Effect of vegetarian and non-vegetarian diet on hematological parameters among young adults of Uttarakhand

There is a conspicuous shift in the dietary habits of the population worldwide owing to economic status, technological advances and advertisement bombardment shifting this paradigm towards non vegetarian lifestyle affecting health in general. The present study was thus conducted to explore the effect of vegetarian and non-vegetarian diet on hematological parameters. 150 healthy adults were recruited and anthropometric measurements viz; height, weight, BMI was taken along with dietary intake pattern assessment through 24 hours recall method. Blood samples were taken for estimation of hemoglobin, red blood cell count, haematocrit, white blood cell count, platelet count. The results showed high prevalence of Hb, RBC count, WBC count and Haematocrit in non-vegetarianism as compared to vegetarian. Anthropometric profile of non-vegetarian was higher as compared to vegetarian but statistically not significant. Also non-vegetarians exhibited high Hb, RBC count, WBC count and haematocrit as compared to vegetarians which revealed deficiency of important nutrients like iron, Vit-B₁₂ among vegetarian population. Hence vegetarians must consume food fortified with the nutrients lacking in vegetarian diet to avoid the deficiency of the aforementioned nutrients in their body.