Vegan for Life - Jack Norris [6]
GOOD DIETS ARE GOOD ADVOCACY
Whether you are already vegan or just starting to take steps in that direction, eliminating animal products from your lifestyle is an effective way to make a difference. It reduces animal suffering, removes your financial support for factory farming, and represents a stance against the use of animals. But in order to have the greatest impact possible, most of us who care about animals hope to influence others to go vegan as well.
Those who work for the meat, dairy, and egg industries would like to portray vegan diets as inadequate. So the last thing we want to do is give them any ammunition. Some vegans balk at the idea of taking vitamin B12 supplements, because they think it makes vegan diets appear inadequate. But taking a chance with nutrient deficiencies is the worst thing we can do for the image of vegan diets. For example, arguing that vegans have lower calcium needs than omnivores can cause some vegans to make poor choices for their bone health. Taking every precaution to make sure that we are healthy is one way to help others feel confident about going vegan.
Promoting veganism as a lifestyle that is practical, easy, and realistic is important, too. Time, convenience, and taste are primary factors in people’s food choices. That’s why overly restrictive diets can create the wrong kind of image for veganism. Current trends among some vegans to give up more and more foods—added fats, cooked foods, and gluten—are counterproductive, especially because these dietary restrictions have few health benefits for most people. It’s true that some people might have better success with weight control when they eat very little fat, but research suggests that diets containing small amounts of added fats or higher-fat foods can be even more beneficial for long-term weight control. And we’ll look at why a little bit of unsaturated fat in the diet, especially monounsaturated fat, can be good for controlling and preventing chronic diseases.
NUTRIENT RECOMMENDATIONS FOR OMNIVORES AND VEGANS COMPARED TO INTAKES OF BRITISH VEGANS3
Likewise, the idea behind a raw foods diet is based on a few scientific principles that are shaky at best. There is really no good evidence to suggest that eating all raw food is any better for you than eating a mix of raw and cooked whole plant foods. In fact, some of the beneficial compounds in foods, such as lycopene (an antioxidant in tomatoes that protects against prostate cancer), are available only when foods are cooked. The vitamin A precursor beta-carotene is more readily available from cooked foods as well and is also better absorbed in the presence of some fat. A raw foods diet can be helpful for weight control, since it has a lower caloric density, but this also means that it isn’t appropriate for children.
A gluten-free diet is an absolute necessity for those who have celiac disease, a permanent intolerance to gluten. But this autoimmune disease affects only 1 percent of the population. That means that most vegans have no reason to eliminate gluten from their diets. In fact, some research suggests that gluten-free diets are associated with reductions in levels of beneficial gut bacteria and increased levels of harmful microbes. For those who don’t have celiac disease, it may be beneficial to include some gluten in their diet. (Of course, those who have allergies, including non-celiac wheat allergy, need to adjust their diets accordingly.)
Promoting these additional restrictions that have no known health advantage for most people doesn’t do anything to help animals or promote vegan diets. To the contrary, it creates an image of vegan diets that makes them look more difficult and less appealing. If we want others to follow our lead in adopting more compassionate food choices, it makes sense to avoid unnecessary restrictions and make vegan diets as accessible as possible.
The nutrition recommendations in this book, which are based on solid, current science, are aimed at making your