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 VIIc, factor VIIIc, and plasminogen. Vegetarian men had significantly higher concentrations of antithrombin III than nonvegetarian men.