A Comparative Study of Dietary Mineral Intake Status and Serum Mineral Concentrations of Postmenopausal Vegetarian Women with those of the Omnivores

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to compare the mineral status of postmenopausal vegetarian women with those of the omnivores, and to investigate the relationship between dietary pattern and minerals status in postmenopausal Korean women. The research group was composed of vegetarian women (n = 38), all of them were seven day adventists, who had been on vegetarian diet over 20 yrs. Their anthropometric measurements, dietary intakes, and blood mineral concentrations were compared to age matched omnivores controls (n = 38). The average age of vegetarians and omnivores were 60.7 yrs and 60.5 yrs, respectively and there was no significant difference. The mean daily energy intake of vegetarians and omnivores were 1518.5 kcal and 1355.5 kcal, respectively and their was no significant difference. The mean calcium intake of vegetarians (492.6 mg) was not significantly different from that of omnivores (436.6 mg). The vegetarians consumed significantly greater quantities of magnesium (p < 0.001), iron (p < 0.001), copper (p < 0.001), manganese (p < 0.001) and dietary fiber (p < 0.05). There were no significantly differences in serum calcium, magnesium and manganese levels between vegetarians and omnivores. However, serum levels of phosphorus (p < 0.01), iron (p < 0.05), ferritin (p < 0.01), zinc (p < 0.001) and copper (p < 0.05) were significantly lower than those of omnivores. In conclusion, vegetarian postmenopausal women may have low bioavailability of iron, zinc and copper. Therefore it was needed that further study on mineral bioavailability of vegetarian diet.