Research
Energy balance
Vegan diets are associated with the lowest mean Body Mass Index (BMI) across all age groups compared to meat-eaters, fish-eaters, and vegetarians.
Adopting a vegan diet is associated with the lowest BMI among common dietary patterns. This suggests that removing animal products may naturally support a lower body weight without explicit calorie restriction.
GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Meat-eaters had the highest mean BMI and vegans had the lowest mean BMI across all age groups for both men and women.
Why this rating
Large sample size and consistent findings across age groups, though self-reported height/weight may slightly underestimate BMI.
Source
EPIC–Oxford:lifestyle characteristics and nutrient intakes in a cohort of 33 883 meat-eaters and 31 546 non meat-eaters in the UK
Gwyneth K. Davey et al. · Public Health Nutrition · 2003
DOI 10.1079/phn2002430
cohort · n=65429Cited 582×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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