Abstract
Appropriately planned vegetarian diets can be nutritionally adequate; however, without careful planning, some nutrients may be at risk of inadequacy, especially in adolescence, when energy and nutrient requirements are higher relative to body mass. The aim of this study was to compare intakes of at-risk micronutrients in a group of New Zealand female adolescents consuming vegetarian and non-vegetarian diets. A cross-sectional Survey of Nutrition, Dietary Assessment and Lifestyle (SuNDiAL project) was conducted among females aged 15 to 18 years, recruited from across NZ. Data were collected via an online questionnaire, and anthropometric measurements were taken to determine body mass index (BMI; kg/m2). Energy and dietary intake of calcium, iron, zinc, selenium, folate, vitamin A and vitamin B12 (B12) were determined using two 24 h recalls, adjusted to reflect usual intake. In total, 254 adolescents provided dietary intake data, comprising 38 self-identified vegetarians. The majority of the participants were NZ European and Other (NZEO) (78%), lived in neighbourhoods of low to medium deprivation (81.5%), and were a healthy weight (66.5%). Across the total sample, more than 80% did not meet the recommended intake for calcium, with values of 71% for selenium and 58% for folate. Dietary intakes among vegetarians were significantly lower than non-vegetarians, resulting in a higher prevalence of inadequacy for zinc (42% vs. 19%), selenium (92% vs. 67%) and vitamin B12 (40% vs. 16%), respectively. Vegetarians were six times more likely to have inadequate selenium intake, at a three-times-greater risk of having inadequate zinc intake and four times more likely to not meet the recommendations for B12 intake compared to non-vegetarians. In conclusion, adolescents had inadequate intakes of calcium, selenium and folate, whereas vegetarian adolescents had suboptimal intakes of selenium, zinc and B12, leading to an increased risk of deficiency.
Author Contributions
Conceptualization, M.P., J.H., R.B. and L.H.; methodology, M.P. and J.H.; formal analysis, J.H.; investigation, M.P., J.H. and C.R.; resources, M.P. and L.H.; data curation, J.H., C.R., K.W. and E.F.; writing—original draft preparation, C.R.; writing—review and editing, C.R., M.P., T.S., E.F., K.W., R.B., L.H. and J.H.; supervision, M.P., J.H., L.H. and C.S.; project administration, T.S.; funding acquisition, L.H. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Funding
This research was funded by a Lotteries Health Research Grant, grant number R-LHR-2019102520.
Institutional Review Board Statement
The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the University of Otago Human Ethics Committee (Health) (H19/004; 4 February 2019).
Informed Consent Statement
Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.
Data Availability Statement
Data is available upon reasonable request from the corresponding author.
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Disclaimer/Publisher’s Note: The statements, opinions and data contained in all publications are solely those of the individual author(s) and contributor(s) and not of MDPI and/or the editor(s). MDPI and/or the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to people or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions or products referred to in the content. |
© 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).