Risk factors for coronary artery disease in vegetarians and nonvegetarians

The present study was conducted on sixty male subjects (30 vegetarians and 30 non-vegetarians) in the age group of 40–50 years, clinically healthy belonging to business community of Amritsar city of Punjab. The findings revealed that physical exercise was more or less same in both the groups but the consumption of alcohol and frequency of smoking was less in vegetarians. Both vegetarians and nonvegetarians tended to have higher body weight but the prevalence of obesity was higher in non-vegetarians (67 vs 7%) vegetarian had significantly lower levels of blood glucose (91 vs 97%), total cholesterol (182 vs 194 mg%), triglycerides (137 vs 149 mg%), LDL-C (112 vs 126 mg%) VLDL-C (27 vs 29 mg%), TC/HDL-C (4.3 vs 4.9) and LDL-C/HDL-C (2.6 vs 3.2) and higher levels of HDL-C (43 vs 39 mg%) as compared to non-vegetarians. The values for various parameters of lipid profile were found very close to the standards which showed their higher risk of developing coronary artery disease.