Beach Runner wrote:
> We all know obesity is a leading cause of premature death. Here is a
> journal article.

It's an abstract, not an article. Note that the number of self-reported
"vegans" was 83, or 0.114966% of the population surveyed. That small of
a sampling is statistically irrelevant for the purposes of comparing to
the other samples.

> American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 81, No. 6, 1267-1274, June
> 2005
> © 2005 American Society for Clinical Nutrition
> ORIGINAL RESEARCH COMMUNICATION
> Risk of overweight and obesity among semivegetarian, lactovegetarian,
> and vegan women1,2,3,4
> PK Newby, Katherine L Tucker and Alicja Wolk
>
> 1 From the Jean Mayer US Department of Agriculture Human Nutrition
> Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, Boston, MA (PKN and KLT),
> and the Division of Nutritional Epidemiology, Department of
> Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden (AW)
>
> Background: Observational studies suggest that a plant-based diet is
> inversely related to body mass index (BMI), overweight, and obesity.
>
> Objective: Our objective was to examine the BMI (kg/m2) and risk of
> overweight and obesity of self-defined semivegetarian, lactovegetarian,
> and vegan women.
>
> Design: Data analyzed in this cross-sectional study were from 55459
> healthy women participating in the Swedish Mammography Cohort. Women
> were asked whether they considered themselves to be omnivores (n =
> 54257), semivegetarians (n = 960), lactovegetarians (n = 159), or vegans
> (n = 83), and this question was the main exposure variable in this
> study. In secondary analyses, we reclassified women as lactovegetarians
> on the basis of food intakes reported on the food-frequency questionnaire.
>
> Results: The prevalence of overweight or obesity (BMI ‰¥ 25) was 40%
> among omnivores, 29% among both semivegetarians and vegans, and 25%
> among lactovegetarians. In multivariate, adjusted logistic regression
> analyses, self-identified vegans had a significantly lower risk of
> overweight or obesity [odds ratio (OR) = 0.35; 95% CI: 0.18, 0.69] than
> did omnivores, as did lactovegetarians (OR = 0.54; 95% CI: 0.35, 0.85)
> and semivegetarians (OR = 0.52; 95% CI: 0.43, 0.62). Risk of overweight
> or obesity remained significantly lower among lactovegetarians
> classified on the basis of the food-frequency questionnaire (OR = 0.48;
> 95% CI: 0.30, 0.78).
>
> Conclusions: Even if vegetarians consume some animal products, our
> results suggest that self-identified semivegetarian, lactovegetarian,
> and vegan women have a lower risk of overweight and obesity than do
> omnivorous women. The advice to consume more plant foods and less animal
> products may help individuals control their weight.
>
> Key Words: Overweight €¢ obesity €¢ BMI €¢ vegetarian €¢ lactovegetarian €¢
> vegan
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