DNA damage is known to be associated with many adverse health outcomes, including cancer and chronic diseases, but also with the process of aging. Empirical evidence has shown that environmental exposures, such as certain lifestyle factors, can affect a variety of health-related biomarkers and also impact the stability of DNA through the upregulation of the antioxidant defense system and alteration of its repair capacity. In addition to exercising, diet is an important lifestyle factor that can affect the development of a variety of chronic diseases and growing evidence suggests that plant-based diets, including vegetarianism, may promote health, longevity, and well-being. Therefore, we aimed to assess the primary DNA damage in 32 young healthy females from Zagreb, Croatia, based on their dietary preferences. The participants were divided into two groups: vegetarians and non-vegetarians, where the non-vegetarian group was further divided into omnivores (traditional mixed diet) and pescatarians (consumption of fish and seafood). According to statistical analysis, the DNA damage measured in whole blood cells expressed as the % tail DNA was significantly (p < 0.05) higher in vegetarians (3.6 ± 1.1%) compared to non-vegetarians (2.8 ± 1.0%). When further dividing the participants into specific sub-groups, lower DNA damage was observed amongst omnivorous subjects (3.2 ± 0.8%) compared to vegetarians, with the lowest DNA damage found in females practicing a pescatarian diet (2.4 ± 1.1%). Although a vegetarian diet can lead to a higher intake of specific vitamins and micronutrients, it can also lead to a deficiency of iron, calcium, and total proteins, which may affect genome stability and induce oxidative stress. Even though our results have shown that the pescatarian diet would be more beneficial in terms of maintaining DNA integrity, further research should be carried out to assess how specific dietary preferences affect DNA integrity on a larger scale.
Keywords: DNA damage; comet assay; genome instability; health effects; human biomonitoring; omnivores; pescatarians; vegetarians.