Vegetarianism provides a catchall term for a variety of diets that exclude the consumption of some or all animal products. Contrary to popular claims, appropriately designed and managed vegetarian diets contain foods nutritionally sufficient for health, well-being, and physical performance. Vegetarian dancers can meet their protein needs from primarily or exclusively (vegan) plant-based sources when a variety of these foods are consumed daily and energy intake is adequate.

OBJECTIVE: The Eating Disorder Examination-Questionnaire (EDE-Q) is a valid and reliable measure of eating-related pathology, but its factor structure has proven difficult to replicate. Given differences in dietary patterns in vegans compared to omnivores, proper measurement of eating disorder symptoms is especially important in studies of animal product avoiders.

PURPOSE: Orthorexia is described as a strict, health-oriented eating pattern with clinically significant impairment in everyday life. Its prevalence varied widely in previous studies due to heterogenous assessment procedures. Determinants for the eating pattern and its prevalence have not been investigated in larger representative studies.

BACKGROUND: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a major economic burden in the United States. CVD risk factors, particularly hypertension and hypercholesterolemia, are typically treated with drug therapy. Five-year efficacy of such drugs to prevent CVD is estimated to be 5%. Plant-based diets have emerged as effective mitigators of these risk factors.
HYPOTHESIS: The implementation of a defined, plant-based diet for 4 weeks in an outpatient clinical setting may mitigate CVD risk factors and reduce patient drug burden.