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Plant-based diets have been related to decreasing morbidity and mortality of many non-communicable diseases. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between plant-based diets and lipid profiles and anthropometric indices.

This cross-sectional study was performed on 236 men and women selected from Shiraz health-care centers. This study used a 168-item food frequency questionnaire to calculate plant-based diet index (PDI), healthy plant-based diet index (hPDI) and unhealthy plant-based diet index (uPDI). Total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and triglycerides were measured. Furthermore, body mass index, a body shape index and conicity index (CI) were calculated after measuring weight, height and waist circumference.

Higher score of PDI was significantly related to higher triglycerides level (OR = 2.16; 95% CI: 1.04, 4.48; P = 0.03). In the fully adjusted model, there was a significant association between ABSI and hPDI (OR = 4.88; 95% CI: 1.17, 20.24; P = 0.03). A significant inverse association was observed between uPDI and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) (OR = 0.45; 95% CI = 0.21, 0.98; P = 0.03). Also, this study found a decreasing, but insignificant trend in relation of ABSI (OR = 0.72; 95% CI = 0.22, 2.34) and CI (OR = 0.41; 95% CI = 0.06, 0.56) with PDI.

Further studies are needed to explore the association of PDI with anthropometric indices and lipid profile and also to assess the potential causality of the observed associations. Plant-based diets according to their contents could affect triglycerides, HDL and anthropometric properties.

Hence, dietitians should consider the findings of this study such as the inverse effect of unhealthy plant-based diets on HDL and the relation between healthy plant-based diets and WC and abdominal obesity.

This study showed that adherence to a plant-based diet was related to higher triglycerides levels. Also, uPDI was inversely associated with HDL level. Furthermore, participants who adhered more to a healthy plant-based diet had higher abdominal adiposity.