I don’t like posting about other diets, as everyone should be able to make their own choices. However, given the frequency of these arguments and talking points against ASF in other non-diet communities I think posting this ReThink Meat episode is a net benefit to the dialog.
The Vegan Diet: Myths, Risks, and What You Need to Know
Is a vegan diet as healthy and sustainable as it’s made out to be? In Episode 4 of ReThink Meat, we take an open-hearted, nonjudgmental look at the vegan lifestyle and separate fact from fiction.
This 27-minute episode busts 4 common myths about vegan diets—including the idea that “everyone is doing it” and that it’s the most sustainable choice. We also dive deep into the nutritional challenges of a plant-only diet, revealing why it’s so difficult to get all the nutrients your body needs from plants alone.
👀 What you’ll learn:
- Which nutrients are hardest to obtain on a vegan diet (and why they matter).
- The irreversible consequences of B12 deficiency, especially for kids.
- How vegan diets impact mental health, bone health, athletic performance, and critical life stages like pregnancy, childhood, and lactation.
- Firsthand accounts of people who’ve struggled with long-term vegan diets.
- Why some countries actively discourage vegan diets for certain populations.
- While this episode highlights the serious risks of a vegan diet, it does so with compassion and respect for individual choices. Walk away with a deeper understanding of the challenges and consequences of this lifestyle—and the tools to make informed decisions about your health
Summary:
ReThink Meat: And Veganism | episode four
In this episode of ReThink Meat, the host, a holistic nutritionist, explores common misconceptions about vegan diets, their health implications, and environmental impact. Contrary to popular beliefs, vegan diets can lead to nutrient deficiencies, health issues, and may not be as eco-friendly as assumed. The video shares personal experiences, research findings, and advocates for a balanced view on plant and animal-based nutrition.
Key Points
Myth 1: Everyone is Vegan
The belief that everyone who cares about health and the environment is vegan is misleading. Studies indicate only about 0.5% of U.S. adults identify as vegan, and most abandon the diet within three months.
Myth 2: Vegan Diet is Environmentally Better
Common claims that vegan diets are superior for the environment are challenged. Research shows that a significant shift to veganism may only reduce greenhouse gases by 2.6%. Additionally, many plant products involve harmful agricultural practices, countering sustainability claims.
Myth 3: Vegan Diet Stops Animal Death
Contrary to expectations, plant agriculture is responsible for numerous animal deaths due to field clearing and pesticide use. Analyses suggest plant-based diets may lead to more animal deaths per kilogram of protein than meat consumption.
Myth 4: Nutrients Easily Obtained from Plants
Obtaining essential nutrients solely from a vegan diet is difficult. Deficiencies in vitamin B12, iron, omega-3 fatty acids, and others are common among vegans, which can lead to serious health issues, including mental health disorders.
Nutritional Deficiencies and Health Risks
Vegan diets can lead to deficiencies associated with various health issues such as depression, osteoporosis, and hormonal disruptions, particularly in women.
Importance of Balanced Diet
The video suggests that a dietary approach combining both plant and animal products is essential for optimal health and nutrients. It promotes awareness of ethical farming practices and calls for respect for individual dietary choices.
Consequences for Children
Vegan diets can pose serious risks to children, potentially leading to developmental issues. The video highlights warnings from multiple countries about the health consequences of vegan diets for vulnerable populations.
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For what its worth I was vegan for about 2 years, drinking almost exclusively soylent drinks.
references
ReThink Meat: And Veganism | episode four Claim: Only Approximately one half of 1% of adults in the US self-identify as vegan and most people abandon the diet after 3 months (Faunalytics, 2014) (Buxton, 2022). Sources: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0033062022000834?via=ihub https://osf.io/7cqmw/ https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Great_Plant_Based_Con/GMhuEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover
Claim: It’s also been estimated that 84% of those who try veganism end up reverting to eating animal foods in some capacity (Faunalytics, 2014). And there are 5-times more former vegetarians/vegans than current ones (Faunalytics, 2014). Sources: https://osf.io/preprints/osf/7cqmw
Claim: Second, models have shown if all Americans went vegan, it would not significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, a 2017 analysis estimated a 2.6% reduction in GHGs and widespread nutrient deficiencies if 300 million Americans made the switch (White & Hall, 2017). According to professor and air quality extension specialist, Dr. Frank Mitlhoener… Sources: https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.1707322114
Claim: Much of the soy, corn and wheat in vegan products are grown in monocultures treated with pesticides and other environmentally-harmful chemicals (Dorgbetor et al., 2022). Not to mention many fruits and vegetables are imported (Karp, 2018). Sources: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/12/10/1518 https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/13/dining/fruit-vegetables-imports.html
Claim: …many of the models suggesting plant foods result in fewer GHG emissions use fossil-fuel dependent feedlot beef as a comparison rather than other types of beef production that can sequester carbon and improve environmental health (Guo et al., 2022) (Scarborough et al., 2023).
Sources: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9367784/ https://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-023-00795-w
Claim: A 2018 analysis for example, estimated that between 63 and 127 million field deaths per year in the US are due to plant based agriculture. For perspective, 40 million cattle and 120 million pigs are estimated to be slaughtered for consumption each year in the US (Fischer and Lamey, 2018).
Source: https://r.jordan.im/download/ethics/fischer2018.pdf
Claim: “Producing wheat and other grains for vegan/vegetarian diet results in at least 25 times more sentient animals being killed per kilogram of usable protein, more environmental damage and a great deal more animal cruelty (Archer, 2011).”
Claim: A recent paper by Doctor Lauren Cordain outlined most common health risks that can occur via vegan diet induced nutrient deficiencies including depression, anxiety, hypothyroidism, sarcopenia, hair loss, dermatitis, anemia and osteoporosis or bone fractures (O’Keefe et al., 2022).
Sources: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0033062022000834
Claim: True vitamin B12, which is important for your brain and the health of your nervous system, is almost exclusively found in animal products and was found to be deficient in 92% of vegans, versus 11% of meat eaters (Herrmann et al., 2003).
Sources: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0002916522032683?via=ihub#s0030
Claim: Due to anti-nutrients, you would absorb .8 mg of iron from beef yet only .18 mg from spinach, in servings both containing about 3.5 mg of iron (Vasconcelos & Oliveira, 2004) (Hurrell & Egli, 2010) (How Much Iron Do You Actually Absorb From Food?, n.d.)
Sources: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15302522/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20200263/ https://lilynicholsrdn.com/iron-absorption/
Claim: And though you can obtain certain essential omega three fatty acids for plants, the longer chain forms like EPA and DHA, which are critical for the heart, brain, and immune function are only found in animal products, which is likely why up to 50% of vegans can be deficient (Swanson et al., 2012) (Rosell et al., 2005, 5).
Sources: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3262608/ https://ajcn.nutrition.org/action/showPdf?pii=S0002-9165(23)29563-5 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16087975/
Claim: It’s also important to note that due to the complexity of whole foods, supplemental nutrients don’t often yield the same health benefits (Jacobs & Tapsell, 2007).
Sources: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17972438/
Claim: In fact, for certain nutrients like calcium and beta-carotene, their supplemental forms have been linked to an increased risk of disease (Boland & Grey, 2011) (Blumberg & Block, 1994) while their whole food forms are linked to decreased risk (van Vliet et al., 2020).
Sources: https://www.bmj.com/content/342/bmj.d2040 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8090376/ https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/sustainable-food-systems/articles/10.3389/fsufs.2020.00128/full
Claim: The brain is a hungry organ and accounts for only 2% of total body weight and requires 20% of our daily calories (Siegel et al., 1999).
Sources: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK20385/
Claim: According to a 2018 analysis. The most important nutrients for depression prevention and treatment include many nutrients often deficient in vegan diets (LaChance & Ramsey, 2018).
Claim: Recent research has also provided evidence that avoiding meat can increase the risk of mental health issues with a 2020 review concluding that 11 of the 18 studies found meat abstention was associated with poorer psychological health (Dobersek et al., 2021).
Source: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32308009/
Claim: Other studies have found not eating meat is associated with a:
2X risk of depression 3X risk of self harm 2X the prevalence of suicide attempts
Sources: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/public-health-nutrition/article/how-does-the-health-and-wellbeing-of-young-australian-vegetarian-and-semivegetarian-women-compare-with-nonvegetarians/1B49FD85C44CCDA7AEF40972F28B29BF Table 3 (Taken prescription medication for depression): 4.2 for meat / 8 for veg
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/public-health-nutrition/article/how-does-the-health-and-wellbeing-of-young-australian-vegetarian-and-semivegetarian-women-compare-with-nonvegetarians/1B49FD85C44CCDA7AEF40972F28B29BF *Look for TABLE 2 (Deliberate self-harm)
https://www.jahonline.org/article/S1054-139X(01)00258-0/abstract
Here is the figure to show the 2x prevalence of suicide attempts (Table 1): https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Characteristics-of-vegetarian-adolescents-in-a-Perry-McGuire/c54a2b48406d132c310bbb29ff04171f655f4b46/figure/0
Claim: And finally, meat-inclusive Mediterranean and ketogenic diets have shown promising results in clinical trials for improving (and even reversing) brain-based issues like depression, epilepsy, and Alzheimer’s (Dobersek et al., 2021) (Brietzke et al., 2018) (Ułamek-Kozioł et al., 2019) (Jensen et al., 2020) (Shafiei et al., 2023).
Sources: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32308009/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33233502/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30075165/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31635247/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33233502/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36928725/
Claim: A lack of calcium and vitamin D are two of the biggest concerns (Menzel et al., 2021) but studies have also shown - omega 3 fatty acids (Sadeghi et al., 2019), vitamin B12, vitamin A (Menzel et al., 2021), zinc (Hyun et al., 2004) and selenium (Menzel et al., 2021) are also important.
Sources: https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/13/2/685 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10408398.2017.1405908?cookieSet=1 https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/13/2/685 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15321813/ https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/13/2/685
Claim: A recent study also showed that vegans had 2x the risk of hip fractures (Tong et al., 2020).
Sources: https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12916-020-01815-3#citeas
Claim: Another analysis of twenty studies noted that, compared with omnivores, vegetarians and vegans had higher fracture rates and lower bone mineral density at the femoral neck and lumbar spine (Iguacel et al., 2019).
Sources: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30376075/
Claim: And when a vegan and vegetarian diet was compared with the meat-inclusive Mediterranean Diet in those with Rheumatoid arthritis, the meat-inclusive Mediterranean diet proved more successful in reducing pain (Schönenberger et al., 2021).
Sources: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8706441/
Claim:. Deficiencies in iron, zinc, and vitamin A are common in vegans, and are also associated with menstrual cycle disruptions. One study compared ovulation of women aged 19 to 27, and 7 out of 9 meat eaters ovulated while only 2 out 9 non-meaters ovulated (Pirke et al., 1986).
Sources: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3096794/
Claim: Vegan diets can also be an issue for those who hope to become pregnant, as a recent study revealed that 90% of women trying to conceive in developed countries are already nutrient-deficient (Keith et al., 2023).
Sources: Study: https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.1004260
Article: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-12-pregnant-women-vital-nutrients-situation.html
references 2
Claim: Research has shown deficiencies in B12, iron, VD, calcium, and DHA during pregnancy can increase the risk of symptoms like morbidity, low birth weight, altered growth, neurological issues, fetal malformations and the outcome of the overall pregnancy (Sebastiani et al., 2019) (Zec et al., 2020).
Sources: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6470702/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32302504/
Claim: To add insult to injury, current testing methods for B12 are thought to miss many of those who are deficient (Iltar et al., 2019).
Sources: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6614102/
Claim: Research has also shown that exclusively breast fed infants of vegan mothers are at a relatively high risk of vitamin B12 deficiency, anemia and failure to thrive (Honzik et al., 2010).
Sources: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1090379809002220
Claim: It’s often believed that well planned vegan diets with supplementation can avoid deficiency and these permanent side effects. But unfortunately, a 2021 study compared vegan, vegetarian and omnivore children whose meals were carefully planned by a dietician and still found vegan children had lower levels of several nutrients, including protein, vitamin A and DHEA and cholesterol (Hovinen et al., 2021).
Sources: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33471422/
Claim: In extreme cases, these deficiencies can even result in childhood death or irreversible damage from malnutrition (Von Schenck et al., 1997) (Sebastiani et al., 2019) (Codazzi et al., 2005) (Guez et al., 2012).
Sources: https://adc.bmj.com/content/77/2/137.info https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6470702/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15982440/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22726312/
Claim: Given these serious risks, many countries like Italy (“Italy Proposal to Jail Vegans Who Impose Diet on Children,” 2016), Switzerland (Hooper, 2014), Spain (Redecillas-Ferreiro et al., 2020), Belgium and Germany (Richter et al., 2016) have warned about the possible negative consequences of vegan diets.
Sources: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-37034619 https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2014/09/17/Swiss-government-Vegan-diet-bad-for-kids/6161410965963/ https://www.analesdepediatria.org/en-position-paper-on-vegetarian-diets-articulo-S2341287920300211?referer=buscador https://www.ernaehrungs-umschau.de/fileadmin/Ernaehrungs-Umschau/pdfs/pdf_2016/04_16/EU04_2016_Special_DGE_eng_final.pdf
Claim: And if you visit any of vegan forums online, like the reddit thread for “ex vegans”, you’ll find hundreds of other stories involving a myriad of health issues including…teeth issues, kidney stones, joint pain, fatigue, & hair loss (Ex Vegans).
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/exvegans/
Claim: According to a report from Bloomberg Intelligence, the plant-based market was worth 29.4 billion in 2020, and is projected to reach $162 billion by 2030 (“Plant-Based Foods Market to Hit $162 Billion in Next Decade, Projects Bloomberg Intelligence | Press,” 2021).
Claim: While corporations are profiting off this message, a recent analysis of the incredibly influential and plant-based Eat Lancet diet, revealed it was unaffordable for 1.58 billion people worldwide, not to mention nutritionally inadequate for many populations as we discussed in video 1. (Hirvonen et al., 2020)
I found these two paper’s from the episode particularly interesting about the environmental impacts of ruminants and nutritional arbitrage of a PBF diet (the proposed replacement for all pasture land).
Ruminants have exist before humans, they are not hurting the environment, they are the environment. Sustainable regenerative ruminant based agriculture is key to maximizing the output of the land.
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1707322114 Nutritional and greenhouse gas impacts of removing animals from US agriculture
only reduced total US GHG by 2.6 percentage units.
This assessment suggests that removing animals from US agriculture would reduce agricultural GHG emissions, but would also create a food supply incapable of supporting the US population’s nutritional requirements.
Interestingly on this model, calories and carbohydrates would increase but there would be more nutritional gaps.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s43247-023-00945-9 Levelling foods for priority micronutrient value can provide more meaningful environmental footprint comparisons
