In the last two decades, the interest in a strict plant-based (vegan) diet has greatly increased. Scientific research has long consistently proven that a strict plant-based diet is associated with beneficial health effects. However, there are also certain concerns, especially regarding nutritional adequacy. In our thesis, we investigated three research problems in three surveys (two interventional and one cross-sectional). The aim of our thesis was to evaluate the effects of our whole-food plant-based lifestyle program on healthy adult participants. The intervention included (i) whole-food plant-based diet (consumed ad libitum) with one to two Herbalife Nutrition plant-based meal replacements and a selected dietary supplement (vitamin B12, vitamin D in the autumn and winter, omega-3 fatty acids (EPA and DHA); (ii) physical activity; and (iii) social support system. We investigated its effects on (i) body composition (with body composition analyser); (ii) cardiovascular risk factors (by laboratory findings of plasma lipoprotein values and blood pressure measurements); and (iii) nutritional adequacy of our dietary intervention (by the three-day weighted food intake method (3-DR)). The results of our research were presented by comparing (i) body composition with World Health Organization recommended values for appropriate values of body mass index and % body fat; (ii) selected risk factors for cardiovascular diseases with the European Society of Cardiology and the European Association for Atherosclerosis and Cardiology recommendations; and (iii) the nutritional adequacy of the whole-food plant-based diet with German Nutrition Society, Austrian Nutrition Society, Society for Nutrition Research, Swiss Nutrition Association reference values (for sugar intake with World Health Organization and Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition recommendations and for EPA and DHA with European Food Safety Authority recommendations). The results of analyses confirmed a (positive) association between our intervention program and the maintenance and improvement of appropriate body composition (–5.6 kg body mass, –0.3 kg of muscle mass, and –13.4% body fat in the first research) and the maintenance and improvement in the values of selected cardiovascular risk factors (decrease of low-density lipoprotein from 3.2 mmol/l to 2.6 mmol/l, i.e. –15%, in the phase 1 of second research). The calculated intake of macronutrients and studied micronutrients showed that the whole-food plant-based diet was nutritionally adequate by all the above comparative criteria (the exceptions were the marginal deviation of calcium intake and the expected lower vitamin D intake in summer months). Participation in the intervention program proved to be an effective method in controlling the appropriate body composition and selected cardiovascular risk factors, and the prescribed intervention diet to be nutritionally adequate.
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