Evidence of a vegan diet for health benefits and risks - an umbrella review of meta-analyses of observational and clinical studies
Language English Country United States Media print-electronic
Document type Journal Article, Systematic Review
- Keywords
- Health, meta-analysis, plant-based, systematic review, umbrella review, vegan diet,
- MeSH
- Diet, Vegan * MeSH
- Risk Assessment MeSH
- Humans MeSH
- Meta-Analysis as Topic MeSH
- Neoplasms * prevention & control MeSH
- Body Weight MeSH
- Check Tag
- Humans MeSH
- Publication type
- Journal Article MeSH
- Systematic Review MeSH
To summarize and evaluate the evidence on the health impact of a vegan diet, we conducted an umbrella review of systematic reviews and meta-analyses. PubMed, Cochrane Library, Web of Science and Epistemonikos were searched up to September 2021. Meta-analyses were recalculated by using a random effects model. The certainty of evidence (CoE) was evaluated by the GRADE approach. For the general healthy population, a vegan diet was effective for reducing body weight [MD (95% CI): -2.52 kg (-3.06, -1.98), n = 8 RCTs; moderate CoE] and was associated with further health benefits (with low CoE), including a lower risk of cancer incidence [SRR (95% CI): 0.84 (0.75, 0.95), n = 2] and a trend for lower risk of all-cause mortality [SRR (95% CI): 0.87 (0.75, 1.01), n = 2], as well as lower ApoB levels [MD (95% CI): -0.19 µmol/L (-0.23, -0.15), n = 7 RCTs). The findings suggested adverse associations for a vegan diet with risk of fractures [SRR (95% CI): 1.46 (1.03, 2.07), n = 3; low CoE]. For persons with diabetes or at high CVD risk, a vegan diet reduced measures of adiposity, total cholesterol, LDL and improved glycemic control (CoE moderate to low). A vegan diet may have the potential for the prevention of cardiometabolic health, but it may also impair bone health. More well-conducted primary studies are warranted.
3rd Faculty of Medicine Charles University Prague Czech Republic
Centre for Public Health Promotion National Institute of Public Health Prague Czech Republic
Department of Internal Medicine Královské Vinohrady University Hospital Prague Czech Republic
Division of Cancer Epidemiology German Cancer Research Center Heidelberg Germany
Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Heidelberg Institute of Global Health Heidelberg Germany
Faculty of Medicine University of Zurich Zurich Switzerland
German Center for Diabetes Research Partner Düsseldorf Germany
Institute for Global Food Security Queen's University Belfast UK
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