Why I Have a Problem with Vegetarianism - Part VI: Vegan Diets by Default Require Supplementation

It's been a long while since I wrote Part V of my "Why I Have a Problem with Vegetarianism" series. But, I'm back at it today. For today's post, I plan to take a step away from critiquing the lofty claims made by Campbell in his book The China Study. In all honesty, I probably should have avoided, from the very beginning, digging into and hashing out the scientifically biased/flat out unscientific nature of Campbell's work, since so many other authors/people with better pedigrees than me have done a much more thorough critique than I would ever care to offer. Let's be honest, most people are concerned with practical implications and big-picture ideas; not the minutia bantered about by talking heads with nothing better to do than argue about whether omega-3s from Atlantic salmon are better than omega-3s from Pacific salmon (or other such nonsense). Therefore, the goal I have in mind for this post is to offer you with a comprehensive and concise picture of why I think being a vegetarian (barring religious/moral convictions) for purely health related concerns is misguided.

Vegetarianism Is Premised upon the Wrong Assumptions

Often times, many vegetarians, and non-vegetarians alike, premise the healthfulness of a meat-free diet (or lean-meat-only diet in the case of non-vegetarians) upon the notion that saturated fat and dietary cholesterol are "unhealthy." In reality, there isn't conclusive evidence to suggest that we ought to be fearful of these nutrients.

A meta-analysis conducted by Chowdhury et al. conducted earlier this year revealed that "Current evidence does not clearly support cardiovascular guidelines that encourage high consumption of polyunsaturated fatty acids and low consumption of total saturated fats" (1). After examining 32 observational studies of ingested fatty acids, 17 observational studies of fatty acid bio-markers, and 27 randomized controlled trials, the authors essentially concluded that we don't know much of anything about how the fatty acid profile of our foods effects us. Regarding saturated fat specifically, the authors were not able to find any association between saturated fat consumption and disease.

Turning to cholesterol, much of the hype regarding its status as a health taboo is based on a blatant misunderstanding of how the human biology works. Dr. Uffe Ravnskov, an independent medical researcher, lays out the following nine common myths regarding cholesterol (2). 

1. "Cholesterol is not a deadly poison, but a substance vital to the cells of all mammals. There are no such things as good or bad cholesterol, but mental stress, physical activity and change of body weight may influence the level of blood cholesterol. A high cholesterol is not dangerous by itself, but may reflect an unhealthy condition, or it may be totally innocent."
2. "A high blood cholesterol is said to promote atherosclerosis and thus also coronary heart disease. But many studies have shown that people whose blood cholesterol is low become just as atherosclerotic as people whose cholesterol is high."
3. "Your body produces three to four times more cholesterol than you eat. The production of cholesterol increases when you eat little cholesterol and decreases when you eat much. This explains why the "prudent" diet cannot lower cholesterol more than on average a few per cent."
4. "There is no evidence that too much animal fat and cholesterol in the diet promotes atherosclerosis or heart attacks. For instance, more than twenty studies have shown that people who have had a heart attack haven't eaten more fat of any kind than other people, and degree of atherosclerosis at autopsy is unrelated with the diet."
5. "The only effective way to lower cholesterol is with drugs, but neither heart mortality or total mortality have been improved with drugs the effect of which is cholesterol-lowering only. On the contrary, these drugs are dangerous to your health and may shorten your life."
6. "The new cholesterol-lowering drugs, the statins, do prevent cardio-vascular disease, but this is due to other mechanisms than cholesterol-lowering. Unfortunately, they also stimulate cancer in rodents, disturb the functions of the muscles, the heart and the brain and pregnant women taking statins may give birth to children with malformations more severe than those seen after thalidomide."
7. "Many of these facts have been presented in scientific journals and books for decades but are rarely told to the public by the proponents of the diet-heart idea."
8. "The reason why laymen, doctors and most scientists have been misled is because opposing and disagreeing results are systematically ignored or misquoted in the scientific press."
9. "People with high cholesterol live the longest."

A Vegetarian Diet Is a Slippery Slope

In a 2009 article written for The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition entitled "Health Effects of Vegan Diets," Winston J. Craig reveals that vegans may be at an increased risk for suffering from deficiencies in "vitamins B-12 and D, calcium, and long-chain n–3 (omega-3) fatty acids...[and] In some cases, iron and zinc status of vegans may also be of concern because of the limited bioavailability of these minerals" (3).

An article published earlier this year for PloS One entitled "Nutrition and Health – The Association between Eating Behavior and Various Health Parameters: A Matched Sample Study" suggests "that a vegetarian diet is associated with poorer health (higher incidences of cancer, allergies, and mental health disorders), a higher need for health care, and poorer quality of life" (4). Many of these issues may in large part be due to the nutrient deficiencies mentioned above by Craig.

Common Deficiencies

Vitamin B-12

• Research by Herrman W. et al. suggests that B-12 Deficiency is most prevalent among vegans (83%), followed by vegetarians (68%), all the while only 5% of omnivores were deficient (5).
• Some common side effects of B-12 deficiency include: weakness, tiredness, light-headedness, rapid heart beat, rapid breathing, pale skin, sore tongue, easy bruising and bleeding, bleeding gums, upset stomach, weight loss, diarrhea, and constipation (6).
• Louwman M.W. et al. found that B-12 deficiency led to impaired cognitive function in adolescents (7).
• Despite what many many vegans/vegetarians may think, supposed plant-based sources of B-12 (such as seaweed, algae, fermented soy, and spirulina) actually contain an analogous B-12, the effect of which blocks the absorption of animal-based sources of B-12 (8 & 9).

Calcium

• While many plant foods contain copious amounts of calcium, the absorption of said calcium is often inefficient due to the inhibiting effects of oxalate and phytate found in plant-foods (10).
• The bio-availability of calcium from plant sources (aside from a few obscure ones) falls far behind that of a good ol' glass of milk (11).

Iron

• Vegetarians/Vegans tend to have lower iron stores than omnivores (12).
• Due to the high levels of phytates in vegan diets, the iron present in the diet may be insufficiently absorbed (13).

Zinc

• As in the case of iron, zinc, too, can be absorbed insufficiently in the context of a vegetarian diet (14).

EPA and DHA

• Vegans often rely on ALA as a source for their omega-3s. ALA, however, is not immediately usable by the body, and it must be converted from ALA to EPA and DHA; a process which is incredibly inefficient (15).
• This conversion process requires nutrients such as iron and zinc in order to take place (16); and as we've already discussed, vegans are already at risk for being dificient in these nutrients.

Vitamins A and D

• These are fat soluble vitamins which are found mainly in animal-based sources of food such as eggs, dairy, seafood, and organ meats. Some types of mushroom have vitamin D, but these varieties are not numerous, nor commonly eaten (17).
• Vegetarians and vegans are often far more deficient in vitamin D than are omnivores (18).
• Many people have a misconception that vitamin A is found in plant sources, like carrots. In reality, these plant sources contain beta-carotene, which is a precursor to vitamin A. Not only is the process of conversion inefficient, but dietary fat is required for this process to truly take effect; and vegans and vegetarians are notorious for their abstention from fat (19).

Creatine, Carnitine, and Carnosine

• These nutrients are well known and well accepted as athletic enhancing supplements (and not in the illegal sense!). Unfortunately for the vegan, these can only be found in sufficient quantities in meats; though small amounts of carnitine can be found in avocados, peanuts, wheat, and soy (20).

Two Strategies to Combat These Problems

1. Become OCD about your supplementation. If you are absolutely hellbent on sticking to your guns and avoiding meat at all costs, you have no other option than this.
2. Eat meat!

Thus concludes my 6 part rant. Adieu.

I'll take the no-supplements route!