Week 4 Health Outcomes of Religious Dietary Practices Flashcards
Pros to studying health outcomes of dietary habits of religious groups
- Devout likely to follow a religious diet for a long time
- Natural Experiments
Cons to studying health outcomes of dietary habits of religious groups
May not resemble the general population in ways other than dietary habits
- May not smoke
- attend religious services
what are some confounding variable’s of Mormons they may contribute to their health beside dietary habits
- Plant-based foods are encouraged
- Animal meat should be eaten sparingly
- Grains are the staff of life
- Avoid hot drinks such as coffee and non-herbal teas
- Do not drink alcohol
- Do not use tobacco
- Monthly 24 hour fast
Health in the state of Utah
- 70% of the population is Mormon
- The highest percentage of a single religious concentration of any US state
- Third best health in USA overall
- Lowest rates of any state for smoking and alcohol use heart disease and cancer
- Lowest percentage of alcohol impaired driving fatalities by state
what is a current fad diet?
Intermittent fasting
Why is evidence for Ramadan conflicting to consider fasting healthy?
- Length of fasting varies seasonally and by latitude so it isn’t consistent
- fasting during daylight hours varies depending on the season
- People don’t necessarily lose weight during Ramadan because people often get together to have large meals after sunset
what has a strong impact on the Greek dietary behaviour?
Orthodox Christianity dietary habits
how many Greeks adopt the lifestyle of the orthodox church?
approx 1/3
what are the nutritional implications of Greek orthodox fasting practises?
- BMI drops during fasting seasons
- The lipid profile is generally more favourable in fasters
- LDL, total cholesterol, TG, HDL
what are categories of plant-based diet’s?
- A plant-based diet includes grains vegetables fruit pulses seeds and nuts
- Some vegetarians choose to eat eggs or dairy products or both eggs and dairy or some exclude both dairy and eggs
- ovo-veg
- lacto-veg
- lacto-ovo-veg
- vegan
- Some vegetarians eat fish
- pesco-vegetarian
Vegetarian diet practises in Seventh-day Adventists
- 30% eat no meat fish or poultry they are predominantly lacto-ovo-vegetarian’s
- 20% eat meat less than once a week
- 47% eat meat regularly
- 3% vegans
life expectancy in Loma Linda California?
Huge number of Adventists here
- Life expectancy exceeds the American average
- women Adventist 86 vs. average women 81
- male Adventist 83 vs. average male 76
what are some differences between US Adventists and the general population?
- Vegetables nuts fruits and legumes are on average eating more often than in the general population
- 20% of Adventist adults report consuming three or more glasses of milk per day as compared with 3% of non-Adventists of similar social economic status
- Smoke your cigarettes drink less alcohol and exercise more than the general population
what are the two types of studies often done with Seventh-day Adventists?
- Comparisons of diet and disease rates between Adventists and Don Adventist’s
- Prospective cohort studies among Adventists
- Tracking cohort over a long period of time
- Watches for the development of a disease during the study. It relates to suspected risk or protection factors
why are prospective cohort studies with Adventists often used?
- Avoids confounding variable’s
- That is fine in association between vegetarian diet and health for the wrong way
- Vegetarians do many things I can for a good health other than not eat meat
- Wide range of dietary habits among Adventist so easier to study differences
- Eliminates other non-dairy factors
- Advantis cohort studies permit ‘all other things to be equal’
