SynthesisSports medicine - open2025
Are Plant-Based Diets Detrimental to Muscular Strength? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.
Synthesis in Sports medicine - open, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Diet Quality, Food Processing, and Nutrient Adequacy in Vegan, Vegetarian, and Omnivorous Dietary Patterns: A Critical Narrative Review.Nutrients · 2026Review
- Protein Paradox: Protein Quality Based on Amino Acids Composition is Poorly Associated with Health Outcomes.Current nutrition reports · 2026Review
- Goals in Nutrition Science 2025-2030.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe increasing interest in plant-based diets (PBDs) results from their beneficial impact on human health and environmental sustainability. However, the effect of PBDs on muscular strength in athletes remains unclear. This systematic review and meta-analysis evaluated the impact of PBDs on muscular strength compared to omnivorous diets in adult populations.
methodsThe methodology was conducted following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines to ensure a comprehensive and transparent review process. Four electronic databases-MEDLINE, The Cochrane Library, Web of Science, and Scopus-were searched from their inception to September 2, 2024. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that evaluated the impact of PBDs on the lower body, upper body, and overall muscular strength were included. The risk of bias for the included RCTs was assessed using the Cochrane Risk of Bias 2.0 tool. Standardized mean differences (SMD) were used to estimate effect sizes, and multiple random-effects meta-analyses were conducted using an inverse variance model with Paule-Mandel adjustment.
resultsEight RCTs met the inclusion criteria, involving a total of 188 participants (46% women; mean age between 20 and 65 years). The meta-analysis indicated that there were no significant differences between PBDs and omnivorous diets in terms of upper body muscular strength (SMD, - 0.12; 95% confidence interval [CI], - 0.50 to 0.27; n = 146), lower body muscular strength (SMD, 0.18; 95% CI, - 0.31 to 0.67; n = 188), and overall muscular strength (SMD, 0.21; 95% CI, - 0.16 to 0.58; n = 188).
conclusionsThis meta-analysis suggests that PBDs do not compromise muscular strength compared to omnivorous diets. Further investigation considering key nutrients is necessary to ascertain the long-term effects of these dietary patterns on strength outcomes.
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.