Veganist_ Lose Weight, Get Healthy, Change the World - Kathy Freston [93]
Not smoking. Studies have shown that women who smoke one pack of cigarettes a day have 5 to 10 percent less bone density at menopause than nonsmokers.
3. Is it healthy for a pregnant or nursing mother to eat a plant-based diet? How about kids?
According to the American Dietetic Association:
Well-planned vegan and other types of vegetarian diets are appropriate for all stages of the life-cycle including during pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, and adolescence. Vegetarian diets offer a number of nutritional benefits including lower levels of saturated fat, cholesterol, and animal protein as well as higher levels of carbohydrates, fiber, magnesium, potassium, folate, antioxidants such as vitamins C and E, and phytochemicals. Vegetarians have been reported to have lower body mass indices than non-vegetarians, as well as lower rates of death from ischemic heart disease, lower blood cholesterol levels, lower blood pressure, and lower rates of hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and prostate and colon cancer.
—American Dietetic Association position paper on vegetarian and vegan diets
In the seventh edition of Dr. Benjamin Spock’s Baby and Child Care—the last edition published during Dr. Spock’s lifetime—he spelled out some good advice for children’s diets. He recommended that children be served plant-based diets—vegan diets—and that, to deal with finicky eaters, the best approach was not to arm-wrestle with children, but rather to simply find healthful foods they will eat. For example, children may not like cooked spinach, but they will like fresh spinach as part of a salad. They often are not keen on more exotic vegetables, but they are fine with corn, carrots, green beans, etc.
Virtually all children like the following:
Legumes: baked beans (okay to add cut-up veggie hot dogs), lentil soup, split pea soup, peas, bean burritos, bean tacos
Vegetables: carrots, green beans, vegetable soup, salads
Grains: rice, whole grain bread, oatmeal, cold cereals with soy milk or rice milk, corn, vegan pizza, spaghetti with chunky tomato sauce
Fruits: apples, bananas, and all others
Meat analogues: veggie burgers, veggie hot dogs, etc. The soy-based ones have a cancer-preventing effect for girls, and are healthful for all children.
It is also important to provide a pediatric multiple vitamin.
PCRM has a book called Healthy Eating for Life: For Children, which is very detailed on veganism and kids.
4. Do I need to take any particular vitamins or minerals because of eating this way?
Actually, vegans generally have better overall vitamin intake, compared with meat eaters. Meat has essentially no vitamin C and is low in many other vitamins as well. In contrast, vegetables, fruits, and legumes (beans, peas, and lentils) are vitamin-rich. In controlled studies, people switching to vegan diets typically increase their intake of several vitamins, and reduce their intake of the undesirables—saturated fat and cholesterol, in particular.
Even so, two vitamins deserve special comment:
Vitamin B12 is made, not by plants or animals, but by bacteria. Animal products contain B12 made by the bacteria in their intestinal tracts. A more healthful source is any common multiple vitamin. B12 supplements are also widely available.
Vitamin D normally comes from exposure to the sun. About fifteen minutes of direct sunlight on your face and arms each day gives you all the vitamin D you need. However, if you are indoors much of the day or live in an area where sunlight is limited, it is important to take a supplement. Any common multivitamin is fine. Most foods have little or no vitamin D. Certain fish contain some vitamin D, but they also harbor cholesterol, mercury, and other things you don’t want. Surprisingly, mushrooms (for example, shiitakes and chanterelles) contain vitamin D. Five dried shiitakes provide roughly 5 micrograms of vitamin D. You’ll also find it in fortified