Low-Calorie Vegetarian Versus Mediterranean Diets for Reducing Body Weight and Improving Cardiovascular Risk Profile: CARDIVEG Study (Cardiovascular Prevention With Vegetarian Diet)

BACKGROUND: Only a few randomized dietary intervention studies that investigated the effects of lacto-ovo vegetarian diet (Vd) in clinically healthy omnivorous subjects are available. METHODS: We randomly assigned to overweight omnivores with a low-to-moderate cardiovascular risk profile a low-calorie Vd compared with a low-calorie Mediterranean diet (MD), each lasting 3 months, with a crossover design. The primary outcome was the difference in body weight, body mass index, and fat mass changes between the 2 groups. Secondary outcomes were differences in circulating cardiovascular disease risk parameters changes between the 2 groups. RESULTS: One hundred eighteen subjects (mean age: 51.1 years, females: 78%) were enrolled. The total participation rate at the end of the study was 84.7%. No differences between the 2 diets in body weight were observed, as reported by similar and significant reductions obtained by both Vd (-1.88 kg) and MD (-1.77 kg). Similar results were observed for body mass index and fat mass. In contrast, significant differences between the 2 interventions were obtained for low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, triglycerides, and vitamin B12 levels. The difference between the Vd and MD groups, in terms of end-of-diet values, was recorded at 9.10 mg/dL for low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (P=0.01), 12.70 mg/dL for triglycerides (P<0.01), and 32.32 pg/mL for vitamin B12 (P