TO STUDY ASSOCIATION BETWEEN LIPID PROFILE IN VEGETARIANS AND NON-VEGETARIANS IN THE LOCAL POPULATION

BACKGROUND: To Study Association between Lipid Profile in Vegetarians and Non-Vegetarians in the Local Population. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Descriptive study was conducted in the area Chittur from April 2014 to April 2015. One hundred and fifty (75 vegetarians and 75 non-vegetarians) healthy individuals, aged 30 - 60 years were studied in the central lab of Karuna Medical College. Overnight fasting venous blood samples were collected for estimating. Fasting Blood Sugar (FBS), Serum Alanine Transaminase (ALT) and, Serum lipid profile. RESULTS: The mean age of the study subjects was 38 and 37 of the vegetarians and non-vegetarians respectively with normal serum ALT. The vegetarians subjects had significantly lower mean serum Total Cholesterol (TC) [mean difference (95% CI)] [-0.42 (-0.78, -0.06)] and LDL [-0.45 (-0.75, -0.15)] compared to non-vegetarians. However, triglyceride, HDL, FBS, were identical. In Pearson's correlation, consumption of vegetable diet significantly correlated with serum TC, LDL. CONCLUSION: In our study the vegetarian study have a lower lipid profile status as compared to the non-vegetarian subjects. Therefore consumption of a vegetarian diet has to be encouraged.