Nutrient Intakes of Vegetarians and Vegans

The table below shows the nutrient intakes of participants in the EPIC-Oxford study. A few caveats should be noted:

This data did not include supplements people were taking, but it did include fortified foods.

The paper did not include sodium.

Vitamin A is listed as measured in micrograms of retinol, rather than retinol activity equivalents (RAE). Plant foods do not contain retinol, yet vegans are listed as having an intake of retinol. But that intake seems very low compared to what would be expected if carotenoids were included. So, it is unclear how the amount of vitamin A was determined.

These nutrient intakes were based on food frequency questionnaires (FFQ) which are the least accurate way of measuring nutrient intakes. FFQs involve asking someone how often they eat a long list of foods. Two better ways to measure nutrient intakes are to ask participants to keep a food diary, or to analyze duplicate portions in a laboratory. EPIC-Oxford has plans to report nutrient intakes by using food dairies among a sample of the population. The authors reported that:

Seven-day food diaries were completed by 31,000 participants and these will provide further information on energy intake. Preliminary analysis of a sample of 150 food diaries indicates that the FFQ does indeed underestimate intakes of energy, and therefore of most nutrients, among vegans (unpublished data).

Table 1. Nutrient Intakes from EPIC-Oxford (2003)¹ Food Frequency Questionnaires
	Men				Women
	Non- veg	Pesco	Lacto- ovo	Vegan	Non- veg	Pesco	Lacto- ovo	Vegan
Number	6,951	1,500	3,748	770	22,962	6,931	12,347	1,342
Calories	2,186	2,119	2,090	1,907	1,910	1,845	1,810	1,660
Carbohydrate	256	264	268	262	231	236	239	233
% of calories as carbohydrate	47	50	51	55	48	51	53	56
Protein (g)	87	74	68	62	83	69	62	56
% of calories as protein	16	14	13	13	17	15	14	14
Fat (g)	78	74	73	60	68	64	62	52
% of calories as fat	32	31	31	28	32	31	30	28
Saturated fat (g)	26	22	22	11	22	19	19	10
% of calories as saturated fat	11	9	9	5	10	9	9	5
Fiber (g)	19	22	23	28	19	22	22	26
Vitamin A - retinol (mcg)	740	337	306	74	654	308	277	77
Vitamin B1 - thiamin (mg)	1.7	1.8	1.9	2.3	1.6	1.7	1.8	2.1
Vitamin B2 - riboflavin (mg)	2.3	2.2	2.2	2.3	2.2	2.1	2.1	2.1
Vitamin B3 - niacin (mg)	24.7	21.7	20.8	23.9	23.2	19.5	18.3	21.1
Vitamin B6 (mg)	2.3	2.1	2.0	2.2	2.2	2.0	1.9	2.1
Vitamin B12 (mcg)	7.3	5.0	2.6	0.4	7.0	4.9	2.5	0.5
Folate (mcg)	329	358	367	431	321	346	350	412
Vitamin C (mg)	119	130	123	155	138	147	147	169
Vitamin D (mcg)	3.4	2.9	1.6	0.9	3.3	2.8	1.5	0.9
Vitamin E (mg)	11.8	13.0	13.7	16.1	10.7	11.4	11.6	14.0
Calcium (mg)	1057	1081	1087	610	989	1021	1012	582
Magnesium (mg)	366	396	396	440	341	358	352	391
Potassium (mg)	3965	3940	4029	3937	3839	3759	3956	3817
Iron (mg)	13.4	14.0	13.9	15.3	12.6	12.8	12.6	14.1
Zinc (mg)	9.8	8.6	8.4	7.9	9.2	7.9	7.7	7.2

References

1. Davey GK, Spencer EA, Appleby PN, Allen NE, Knox KH, Key TJ. EPIC-Oxford: lifestyle characteristics and nutrient intakes in a cohort of 33 883 meat-eaters and 31 546 non meat-eaters in the UK. Public Health Nutr. 2003 May;6(3):259-69.