health risk being vegan???

[ConsciousCuisine]

i particulalry recommend UDO'S OIL SUPPLEMENT which can be added to anything - i put it in banana smoothies and home-made soups

Essential fatty acids are *very* important, and I agree that UDO'S CHOICE (Made by FLORA) is the FINEST when it is taken unheated...please remember that the EFA's are altered when heated and *never* cook with any EFA oil Adding it before, during or after heating is risky, unless the food is really about room/body temperature at the highest...

[Pete]

Bit long...sorry

Ok I hate to have to disagree with everyone so early on (seeing as I only joined today!), but there has been several large scale studies on the veggie/vegan diet in comparison to meat-eating.
The basic conclusion of these studies are:
Vegans should live longer than either veggies or meat eaters, but at the moment most do not as they seem to have 2 major problems with their diet:
1/ B12 - spiralina, seaweed, miso, eating dirt are not guaranteed sources of B12. Buy B12 supplements! The best way to get B12 into you is not to swallow a pill, either buy a pill & grind it up, or buy a capsule & open it. you can then put it under your tongue, into a meal or a drink, that way you'll get all the B12 you need. You can't absorb B12 well in the stomach/intestines, the mouth is the best place for absorption to take place.

2/ EFA's (Essential Fatty Acids) - Vegans get the ratio of omega 3:6 wrong. They eat too much omega 6 & not enough omega 3 EFA's. This can cause all manner of health problems. To rectify this get some linseeds (flaxseeds), & make up a mixture of 50% flax to 50% of other seeds in any proportion (hemp, sunflower, sesame, walnut, brazil). Whizz up 1 or 2 tablespoons (I use a coffee grinder), add to a drink, sprinkle over cereal, over a meal (just don't heat!), or you could buy some pre-prepared oil (like udo's blend)
Both of these can problems can be easily rectified & should ensure that vegans live considerably longer (& be much more healthy) than either veggies or meat-eaters.

http://www.jacknorrisrd.com/ (stuff about B12)

http://www.veganmd.com/ (definitely download his talks on EFA's & B12)
Especially download - Optimum Vegetarian Nutrition - Surprising New Research on Omega 3's & B12 http://www.drgreger.org/talks/nutrition/nutrition.mp3

http://www.udoerasmus.com/firstscreen.htm (Essential fatty acids)

This should give you all the ammo you need to convince you to add these two things.

Other things to take into account are Vit D (if you don't get out in the sun much), total calorific intake (vegan diet can be less-calorifically dense so you may need to eat a bit more than you expect to get enough calories),if you eat soya, try to eat something that contains iodine (seaweed is great for this!), drink plenty of water, get loads of fresh fruit & veggies.

[ConsciousCuisine]

I don't know what makes you think that your post is in disagreement with what others believe because what you posted is what I preach

[Hasha]

1/ B12 - spiralina, seaweed, miso, eating dirt are not guaranteed sources of B12. Buy B12 supplements! The best way to get B12 into you is not to swallow a pill, either buy a pill & grind it up, or buy a capsule & open it. you can then put it under your tongue, into a meal or a drink, that way you'll get all the B12 you need. You can't absorb B12 well in the stomach/intestines, the mouth is the best place for absorption to take place.

Hi Pete & CC! So, you think I should get a separate B12 supplement even if I'm already taking a multivitamin daily? I've read that excess B12 isn't dangerous because the body absorbs only as much as it needs, but one tablet of the multivitamin that I'm taking has 75mcg (1250% daily value) of B12, and well, I'm a tiny bit nervous about overdose... And I don't want to just ditch the multivitamin because I'm not exactly a nutrition guru and there might be other vitamins that I'm lacking, so...

[ConsciousCuisine]

Hasha, I would need to know more about you and your habits before I can make a solid suggestion. I do know that a Sublingual B 12 is a safe option. I do not advocate standard multi-vitamins.

[Hasha]

Hmm... Why don't you normally recommend multivitamins?

Anyway. I tend to eat lots and lots of fruit, but not that many veggies (although I recently started eating lots of carrots). I eat lots of whole grains, cereals, beans... Lots of soy products, including (usually organic, B12 and calcium fortified) soy milk. I've also been adding flaxseed to my cereal lately. I don't eat much junk food (though I end up eating too much oil - hard to avoid at a college dining hall), virtually no processed sugar, I don't smoke, I rarely drink (and then not much). I don't drink coffee, but I do drink a fair amount of tea (black, green, herbal, you name it). I don't tend to spend that much time outside; my rough estimate would be about an hour a day. As for supplements, I take a daily multivitamin, and I also take some yellow dock capsules. That's all I can think of... What do you think?

[Pete]

There have been studies that show that even if you are swallowing well over the recommended B12 you may not be able to absorb it! I'd add a B12 capsule (they are dirt cheap). All the research shows that even taking 10,000 time + the RDA is perfectly safe.

[marika5]

Aside from the obvious problems of B12, D, and long-chain omega3s, most vegans don't eat enough vegetables. They would do a lot better with at least 10 servings of vegetables, mostly raw, in every color but with emphasis on green, and at least 4 servings of fruits, and eat whole grains only if there is any more room (or calories) left over. This would provide more vitamins, minerals, alpha linolenic acid, and protective phytochemicals.

I don't think that grain-based veganism is a very good idea. It doesn't work very well on less than 2700 kcal/day. If I did the 6 or more servings of whole grains for my 1500 kcal/day that the USDA suggests instead of my huge mostly leafy vegetable salads and fruit salads, there is no way I'd get anywhere near my requirement for vitamin E, zinc, most of the B vitamins, etc.

And I think it's a real problem that so much of the vegan propaganda has convinced people that merely by giving up all animal products, that they will be the picture of health. There is much more to it than that.