚一个普遍存在的健康问题。儿童期超重会导致成年后超重，并引发心血管疾病（CVD）的危险因素。迫切需要有效的策略来减少儿童肥胖。素食已被证明对成年人群中的许多生活方式疾病具有有效的预防作用，因此可能对儿童有益。然而，青少年的代谢需求与成年人不同，素食对这一人群中CVD标志物的影响尚不确定。我们使用单向和双向方差分析，将关键的生理和生化健康标志物与对改良的学校体育活动与营养调查（SPANS）的反应进行了比较。来自澳大利亚新南威尔士州悉尼和亨特地区5所基督复临安息日会中学的215名青少年（14 - 15岁）参与了这项研究。主要食用素食的青少年在心血管健康标志物方面得分显著更高，包括体重指数（BMI）、腰围、胆固醇/高密度脂蛋白比率和低密度脂蛋白。每周食用坚果超过一次的青少年，无论其素食状况如何，BMI和血糖水平也较低。包括血红蛋白和平均身高在内的一般健康标志物在各组之间没有差异；然而，素食组的血清维生素B12水平明显较低。令人惊讶的是，单独的运动与所测试的任何危险因素在统计学上均无关联，这表明饮食可能是促进该年龄组健康的最重要因素。
