Objective: To assess food behaviour and determine nutritional intakes of va
rious vegetarian populations in France.
Design: A five-day self-administered food record which was mailed to member
s of the three principal French vegetarian organisations.
Subjects: 145 subjects, aged 7-87 y; 94 classical vegetarians (19% of those
contacted), 34 Hindu lactovegetarians (17% of those contacted) and 17 macr
obiotic (34% of those contacted).
Setting: The survey was conducted between March 1997 and July 1997 in Franc
e.
Results: Vegetarianism in France is represented by three main classes of fo
od behaviour: ovolactovegetarian (AAV), lactovegetarian (KRI) and macrobiot
ic (MMK). The geometric mean intakes ranged from 1952 kcal/d (KRI), 2051 kc
al/d (MMK) to 2384 kcal/d (AAV) for males and from 1302 kcal/d (MMK), 1675
kcal/d (AAV) to 1804 kcal/d (KRI) for females, after adjusting for age and
BMI. The energy consumption in the MMK group was significantly lower than t
hat in the AAV (P < 0.05) and KRI groups (P < 0.01), respectively A differe
nce among groups was observed for females (P = 0.0002), but not for males.
The MMK group consumed less lipid than the other two vegetarian groups, 46
g/d for men and 38 g/d for women vs 80 g/d for men and 61 g/d for women in
the AAV group and 93 g/d for men and 81 g/d for women in the KRI group, res
pectively. Differences with AAV and MMK were statistically significant (P <
0.001 for men and women for both groups). Mean protein consumption ranged
from 60 g/d (AAV), 64 g/d (KRI) to 77 g/d (MMK) for males and from 46 g/d (
MMK), 50 g/d (AAV) to 58 g/d (KRI) for females. Mean carbohydrate intakes r
anged from 247 g/d (AAV), 321 g/d (KRI) to 338 g/d (MMK) in males and from
209 g/d (MMK), 228 g/d (AAV) to 242 g/d (KRI) in females. There were no sig
nificant differences in protein and carbohydrate intakes between the groups
. Median calcium intakes ranged from 758.2 mg/d (MMK), 863 mg/d (AAV) to 98
9.3 mg/d (KRI) for the men and from 500.8 mg/d (MMK), 863 mg/d (AAV) to 934
mg/d (KRI) for the women. In the men, there was no differences in daily ca
lcium intakes between the three vegetarian groups. However, we found a sign
ificant difference for women (P = 0.0041). The women in the MMK group prese
nted significantly lower daily calcium intakes than the women in the AAV (P
= 0.013) and KRI (P = 0.0032) groups. The AAV and KRI groups consumed dair
y products supplying respectively 36% and 53% for the men and 39% and 59% f
or the women of total calcium against 0% for men and women in the MMK group
. Median iron intakes ranged between 12.5 mg/d (KRI), 13.2 mg/d (AAV) and 2
2.5 mg/d (MMK) for the men and between 11.2 mg/d (KRI), 14.6 mg/d (AAV) and
16.9 mg/d (MMK) for the women. MMK (men P = 0.0172 and women P = 0.0131) a
nd AAV (only in men P = 0.037) groups consumed significantly higher quantit
ies of iron than did the KRI group. The heme iron median intake in males an
d females of the three vegetarian groups was very low (< 0.5%).
Overall, the female vegetarians consumed 58.1 (MMK), 109 (AAV) and 127.4 (K
RI) mg of Vitamin C per day and the males 76.3 (MMK), 150.4 (AAV) and 150.4
(KRI) mg per day. Median vitamin B9 intakes ranged from 247.5 mu g/d (KRI)
, 312 mu g/d (MMK) to 390.4 mu g/d (AAV) for the men and from 188.3 mu g/d
(MMK), 266.9 mu g/d (KRI) to 323.8 mu g/d (AAV) for the women. Vitamin B12
consumption ranged from 0.2 mu g/d (MMK), 1.5 mu g/d (AAV) to 1.7 mu g/d (K
RI) in the women and from 0.6 mu g/d (MMK) to 1.0 mu g/d (AAV and KRI) in t
he men. No differences in consumption were observed in the males. On the ot
her hand, the women in the MMK group consumed significantly less vitamin C
and B12 than did the women in the AAV (P = 0.0006) and KRI (P = 0.0396) gro
ups, while it was at the limit of significance for the females (P = 0.0715)
for vitamin B9.
Conclusion: Our results suggest that vegetarians have a better understandin
g of dietary requirements than does the general population. We observed tha
t the more restrictive the vegetarian diet, the more likely were there to b
e deficiencies in minerals and vitamins, especially heme iron, diary calciu
m and vitamin B12 intakes. This was a particularly true for macrobiotic die
ts and especially for women, which represents a group at particular risk fo
r mineral and vitamin deficiency.