The rising popularity of vegan diets has attracted growing interest in understanding their long-term effects on health.

Recent research has clearly shown potential benefits from an exclusively plantbased diet - such as reduced risks of cardiovascular diseases and improved body weight management.
At the same time, the vegan diet also presents with a number of challenges, essentially linked to marginal intake and/or deficiencies in a number of essential nutrients like vitamins B12 and D, calcium, iron, proteins and omega-3 fatty acids. For this reason, vegans are potentially more at risk for specific disorders like certain hematological disturbances and impaired bone health.
Furthermore, there is some evidence that a segment of the vegan population relies largely on vegan products and meat replacers of poor nutritional quality and there is a need for guidance at the level of food production and distribution to help meet the needs of these people. 

This study aims to investigate the dietary adequacy and nutritional status among individuals adhering to a vegan diet. Moreover, the applicants aim to develop health promotion tools that can help individuals to make the right dietary choices and also to help health practitioners -like dietitians and general practitioners - in guiding their patients.  

Using validated dietary assessment tools and on the basis of specific biomarkers, this study will analyse the diet and the nutritional status in representative samples of the general vegan population, investigate the adequacy of key nutrients in vegan diets and assess their association with health outcomes - such as cardiovascular health and bone health. By combining dietary intake data with biomarkers of nutritional status, the study will provide a holistic view of the health risks and benefits associated with veganism. The findings will contribute to a more detailed understanding of vegan dietary patterns and inform guidelines to optimize health outcomes for vegan populations.

Together with scientific partners from different European countries, we aim to also follow-up the vegan cohort into the future in order to allow longitudinal research design studying associations between adhering to a vegan diet and specific markers of healthy aging.