Popular diets: correlation to health, nutrition, and obesity.

Vegetarian diets are associated with low body mass index and obesity risk.

This study investigated the relationship between vegetarian and non-vegetarian diets and health and nutrition profiles. Dietary data of 10,014 adults obtained from the 1994-96 Continuing Survey of Food Intake by Individuals (CSFII) and over 200 studies were analyzed for this research.

The subjects were divided into vegetarian and non-vegetarian groups, with the non vegetarian group further subdivided into low carbohydrate, medium carbohydrate, high carbohydrate pyramid, high carbohydrate non pyramid low fat, and high carbohydrate non pyramid moderate fat subgroups. The Body Mass Index (BMI), Healthy Eating Index (HEI), consumption patterns were evaluated in all the subjects.

Researchers discovered that the high carbohydrate pyramid and low carbohydrate groups had the highest and lowest diet quality respectively. Low energy consumption (calories) was observed in the vegetarian and high carbohydrate non pyramid low fat groups. Males with the lowest BMIs were found in the vegetarian and high carbohydrate pyramid groups while females on vegetarian and high carbohydrate non pyramid low fat diets had the lowest BMIs. The results of this study shows that low carbohydrate diets are associated with high BMIs and obesity.