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Effect of Ethiopian Orthodox Christian (EtOC) religious fasting with vegan diet on changes of blood metabolites and body composition: an observational study

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Abstract

Purpose

Studies on Ethiopian Orthodox Christian (EtOC) religious fasting with vegan diet influencing body composition and blood metabolites remain limited. This study assessed the effect of consuming a vegan diet on changes of body composition and blood metabolites in a group of EtOC religious fasters and associated results with cardio-metabolic health.

Methods

Participants were 98 EtOCs, with a mean age of 27 years. They 1st consumed a non-vegetarian omnivorous (OM) diet for 7 weeks. Then they switched to a vegan diet (VD) on the occasion of the Ethiopian Orthodox fasting (EOF) again for 7 weeks. Body compositions including height (m), weight (kg), BMI (kg/m2), percent body fat (%BF), and waist-to-hip (W/H) ratio were measured after the end of the OM and VD dietary regimen. Moreover, blood metabolites including TC, TG, LDL-C, HDL-C, glucose, urea, and total protein (TP) were analyzed and calculated for significant differences.

Results

The Ethiopian OF with vegan diet induced significantly lower BMI, %BF, TC, LDL-C, HDL-C, and blood urea levels compared with the (OM) diet (p < 0.05). Blood TG, glucose, and TP did not reach significance (p > 0.05). Changes in TC were positively and significantly correlated (r = 0.9, p < 0.001) both with LDL-C and BMI following the vegan diet.

Conclusion

Ethiopian OF with vegan diet induced lower TC, LDL-C, and body composition to optimal levels favoring a better cardio-metabolic health. The decrease in blood urea may reflect insufficient intake of complete protein (essential and non-essential amino acids) during the fasting periods. This indicated the need to consume varieties of plant foods in order to compensate amino acids that vegan diets lack during the Orthodox fasting.

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Data availability

Available from the corresponding author on request.

Abbreviations

EtOC:

Ethiopian Orthodox Christian

NF:

non-fasting

OF:

orthodox fasting

TC:

total cholesterol

TG:

triglyceride

LDL-C:

low-density lipoprotein cholesterol

HDL-C:

high-density lipoprotein cholesterol

TP:

total protein

BMI:

body mass index

W/H:

waist-to-hip ratio

%BF:

percent body fat

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Acknowledgments

We thank all participants, who joined the study from Hemen Maternal and Children Specialty Medical Center and Addis Ababa Megabit 28 primary School. The technical support offered by our Master’s students including Ms. Hana, Mr. Tariku, Mr. Chala, and staffs of Diagnostic Lab are highly appreciated.

Funding

This study is supported by Addis Ababa University, adaptive problem-solving research fund, Ref. No: RD/LT/824/2016.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Physiology Department, School of Medicine, College of Health Sciences, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

    Wondyefraw Mekonen & Diresibachew Haile

Authors
  1. Wondyefraw Mekonen
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  2. Diresibachew Haile
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Contributions

Dr. Wondyefraw Mekonen designed, wrote the proposal, calculated the statistics, and wrote the manuscript. Dr. Diresibachew took part in developing the proposal. Both authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Wondyefraw Mekonen.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Ethics approval letter

Approved by Ethical Review Board of College of Health Sciences (No: 071/17/Phy), Addis Ababa University.

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Mekonen, W., Haile, D. Effect of Ethiopian Orthodox Christian (EtOC) religious fasting with vegan diet on changes of blood metabolites and body composition: an observational study. Nutrire 44, 4 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1186/s41110-019-0099-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s41110-019-0099-0