Subsections
Nutrition authorities say that a properly planned vegan diet presents no
significant nutritional problems. Supplementation is, however, highly
recommended. [3066]
There are several nutrients vegans should pay attention to. These include
vitamin B12, iron and iodine: deficiencies in these are more likely following a
vegan diet, and deficiencies of these have potentially serious consequences,
including anemia, pernicious anemia, cretinism and hyperthyroidism.
[3072]
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) issued the guidance on food labelling for
vegans and vegetarians in 2006. These terms had not been defined by UK food
labelling regulations. The FSA guidance was therefore welcomed by consumers and
food industry. FSA definitions are:
"The term 'vegetarian' should not be applied to foods that are, or are made
from, or with, the aid of products derived from animals that have died, have
been slaughtered, or animals that die as a result of being eaten. 'Animals'
means farmed, wild or domestic animals, including for example, livestock
poultry, game, fish, shellfish, crustacea, amphibians, tunicates, echinoderms,
molluscs and insects."
"The term 'vegan' should not be applied to foods that are, or are made from, or
with, the aid of animals or animal products (including products from living
animals)."
[3072]
According to the UK FSA there are various reasons for people choosing
vegetarian or vegan diets. Many prefer not to consume food that results from
the slaughter of animals, or from animal products.
Others are concerned particularly about ethical methods of farming, transport,
and slaughter. An individual's choice to be vegetarian or vegan may be based
entirely on religious grounds. Some people are allergic or intolerant to
particular animal products. Personal choice may be based on a combination of
these factors.
The motives for individuals choosing a vegetarian or vegan diet are important,
because they determine what particular foods or food ingredients are deemed to
be acceptable.
[3067]
Campbell and colleagues found that rural China diets are substantially richer
in foods of plant origin when compared with diets consumed in the more
industrialized, Western societies.
The scientists came to the conclusion that chronic degenerative diseases are
prevented by an aggregate effect of nutrients and nutrient-intake amounts that
are commonly supplied by foods of plant origin, and that even small intakes of
foods of animal origin are associated with significant increases in plasma
cholesterol concentrations, which are associated, in turn, with significant
increases in chronic degenerative disease mortality rates.
[3068] [3069] citeIVU worldwide
According to FAO , the livestock sector generates 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions as measured in CO2 equivalent. This is more than transport. It is also a major source of land and water degradation.
Global meat production is projected to more than double from 229 million tonnes in 1999/2001 to 465 million tonnes in 2050, while milk output is set to climb from 580 to 1043 million tonnes.
FAO says that the environmental costs per unit of livestock production must be cut by one half, just to avoid the level of damage worsening beyond its present level,
FAO in its Report suggests:
controlling access and removing obstacles to
mobility on common pastures. Use of soil conservation methods and silvopastoralism, together with controlled livestock exclusion from sensitive areas; payment schemes for environmental services in livestock-based land use to help reduce and reverse land degradation.
increasing the efficiency of livestock
production and feed crop agriculture. Improving animals' diets to reduce enteric fermentation and consequent methane emissions, and setting up biogas plant initiatives to recycle manure. Water: improving the efficiency of irrigation systems. Introducing full-cost pricing for water together with taxes to discourage large-scale livestock concentration close to cities.
Other suggestions are to eat more vegetables. Meat consumption should de reduced by half. The vegetarians suggest to stop eating meat at all.
Vegetarianism means nutrition without any products from dead animals such as meat, poultry or fish.
Lacto-ovo vegetarians eat plant food plus dairy products and eggs.
Lacto vegetarians don't eat eggs but they eat diary products.
Vegans don't eat anything coming from an animal, therefore no diary products, eggs or honey for example.
Meat based nutrition requires 20 times more land and 14 times more water than a plant-based diet. The production of 1kg of meat requires 10-16 kg of cereals and other plant food.
70% of the world's water consumption is needed for the production of fodder. It has been calculated that to produce 4kg of meat, the amount of water needed is equal to what a normal family consumes in one year.
Animal excrement which is responsible for half the pollution of our lakes, rivers and groundwater, amounts to 110t per second in Europe and America. 2/3 of it is liquid manure. The nitrate and ammonia in it contaminate our waters.
The evaporation of the ammonia from this liquid manure causes part of the acid rains, after having changed to nitric acid.
The most important reason why we should not eat meat: sentient, suffering creatures have to give their life for it. Every year 13 billion animals are slaughtered on earth.
[3071]
B. M. Popkin and S. Du used China as a case study and found large shifts in
the composition of diets and obesity across the developing world noting that
these changes are accelerating. The authors point out that in developing
countries the prevalence of obesity is greater than that of undernutrition and
concerns related to intake of saturated fat and energy imbalance must be
considered more seriously by the agriculture sector which is focused on
livestock promotion.
They come to the conclusion that although linkages between animal source foods
intake and obesity cannot be established as clearly as they are for high animal
source foods intakes, heart disease and cancer, the potential adverse health
effects linked with an increased animal source foods intake should no longer be
ignored.
[3072]
The animal origin of some ingredients may not be apparent from their names. For
example, some additives may be carried on a gelatin base and therefore not be
suitable for inclusion in a vegetarian or vegan diet. Food labelled as vegan or
vegetarian may become contaminated during preparation, for example, outlets
where deep fried food is cooked in oil that is used for both meat and non-meat
products. This will not be apparent from the ingredients list.
General EU rules already prohibit misleading labelling (Article 2 of Directive
2000/13/EC and Article 16 of EC Regulation 178/2002. However, there are no
specific rules at EU level on vegetarian or vegan labelling, and this subject
is not currently under discussion at EU level.
Labelling food as suitable for vegetarian or vegans is entirely voluntary.
However it does provide useful information to consumers and Government would
not wish to discourage it.
Legislation, including sanctions, is already in place to protect consumers
against misleading labelling. Current enforcement activities involve industry
inspections of labels to ensure they are not misleading. The advice set out in
the proposed Guidance provide an interpretation of what should be considered as
a minimum standard when labelling food as 'suitable for vegetarians' or
'suitable for vegans' (or other similar claims).
[3280] [3291]
According to Marcus Richards evidence increasingly suggests that intelligence
is associated with health and survival, and intelligence could mediate the
impact of adverse circumstances (such as overcrowding), influence the
acquisition of factors that protect health, and reflect underlying biological
mechanisms that regulate health.
[3281]
Ramakant Sharma does not agree with the study. He says that vegetarianism has
nothing to do with IQ. He claims that 60% of the population of India is
vegetarian, even so this population is not more intelligent than the western
counterparts who eat meat. The incidence of Indian CAD is 7 times higher than
the western population. Sharma says that vegetarianism is a cultural
phenomenon and it should be looked as that only.
Sharma concludes that "vegetarian food is healthy" is a misconception.
Probably, food has nothing to do with disease except malnutrition and
deficiencies.
About 6% of the population of Germany are vegetarians. They want to avoid to
harm animals, to avoid food waist as animal feed and last, but not least to
reduce greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide
emanating from animal breeding. FAO environmental scientist calculated the
CO
- equivalence of the different types of nutrition:
The global animal population produce approximately one fifth of greenhouse
gases resulting from the activities of mankind. FAO stresses that this is
more than the emission of global traffic. CO emission results from
burning forests to prepare land for pastures and feed crops. Dung and liquid
manure produce nitrous oxide. Ruminants such as cattle and sheep emit methane.
Mechanized agriculture of rape and soy produce more CO. Approximately 6
kilos of vegetable protein are necessary to produce one kilo animal protein.
The Cornell University (Ithaca, USA)
found in a study, that the production of one kilo milk protein needs 14 kilocalories
of fossile energy, this is the same amount needed for the production of one
kilo porc. The German Freiburger Öko Institute writes that 8 litres milk are
necessary to produce 1 kilo cheese.
| Product |
Emission of |
|---|
| CO equivalece Cheese |
8 kilo |
|---|
| Meat |
6 kilo |
| Egg |
2 kilo |
| yoghurt |
1 kilo |
According to Jörg Michael Greef from the German from
the Bundesforschungsanstalt für Landwirtscaft. The world production of soy
is 220 million tons. Germany imports 40 million tons. Three million tons are
used for the production of edible oil and other applications. The main core of
37 millions tons are transformed in animal feed.
Soy farms built monocultures in USA, Argentina and Brazil, where they invade
the tropical forest and savannahs. Centralised animal breeding, depending on
soy are an environmental false step. Smaller units, depending on local feed are
ecology friendly and create jobs.
According to the Environmental Program of the United Nations
UNEP, 83% of palm oil comes from Indonesia and Malaisia. The consumption of
Palm oil increases deforestation of these countries.
[3282]
In a survival analysis to assess the effect of meat consumption and meat type
on the risk of breast cancer in the UK it was found that women, both pre- and
postmenopausal, who consumed the most meat and processed meats had a
significant increase in the risk of breast cancer.
According to Professor Janet Cade and colleagues from the University of Leeds,
the high saturated fat content of the meat may be behind the apparent effects,
with this kind of fat linked to cholesterol production which is a precursor for
the female hormone oestrogen, linked to breast cancer risk.
The disease is, however not limited to red meat as sole cause, but many other
factors may trigger breath cancer.
The authors found a 64 per cent greater risk of breast cancer for
post-menospausal women which consumed more than 20 grams per day processed
meat, such as as bacon, sausages, ham or pies. An increased risk of 56found in women of the same age, which consumed more than 57 gram red meat per
day. In pre-menospausal women consuming more than 20 grams processed meat
per day an increase of breast cancer of 20 percent, compared with none meat
eating women.
The British Charity Breakthrough Breast Cancer denotes that there are other
factors like age, weight, nutritional habits accounting for 30 per cent of the
cases, and exercise which influence health. It is being emphasized that all
women eat a balanced diet, limit alcohol consumption, exercise regularly and
keep a healthy weight in order to maintain general good health.
[3283]
A systematic electronic literature search was conducted by Ho-Pham to verify the
association between vegetarian diets and bone mineral density. The authors found
that bone mineral density was approximately 4% lower in vegetarians than in
omnivores , and 6% lower in lumbar spine in vegans, whereas only 2% in
lactoovovegetarians. The results suggest that vegetarian diets, particularly
vegan diets, are associated with lower BMD, however it is not significant.
[3284]
Krivosikova and colleagues 2009 wrote that vegetarian diet is deficient in
vitamin B group, leading too hyperhomocysteinemia which,on its turn, is
linked to increased bone turnover markers and increased fracture risk. The
authors stresses that hyperhomocysteinemia, vitamin B(12) and folate
deficiency are risk factors for micronutrient deficiency-related osteoporosis.
According to the authors homocysteine levels dependent on age as well as on
nutritional habits, and can be regarded is one of the predictors of bone mineral
density, homocysteine levels are. According to the data of the study elderly
women on a vegetarian diet are at higher risk of osteoporosis development than
nonvegetarian women.
[3285]
Lee and Krawinkel 2009 described the body composition and nutrient intake of
Buddhist vegetarians nuns compared with omnivores Catholic nuns in South Korea.
The found no height difference between both dietary groups, however, the
vegetarians had a significantly higher body weight, fat free mass, body fat and
body mass index than the omnivores. The authors stress that in vegetarians, body
fat was inversely correlated with the duration of vegetarianism.
[3286]
Van Audenhaege and colleagues 2009 compare the pesticide residue dietary intake
of the French general population and the vegetarian population. The authors found
that the vegetarians are exposed to pesticides found in fruit, vegetables and
cereals, such as tri-allate, chlorpyrifos-methyl and diazinon. Except for
organochlorine compounds, the vegetarian population may be more exposed to
pesticide residues than the general population due to specific dietary habits.
Thus, this population should be considered for risk assessment of pesticide
residues.
[3287]
Liszt and colleagues report that vegetarian diet changed the faecal microflora in
quantity and quality regarding Bacteroides, Bifidobacterium and Clostridium
cluster IV. Both bacteria Faecalibacterium sp. and a strain similar to gut
bacterium DQ793301were more frequent in omnivores than vegetarians. Vegetarian
diet reduced the amount and diversity of Clostridium cluster IV. The authors
concluded that vegetarian diet changes the gut microbiota specifically in
relation to Clostridium cluster IV, and the effects of these shifts are unknown.
[3288]
In children vegetarian diets may bear risks with regard to growth, such as
anaemia. Malnutrition risks even increase with vegan diets. Hackett and
colleagues 1998 found that lacto-ovo-vegetarian diet is closer to recommendations
and children on this diets grow similar to omnivores. The authors call on the
industry to produce vegetarian convenience foods closer to recommendations.
Recommendations are to avoid excessive reliance on convenience foods, lack of
variety and lack of exercise.
[3289]
Tupe and Chiplonkar 2009 report that Indian schollgirls had inadequate intakes
of energy, protein, and micronutrients including zinc compared with the recommended
dietary intakes of India. The authors developed new cereal-based recipes of which
200g could fulfil 75% of the daily zinc requirement of adolescents and increase
the intake of other micronutrient. They call on zinc-rich recipes with high
bioavailability to counter zinc deficiency in adolescents.
[3290]
Hartmann and colleagues 2009 point to the fact that even persons with normal
vitamin B12 concentrations may present signs of deficiency. The authors
recommend to measure methyl malonic acid (MMA) in urine of risk group for
deficiency which include pregnant, breast feeding women and infants. The
authors stress that prenatal and postnatal vitamin B12 deficiency can cause
severe irreversible neurological damage, and report of such cases caused by
unidentified pernicious anemia and by vegan diet of the mothers.
The researchers emphasize to measure MMA in the urine of all pregnant women to
detect vitamin B12 deficiency.
OurFood (c) 1998 - 2010 by Karl Heinz Wilm - Imprint (Impressum)