Institute of Endocrinology, Metabolism, and Hypertension, Tel Aviv-Sourasky Medical Center, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.
Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, Hebrew University, Rehovot, Israel.
Environ Int. 2016 Dec;97:68-75. doi: 10.1016/j.envint.2016.10.018. Epub 2016 Oct 25.
BACKGROUND & AIMS: Endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are increasingly thought to be involved in the rising prevalence of disorders such as obesity, diabetes, and some hormone-dependent cancers. Several lines of evidence have indicated that vegetarian and vegan diets may offer some protection from such diseases. We hypothesized that exposure to selected EDCs among residents of the unique vegetarian/vegan community of Amirim would be lower than what has recently been reported for the omnivorous population in the first Israel Biomonitoring Study (IBMS).
We studied 42 Amirim residents (29 vegetarians/13 vegans; 24 women/18men, aged 50.7±13.7y). Subjects answered detailed lifestyle, and multipass, memory-based 24-hr dietary recall questionnaires. Concentrations of bisphenol A (BPA), 11 phthalate metabolites, and the isoflavone phytoestrogens (genistein and daidzein) were determined by GC or LC tandem mass-spectrometry on a spot urine sample. The results were compared to those obtained following the same methodology in the Jewish subgroup of the IBMS (n=184).
While a vegetarian/vegan nutritional pattern had no effect on exposure to BPA, it seemed to confer a modest protection (~21%) from exposure to high molecular weight phthalates. Furthermore, the summed metabolites of the high molecular weight phthalate DiNP were 36% lower in vegans compared to vegetarians (P<0.05). In contrast, Amirim residents exhibited a level of exposure to isoflavone phytoestrogens about an order of magnitude higher than in the IBMS (P<0.001).
In Israel, a country whose inhabitants demonstrate exposure to EDCs comparable to that of the US and Canada, a voluntary lifestyle of vegetarianism and preference for organic food has a modest, but possibly valuable, impact on exposure to phthalates, while it is associated with a very steep increase in the exposure to phytoestrogens. Major reduction in exposure to EDCs will require regulatory actions.
内分泌干扰化学物质（EDCs）被认为与肥胖、糖尿病和某些激素依赖性癌症等疾病的发病率上升有关。有几条证据表明，素食和纯素饮食可能对这些疾病提供一定程度的保护。我们假设，在阿米里姆这个独特的素食/纯素社区的居民中，暴露于某些 EDC 的程度将低于最近在以色列第一次生物监测研究（IBMS）中杂食人群的报告。
我们研究了 42 名阿米里姆居民（29 名素食者/13 名纯素食者；24 名女性/18 名男性，年龄 50.7±13.7 岁）。研究对象回答了详细的生活方式和多次基于记忆的 24 小时饮食回忆问卷。通过 GC 或 LC 串联质谱法在一份尿样中测定双酚 A（BPA）、11 种邻苯二甲酸代谢物和植物雌激素（染料木黄酮和大豆苷元）的浓度。将结果与同一方法在 IBMS 的犹太亚组（n=184）中获得的结果进行比较。
虽然素食/纯素的营养模式对 BPA 的暴露没有影响，但它似乎为避免高相对分子质量邻苯二甲酸酯的暴露提供了适度的保护（~21%）。此外，与素食者相比，纯素食者体内的高相对分子质量邻苯二甲酸二壬酯（DiNP）的总和代谢物低 36%（P<0.05）。相比之下，阿米里姆居民体内的植物雌激素暴露水平比 IBMS 高出一个数量级（P<0.001）。
在以色列，一个居民暴露于内分泌干扰化学物质的程度与美国和加拿大相当的国家，自愿选择素食主义和对有机食品的偏好，对邻苯二甲酸酯的暴露有适度但可能有价值的影响，而与植物雌激素的暴露呈急剧上升趋势相关。要降低对内分泌干扰化学物质的暴露，需要采取监管措施。
