From: L' Ermit (lhermit@hotmail.com)
Date: Wed Feb 27 2002 - 05:04:33 MST
Well researched, well documented, well worth reading.
Hermit
[url=http://www.westonaprice.org/myths_truths/myths_truths_vegetarianism.html]"THE
MYTHS OF VEGETARIANISM", by Stephen Byrnes, PhD, RNCP[/url]
[quote]
<snip>
MYTH #2: Vitamin B12 can be obtained from plant sources.
Of all the myths, this is perhaps the most dangerous. While lacto and
lacto-ovo vegetarians have sources of vitamin B12 in their diets (from dairy
products and eggs), vegans (total vegetarians) do not. Vegans who do not
supplement their diet with vitamin B12 will eventually get anemia (a fatal
condition) as well as severe nervous and digestive system damage; most, if
not all, vegans have impaired B12 metabolism and every study of vegan groups
has demonstrated low vitamin B12 concentrations in the majority of
individuals (11). Several studies have been done documenting B12
deficiencies in vegan children, often with dire consequences (12).
Additionally, claims are made in vegan and vegetarian literature that B12 is
present in certain algae, tempeh (a fermented soy product) and Brewer's
yeast. All of them are false as vitamin B12 is only found in animal foods.
Brewer's and nutritional yeasts do not contain B12 naturally; they are
always fortified from an outside source.
There is not real B12 in plant sources but B12 analogues--they are similar
to true B12, but not exactly the same and because of this they are not
bioavailable (13). It should be noted here that these B12 analogues can
impair absorption of true vitamin B12 in the body due to competitive
absorption, placing vegans and vegetarians who consume lots of soy, algae,
and yeast at a greater risk for a deficiency (14).
Some vegetarian authorities claim that B12 is produced by certain fermenting
bacteria in the lower intestines. This may be true, but it is in a form
unusable by the body. B12 requires intrinsic factor from the stomach for
proper absorption in the ileum. Since the bacterial product does not have
intrinsic factor bound to it, it cannot be absorbed (15).
It is true that Hindu vegans living in certain parts of India do not suffer
from vitamin B12 deficiency. This has led some to conclude that plant foods
do provide this vitamin. This conclusion, however, is erroneous as many
small insects, their feces, eggs, larvae and/or residue, are left on the
plant foods these people consume, due to non-use of pesticides and
inefficient cleaning methods. This is how these people obtain their vitamin
B12. This contention is borne out by the fact that when vegan Indian Hindus
later migrated to England, they came down with megaloblastic anaemia within
a few years. In England, the food supply is cleaner, and insect residues are
completely removed from plant foods (16).
The only reliable and absorbable sources of vitamin B12 are animal products,
especially organ meats and eggs (17). Though present in lesser amounts than
meat and eggs, dairy products do contain B12. Vegans, therefore, should
consider adding dairy products into their diets. If dairy cannot be
tolerated, eggs, preferably from free-run hens, are a virtual necessity.
That vitamin B12 can only be obtained from animal foods is one of the
strongest arguments against veganism being a "natural" way of human eating.
Today, vegans can avoid anemia by taking supplemental vitamins or fortified
foods. If those same people had lived just a few decades ago, when these
products were unavailable, they would have died.
MYTH #3: Our needs for vitamin D can be met by sunlight.
Though not really a vegetarian myth per se, it is widely believed that one's
vitamin D needs can be met simply by exposing one's skin to the sun's rays
for 15-20 minutes a few times a week. Concerns about vitamin D deficiencies
in vegetarians and vegans always exist as this nutrient, in its full-complex
form, is only found in animal fats (18) which vegans do not consume and more
moderate vegetarians only consume in limited quantities due to their
meatless diets.
It is true that a limited number of plant foods such as alfalfa, sunflower
seeds, and avocado, contain the plant form of vitamin D (ergocalciferol, or
vitamin D2). Although D2 can be used to prevent and treat the vitamin D
deficiency disease, rickets, in humans, it is questionable, though, whether
this form is as effective as animal-derived vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol).
Some studies have shown that D2 is not utilized as well as D3 in animals
(19) and clinicians have reported disappointing results using vitamin D2 to
treat vitamin D-related conditions (20).
Although vitamin D can be created by our bodies by the action of sunlight on
our skin, it is very difficult to obtain an optimal amount of vitamin D by a
brief foray into the sun. There are three ultraviolet bands of radiation
that come from sunlight named A, B, and C. Only the "B" form is capable of
catalyzing the conversion of cholesterol to vitamin D in our bodies (21) and
UV-B rays are only present at certain times of day, at certain latitudes,
and at certain times of the year (22). Furthermore, depending on one's skin
color, obtaining 200-400 IUs of vitamin D from the sun can take as long as
two full hours of continual sunning (23). A dark-skinned vegan, therefore,
will find it impossible to obtain optimal vitamin D intake by sunning
himself for 20 minutes a few times a week, even if sunning occurs during
those limited times of the day and year when UV-B rays are available.
The current RDA for vitamin D is 400 IUs, but Dr. Weston Price's seminal
research into healthy native adult people's diets showed that their daily
intake of vitamin D (from animal foods) was about 10 times that amount, or
4,000 IUs (24). Accordingly, Dr. Price placed a great emphasis on vitamin D
in the diet. Without vitamin D, for example, it is impossible to utilize
minerals like calcium, phosphorous, and magnesium. Recent research has
confirmed Dr. Price's higher recommendations for vitamin D for adults (24).
Since rickets and/or low vitamin D levels has been well-documented in many
vegetarians and vegans (26), since animal fats are either lacking or
deficient in vegetarian diets (as well as those of the general Western
public who routinely try to cut their animal fat intake), since sunlight is
only a source of vitamin D at certain times and at certain latitudes, and
since current dietary recommendations for vitamin D are too low, this
emphasizes the need to have reliable and abundant sources of this nutrient
in our daily diets. Good sources include cod liver oil, lard from pigs that
were exposed to sunlight, shrimp, wild salmon, sardines, butter, full-fat
dairy products, and eggs from properly fed chickens.
MYTH #4: The body's needs for vitamin A can be entirely obtained from plant
foods.
True vitamin A, or retinol and its associated esters, is only found in
animal fats and organs like liver (27). Plants do contain beta-carotene, a
substance that the body can convert into vitamin A if certain conditions are
present (see below). Beta-carotene, however, is not vitamin A. It is typical
for vegans and vegetarians (as well as most popular nutrition writers) to
say that plant foods like carrots and spinach contain vitamin A and that
beta-carotene is just as good as vitamin A. These things are not true even
though beta-carotene is an important nutritional factor for humans.
The conversion from carotene to vitamin A in the intestines can only take
place in the presence of bile salts. This means that fat must be eaten with
the carotenes to stimulate bile secretion. Additionally, infants and people
with hypothyroidism, gall bladder problems or diabetes (altogether, a
significant portion of the population) either cannot make the conversion, or
do so very poorly. Lastly, the body's conversion from carotene to vitamin A
is not very efficient: it takes roughly 6 units of carotene to make one unit
of vitamin A. What this means is that a sweet potato (containing about
25,000 units of beta-carotene) will only convert into about 4,000 units of
vitamin A (assuming you ate it with fat, are not diabetic, are not an
infant, and do not have a thyroid or gall bladder problem) [28].
Relying on plant sources for vitamin A, then, is not a very wise idea. This
provides yet another reason to include animal foods and fats in our diets.
Butter and full-fat dairy foods, especially from pastured cows, are good
vitamin A sources, as is cod liver oil. Vitamin A is all-important in our
diets, for it enables the body to use proteins and minerals, insures proper
vision, enhances the immune system, enables reproduction, and fights
infections (29). As with vitamin D, Dr. Price found that the diets of
healthy primitive peoples supplied substantial amounts of vitamin A, again
emphasizing the great need humans have for this nutrient in maintaining
optimal health now and for future generations.
<snip>
MYTH #7: Vegetarians live longer and have more energy and endurance than
meat-eaters.
A vegetarian guidebook published in Great Britain made the following claim:
You and your children don't need to eat meat to stay healthy. In fact,
vegetarians claim they are among the healthiest people around, and they can
expect to live nine years longer than meat eaters (this is often because
heart and circulatory diseases are rarer). These days almost half the
population in Britain is trying to avoid meat, according to a survey by the
Food Research Association in January 1990. (77)
In commenting on this claim of extended lifespan, author Craig Fitzroy
astutely points out that:
The ' nine-year advantage ' is an oft-repeated but invariably unsourced
piece of anecdotal evidence for vegetarianism. But anyone who believes that
by snubbing mum's Sunday roast they will be adding a decade to their years
on the planet is almost certainly indulging in a bit of wishful thinking.
(78)
And that is what most of the claims for increased longevity in vegetarians
are: anecdotal. There is no proof that a healthy vegetarian diet when
compared to a healthy omnivorous diet will result in a longer life.
Additionally, people who choose a vegetarian lifestyle typically also choose
not to smoke, to exercise, in short, to live a healthier lifestyle. These
things also factor into one's longevity.
In the scientific literature, there are surprisingly few studies done on
vegetarian longevity. Russell Smith, PhD, in his massive review study on
heart disease, showed that as animal product consumption increased among
some study groups, death rates actually decreased! (79) Such results were
not obtained among vegetarian subjects. For example, in a study published by
Burr and Sweetnam in 1982, analysis of mortality data revealed that,
although vegetarians had a slightly (.11%) lower rate of heart disease than
non-vegetarians, the all-cause death rate was much higher for vegetarians
(80).
Despite claims that studies have shown that meat consumption increased the
risk for heart disease and shortened lives, the authors of those studies
actually found the opposite. For example, in a 1984 analysis of a 1978 study
of vegetarian Seventh Day Adventists, HA Kahn concluded,
Although our results add some substantial facts to the diet-disease
question, we recognize how remote they are from establishing, for example,
that men who frequently eat meat or women who rarely eat salad are thereby
shortening their lives. (81)
A similar conclusion was reached by D.A. Snowden (82). Despite these
startling admissions, the studies nevertheless concluded the exact opposite
and urged people to reduce animal foods from their diets.
Further, both of these studies threw out certain dietary data that clearly
showed no connection between eggs, cheese, whole milk, and fat attached to
meat (all high fat and cholesterol foods) and heart disease. Dr. Smith
commented,
In effect the Kahn [and Snowden] study is yet another example of negative
results which are massaged and misinterpreted to support the politically
correct assertions that vegetarians live longer lives. (83)
It is usually claimed that meat-eating peoples have a short life span, but
the Aborigines of Australia, who traditionally eat a diet rich in animal
products, are known for their longevity (at least before colonization by
Europeans). Within Aboriginal society, there is a special caste of the
elderly (84). Obviously, if no old people existed, no such group would have
existed. In his book Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, Dr. Price has
numerous photographs of elderly native peoples from around the world.
Explorers such as Vilhjalmur Stefansson reported great longevity among the
Innuit (again, before colonization). [85]
Similarly, the Russians of the Caucasus mountains live to great ages on a
diet of fatty pork and whole raw milk products. The Hunzas, also known for
their robust health and longevity, eat substantial portions of goat's milk
which has a higher saturated fat content than cow's milk (86). In contrast,
the largely vegetarian Hindus of southern India have the shortest life-spans
in the world, partly because of a lack of food, but also because of a
distinct lack of animal protein in their diets (87). H. Leon Abrams'
comments are instructive here:
Vegetarians often maintain that a diet of meat and animal fat leads to a
pre-mature death. Anthropological data from primitive societies do not
support such contentions. (88)
With regards to endurance and energy levels, Dr Price traveled around the
world in the 1920s and 1930s, investigating native diets. Without exception,
he found a strong correlation between diets rich in animal fats, robust
health and athletic ability. Special foods for Swiss athletes, for example,
included bowls of fresh, raw cream. In Africa, Dr Price discovered that
groups whose diets were rich in fatty meats and fish, and organ meats like
liver, consistently carried off the prizes in athletic contests, and that
meat-eating tribes always dominated tribes whose diets were largely
vegetarian. (89)
It is popular in sports nutrition to recommend "carb loading" for athletes
to increase their endurance levels. But recent studies done in New York and
South Africa show that the opposite is true: athletes who "carb loaded" had
significantly less endurance than those who "fat loaded" before athletic
events (90).
<snip>
MYTH #9: Meat and saturated fat consumption have increased in the 20th
century, with a corresponding increase in heart disease and cancer.
Statistics do not bear out such fancies. Butter consumption has plummeted
from 18 lb (8.165 kg) per person a year in 1900, to less than 5 lb (2.27 kg)
per person a year today (105). Additionally, Westerners, urged on by
government health agencies, have reduced their intake of eggs, cream, lard,
and pork. Chicken consumption has risen in the past few decades, but chicken
is lower in saturated fat than either beef or pork.
Furthermore, a survey of cookbooks published in America in the last century
shows that people of earlier times ate plenty of animal foods and saturated
fats. For example, in the Baptist Ladies Cook Book (Monmouth, Illinois,
1895), virtually every recipe calls for butter, cream or lard. Recipes for
creamed vegetables are numerous as well. A scan of the Searchlight Recipe
Book (Capper Publications, 1931) also has similar recipes: creamed liver,
creamed cucumbers, hearts braised in buttermilk, etc. British Jews, as shown
by the Jewish Housewives Cookbook (London, 1846), also had diets rich in
cream, butter, eggs, and lamb and beef tallows. One recipe for German
waffles, for example, calls for a dozen egg yolks and an entire pound of
butter. A recipe for Oyster Pie from the Baptist cookbook calls for a quart
of cream and a dozen eggs, and so forth and so on.
It does not appear, then, that people ate leaner diets in the last century.
It is true that beef consumption has risen in the last few decades, but what
has also risen precipitously, however, is consumption of margarine and other
food products containing trans-fatty acids (106), lifeless, packaged
"foods", processed vegetable oils (107), carbohydrates (108) and refined
sugar (109). Since one does not see chronic diseases like cancer and heart
disease in beef-eating native peoples like the Maasai and Samburu, it is not
possible for beef to be the culprit behind these modern epidemics. This, of
course, points the finger squarely at the other dietary factors as the most
likely causes.
<snip>
MYTH #10: Soy products are adequate substitutes for meat and dairy products.
It is typical for vegans and vegetarians in the Western world to rely on
various soy products for their protein needs. There is little doubt that the
billion-dollar soy industry has profited immensely from the
anti-cholesterol, anti-meat gospel of current nutritional thought. Whereas,
not so long ago, soy was an Asian food primarily used as a condiment, now a
variety of processed soy products proliferate in the North American market.
While the traditionally fermented soy foods of miso, tamari, tempeh and
natto are definitely healthful in measured amounts, the hyper-processed soy
"foods" that most vegetarians consume are not.
Non-fermented soybeans and foods made with them are high in phytic acid
(110), an anti-nutrient that binds to minerals in the digestive tract and
carries them out of the body. Vegetarians are known for their tendencies to
mineral deficiencies, especially of zinc (111) and it is the high phytate
content of grain and legume based diets that is to blame (112). Though
several traditional food preparation techniques such as soaking, sprouting,
and fermenting can significantly reduce the phytate content of grains and
legumes (113), such methods are not commonly known about or used by modern
peoples, including vegetarians. This places them (and others who eat a diet
rich in whole grains) at a greater risk for mineral deficiencies.
Processed soy foods are also rich in trypsin inhibitors, which hinder
protein digestion. Textured vegetable protein (TVP), soy "milk" and soy
protein powders, popular vegetarian meat and milk substitutes, are entirely
fragmented foods made by treating soybeans with high heat and various
alkaline washes to extract the beans' fat content or to neutralize their
potent enzyme inhibitors (110). These practices completely denature the
beans' protein content, rendering it very hard to digest. MSG, a neurotoxin,
is routinely added to TVP to make it taste like the various foods it
imitates (114).
On a purely nutritional level, soybeans, like all legumes, are deficient in
cysteine and methionine, vital sulphur-containing amino acids, as well as
tryptophan, another essential amino acid. Furthermore, soybeans contain no
vitamins A or D, required by the body to assimilate and utilize the beans'
proteins (115). It is probably for this reason that Asian cultures that do
consume soybeans usually combine them with fish or fish broths (abundant in
fat-soluble vitamins) or other fatty foods.
Parents who feed their children soy-based formula should be aware of its
extremely high phytoestrogen content. Some scientists have estimated a child
being fed soy formula is ingesting the hormonal equivalent of five birth
control pills a day (116). Such a high intake could have disastrous results.
Soy formula also contains no cholesterol, vital for brain and nervous system
development.
Though research is still ongoing, some recent studies have indicated that
soy's phytoestrogens could be causative factors in some forms of breast
cancer (117), penile birth defects (118), and infantile leukemia (119).
Regardless, soy's phytoestrogens, or isoflavones, have been definitely shown
to depress thyroid function (120) and to cause infertility in every animal
species studied so far (121). Clearly, modern soy products and isolated
isoflavone supplements are not healthy foods for vegetarians, vegans, or
anyone else, yet these are the very ones that are most consumed.
<snip>
[quote]
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