Hematological parameters and prevalence of anemia in white and British Indian vegetarians and nonvegetarians in the UK Biobank.
Tong TYN., Key TJ., Gaitskell K., Green TJ., Guo W., Sanders TA., Bradbury KE.
BACKGROUND: There may be differences in hematological parameters between meat-eaters and vegetarians. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to perform cross-sectional analyses of hematological parameters by diet group in a large cohort in the United Kingdom. METHODS: A complete blood count was carried out in all UK Biobank participants at recruitment (2006-2010). We examined hemoglobin, red and white blood cell counts, and platelet counts and volume in regular meat eaters (>3 times/wk of red/processed meat consumption, n = 212,831), low meat eaters (n = 213,092), poultry eaters (n = 4815), fish eaters (n = 10,042), vegetarians (n = 6548), and vegans (n = 398) of white ethnicity and meat eaters (n = 3875) and vegetarians (n = 1362) of British Indian ethnicity. RESULTS: In both white and British Indian populations, compared with regular meat eaters (or meat eaters in Indians), the other diet groups had up to 3.7% lower age-adjusted hemoglobin concentrations (difference not significant in white vegan women) and were generally more likely to have anemia (e.g., 8.7% of regular meat eaters compared with 12.8% of vegetarians in white premenopausal women; P