Vegan Challenges

Having graduated with a bachelors in Clinical Nutrition, I often find myself feeling more confused than I did before embarking on my college journey. This is because nutrition is such a dynamic and complicated field. New studies come out daily that may or may not support the principles that I have learned and that have been considered “correct” for years. Thus, textbooks are sometimes not completely up-to-date and some old beliefs are still propagated in the classroom.

Of course everything new that comes out is a sensation for a while and fad diets will inevitably take up the new advice (whether or not it has been correctly reported or misleadingly presented). According to Jeff Novick MS, RD the complementary protein fad started by accident in Frances Moore’s book Diet for a Small Planet, published in 1971. In a later edition of her book Moore actually retracted this idea. Yet the idea of complementary proteins caught on and is still being taught to some degree in college classrooms. I have been told of the importance of combining plant proteins in multiple classes. However, the truth is that by eating sufficient calories and a variety of whole, plant foods, adequate protein is not a problem. The American Dietetic Association states this in its article entitled Position of the American dietetic Association: Vegetarian Diets.

When people ask me where I get my protein, I am tempted to show them a cartoon of I saw years ago of a small carnivorous animal asking a gorilla where it gets its protein. Some of the largest animals in existence get their protein from plants.

I would say that the more important nutrients to focus on are the ones that are definitely not present in many vegan foods: B12, iodine, and to a certain extent zinc and copper. B12 can only be found in animal products. It is produced by micoorganisms and concentrated in the tissues of herbivores. There are two possible approaches to B12 supplementation: 1. Capsules which should be taken at least once a day with a meal (preferably with something acidic) and usually come as a B-complex with all the other B-vitamins or 2. A sublingual tablet that should be taken by itself and is dissolved under the tongue (the vitamin is absorbed directly into the blood stream). Iodine can also be taken as a supplement or it can be obtained from sea vegetables and iodized salt. Copper can be found in cashews, sesame seeds, shitake mushrooms, lentils and soybeans according to whfoods.com. Zinc can also be obtained from cashews, sesame seeds and lentils.

09/13/2015