Hemostatic factors and blood lipids in young Buddhist vegetarians and omnivores

A comparison was made between the hemostatic and lipid profiles of 55 young Chinese Buddhist vegetarians (23 men, 32 women) and 59 Chinese medical students (20 men. 39 women) aged 20-30 y. The modern Buddhist vegetarian diet is high in carbohydrate (63% of energy in men. 58% in women) and has a high polyunsaturated-saturated fatty acid ratio, with moderate fat content (25% for men. 30% for women). Rice and soybean proteins are the major protein sources. This study demonstrated that the major beneficial effects of a modern Buddhist vegetarian diet are on blood concentrations of cholesterol, the ratio of apolipoprotein A-I to apolipoprotein B. glucose, and uric acid, but not on most hemostatic factors studied, which included fibrinogen. factor VII_c, factor VIII_c, and plasminogen. Vegetarian men had significantly higher concentrations of an-tithrombin HI than nonvegetarian men.