Inflammatory, oxidative and DNA damage status in vegetarians: is the future of human diet green?

The health benefit of a vegetarian diet is still under debate as it may result in a higher intake of some beneficial micronutrients, while others may be reduced, thus influencing various metabolic pathways and health-related biomarkers. This scoping review discusses inflammatory, oxidative and DNA d...

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Published in:Critical reviews in food science and nutrition Vol. 63; no. 18; pp. 3189 - 3221
Main Authors: Gajski, Goran, Gerić, Marko, Jakaša, Ivone, Peremin, Ines, Domijan, Ana-Marija, Vučić Lovrenčić, Marijana, Kežić, Sanja, Bituh, Martina, Moraes de Andrade, Vanessa
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: United States Taylor & Francis 15.07.2023
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects:
Biomarkers
C-reactive protein
Damage
Deoxyribonucleic acid
Diet
Diet, Vegan
Diet, Vegetarian
DNA
DNA damage
food science
genome
Genomes
human nutrition
Humans
Immunology
Inflammation
Metabolic pathways
Micronutrients
Omnivores
Oxidative stress
sample size
vegans
Vegetarian diet
Vegetarianism
Vegetarians
Vegetarians
inflammation
vegans
DNA damage
oxidative stress
omnivores
ISSN:1040-8398, 1549-7852, 1549-7852
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:The health benefit of a vegetarian diet is still under debate as it may result in a higher intake of some beneficial micronutrients, while others may be reduced, thus influencing various metabolic pathways and health-related biomarkers. This scoping review discusses inflammatory, oxidative and DNA damage status in vegetarians and vegans compared to omnivores. Most of the reviewed studies indicated favorable effects of a vegetarian diet on oxidative status compared to omnivores but did not clearly associate particular dietary habits to genome damage. The evidence on the effect of vegetarian diet on the inflammatory and immunological biomarkers is poor, which could at least partly be explained by methodological constraints such as small sample size, short duration of vegetarianism and inconsistent definitions of the omnivorous diet. The only inflammatory biomarker that seems to be associated with the vegetarian diet was inflammatory mediator C-reactive protein, which in several studies showed lower values in vegetarians as compared to omnivores. There were very few studies on immunological markers and the results on the difference between vegetarians and omnivores were inconclusive. Although several biomarkers involved in oxidative stress and inflammation showed a beneficial association with the vegetarian diet, further research in well-defined and sufficiently sized cohorts is needed to provide more evidence.
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ISSN:1040-8398
1549-7852
1549-7852
DOI:10.1080/10408398.2021.1986464