Table 3.

Comparison of dietary intake of phytosterols and cholesterol among adult vegetarians and non-vegetarians in North America.

	Non vegetarian n = 333	Semi vegetarian n = 34	Pesco vegetarian n = 83	Lacto ovo-vegetarian n = 209	Vegan n = 72
β-Sitosterol (mg/d)	173.4	201.0	232.8*	227.4*	275.3*
95% CI	166.9 – 180.3	178.6 – 226.1	216.4 – 250.4	216.5 – 238.9	254.5 – 297.9
Campesterol (mg/d)	42.9	46.8	56.8*	55.7*	68.3*
95% CI	41.0 – 44.8	40.9 – 53.5	52.3–61.7	52.6 – 58.9	62.5 – 74.7
Stigmasterol (mg/d)	27.7	32.9	44.4*	38.0*	51.0*
95% CI	26.1 – 29.4	27.4 – 39.5	39.7 – 49.8	35.2 – 41.0	45.1 – 57.6
Other phytosterols (mg/d)a	16.9	18.6	20.5**	22.7*	26.9*
95% CI	16.2 – 17.7	16.1 – 21.4	18.8 – 22.3	21.4 – 24.0	24.5 – 29.6
Total phytosterols (mg/d2)b	263.2	302.9	359.6*	347.6*	428.0*
95% CI	253.0 – 273.7	268.7 – 341.4	334.0 – 387.3	330.7 – 365.5	395.1 – 463.7
Cholesterol (mg/d)	124.6	96.4	65.5*	48.5*	15.2*
95% CI	112.6, 137.8	70.7, 131.3	54.1, 79.3	42.6, 55.2	12.4, 18.7
β-Sitosterol:cholesterol	2.4	3.4	10.7*	10.8*	64.6*
95% CI	2.0 – 2.8	2.1 – 5.3	8.0 – 14.2	8.9 – 13.0	47.6 – 87.7
Campesterol:cholesterol	0.6	0.8	2.6*	2.6*	15.9*
95% CI	0.5 – 0.7	0.5 – 1.2	2.0 – 3.5	2.2 – 3.2	11.6 – 21.6
Stigmasterol:cholesterol	0.4	0.6	2.0*	1.8*	11.8*
95% CI	0.3 – 0.5	0.4 – 0.9	1.5 – 2.8	1.5 – 2.2	8.5 – 16.4

All pairwise differences were determined using analysis of variance controlling for age, race, gender, BMI, and physical activity with post hoc Dunnett’s test to adjust for multiple comparisons.

Significantly different from non-vegetarians at

^*p≤0.0001,

^**p≤0.05

^aSum of plant stanols and other plant sterols

^bSum of β-sitosterol, campesterol, stigmasterol, and other phytosterols