by Lyn Carew

A reader has asked me to discuss the vegetarian eating pattern known as the Vegan diet. Although I'm not a vegetarian I'll try to make this valuable and give you your money's worth.
Vegans (VEE-guns) follow a diet pattern totally devoid of animal products. Some vegetarians include eggs and dairy, and even a little fish or chicken, but the true vegetarian or Vegan eliminates all of these - no animal products, period! But rather than calling it a Vegan diet, let's refer to it as a Vegan food pattern. Diet sounds too severe, and makes one think weight loss is the primary objective.

People follow a Vegan food pattern for several reasons: religious, environmental, animal welfare and personal health. The first three are absolutely valid reasons, but what about the last one, health? Is a Vegan food pattern good or bad? It can be both. In its generic sense, a Vegan food pattern includes any combination of plant products. It could consist of only white bread, butter substitute, and soybeans or nuts. That certainly supplies carbohydrate, fat and protein, but obviously it's not very balanced.

Most Vegans start out intending to follow a balanced diet to improve their health, but frequently fall short. The exclusion of nutrient laden meat, eggs, and dairy products can lead to deficiencies. A Vegan food pattern can be deficient in vitamin B-12, iron, calcium, zinc, vitamin D, omega-3 fatty acids and balanced amino acids. As examples, a recent study showed that 80 percent of some Vegans in India are deficient in vitamin B-12; this is dangerous and can cause irreversible nerve damage. Or, Vegan children of Vegan parents, who do not understand good nutrition, are known to do poorly in school. This is not necessarily a harsh criticism of the Vegan food pattern but leads to the one important qualification for being a Vegan - one must also be a pretty good nutritionist! Vegans must learn how to balance plant foods. Educate yourself as to food sources of nutrients. Nutrition education? That's not such a bad idea for everyone. When this is done the Vegan food pattern has a lot of pluses.

Proper Vegan food patterns are known to lower blood pressure, and lessen the risk of developing heart disease, obesity, diabetes, cancer, intestinal problems, and many other current health problems. On that basis, the Vegan food pattern is highly recommended. One reservation, however, is that comparisons of Vegans are usually made to the general population in which highly imbalanced, high energy, low fiber diets are currently eaten. It's my opinion that any well balanced, unrefined diet that is faithfully adhered to, that is not excessive in calories, and that includes a lifestyle of physical activity along with no smoking or drugs, will produce similar results. I can't go into the concept of a balanced diet here. But you know pretty well what this means, don't you? It's not refined fast foods every day.

Most of the problematic nutrients in a Vegan food pattern can be obtained by paying particular attention to using unrefined foods, a wide array of beans, seeds, nuts and super vegetables such as broccoli, although supplements of vitamin D (in the winter), vitamin B-12 are frequently used. Good food choices nearly correct any possible deficits. Excellent Vegan meal patterns examples are available online and in books.

At some meals I'm a Vegan. A big green, red and purple salad with a side bowl of squash, along with grapes, cherries, and nuts is a favorite of mine. And of course being from Boston, beans light up my life.

So if a Vegan food pattern is what makes you feel healthy and content, and you have learned some important nutritional principles, more power to you. But, other well-balanced food patterns that include eggs, milk, cheese, chicken, fish, or meat will produce similar results.
I hope this discussion was valuable to you, and you didn't mind me putting in my 2 cents worth. Next time, I may just ask you for a penny for my thoughts.