Danish doctor warns: Vegan food may lead to mental retardation

originally posted by: andy06shake
a reply to: Blaine91555

Each to there own does indeed seem to be the ticket.

Now if only we could apply that to everything in our lives.

a reply to: Blaine91555

Chance would be a fine thing indeed.

Just to provide a counterpoint from 18 doctors

nutriciously.com...

Following a plant-based diet can help prevent, treat, and even reverse most of today’s chronic diseases. Luckily, we know of these powerful effects thanks to a handful of passionate and famous vegan doctors without whom this huge movement wouldn’t have grown nearly as much as it already has.

a reply to: Annee

Doing Vegan correctly is HARD

How so, food and plant based multivitamins are a thing... everyone knows this right?

I've been using the LIVESTRONG app to help me lose weight, and one thing I have noticed is that eating a lot of vegetables is really easy to do. They pack almost no calories. The problem is that if you are trying to balance your fat, protein and carb intakes to stay healthy, it's darn near impossible while eating just veggies. Sure, I can fill up really, really easy and stay under my calorie target and lose weight, but I'm not getting the nutrients I need to stay healthy.

And it takes a ton of veggie matter to get those nutrients. I feel bloated from having eaten so much. Whereas a nice meat and bean chili made with 93/7 ground beef and beans while fill me up *and* balance out my nutrients in a single cup to cup and a 1/2 with a bit of cheese to garnish.

a reply to: whywhynot

So why do we have incisors and canine teeth?

Because it's not for ripping vegetables apart, that's a given.

Think about how much vegetable matter the average person would need to consume each day just to get the required calories to survive?

Plant-based diets are great but do they really give us all that we require?

Well that's quite an in-depth article (rolling eyes).

I'm almost 30 years of being vegan... hmmm, not feeling the effects of this article yet. Such a stupid and agenda driven writeup. I also want to know who funded it.

It's easy as can be to be vegan these days. Just make sure you get your vitamins. All the info it out there. Also, anything can be put in a negative light. Eat a ton of red meat. Bad. Eat a ton of eggs. Bad. Eat a lot of butter. Bad. Eat a ton of fake meat. Bad. Whatever.

ps - Look around America at all these fat overfed and yet somehow malnourished non-vegans. Especially the kids these days. They are sure doing it right.

Agenda ftw.

Your questions are for the Doctors not me

a reply to: whywhynot

40 years ago you could walk into a doctors office, to seek medical advice from your GP, whilst they sat there, chain-smoked and handed out Valium like sweeties.

My point being, doctors pretty much prescribe what they are sold/given by the pharmaceutical companies they facilitate.

They are salesmen of a sorts, not suggesting they don't know their trade, but something to keep in mind.

originally posted by: Blaine91555
a reply to: SeaWorthy

Fad diets and many if not most supplements and health food items are about money. So called natural stores have shelves full of worthless, unneeded products that are overpriced they sell to people by trying to scare them into thinking they need it. Make a false health claim, put some innocuous dried weed into a capsule, charge a lot for it and line your pockets.

It used to be called snake oil which was sold by confidence people. That crap is still sold by confidence people. Some of it may be dangerous in fact.

I agree, vegan and vegetarian diets though are certainly not fads. large corps are taking over and they want no competition in the way just like when the big box store moved to our small town, they bought out even the small pharmacy so there was no place left to go for anything.

originally posted by: andy06shake
a reply to: whywhynot

So why do we have incisors and canine teeth?

Because it's not for ripping vegetables apart, that's a given.

Think about how much vegetable matter the average person would need to consume each day just to get the required calories to survive?

Plant-based diets are great but do they really give us all that we require?

The ones on plant eating apes are bigger

a reply to: ketsuko

Whereas a nice meat and bean chili made with 93/7 ground beef and beans while fill me up *and* balance out my nutrients in a single cup to cup and a 1/2 with a bit of cheese to garnish.

The beans alone with a tad of rice is as balanced of a meal

a reply to: SeaWorthy

Not as much. We made lentil soup this past week, and my protein was short and I had to eat much more of it. Carbs were fine without rice.

I was needing 1c and 1/2 of the lentil, a hard-boiled egg, and 3/4c cottage cheese to get the same amount of the same nutrients as 1c and 1/2 of chili.

originally posted by: new_here
a reply to: shawmanfromny

I've heard that one of the reasons homo erectus developed into homo sapien, was the introduction of more fat (and protein?) into the diet, a more concentrated source of energy, causing the brain to become larger over time. Plentiful sources of big game contributed to this.

If this is true, then I can see how a developing brain fueled by vegan fare would be nourisherd more like homo erectus than homo sapien, so...

That is a big If, personally i think we were created without the need to get a bigger brain.

To get an expert's standpoint on the topic, I wrote to Peter Ungar, distinguished professor and chair of anthropology at University of Arkansas, who was recently named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, what his take was on the role of meat eating versus carbs in human brain evolution. He wrote back, Even the staunchest meat advocates recognize that protein and fat cannot power the brain – and we lose much of our gluconeogenesis capabilities at weaning. The argument is that meat eating provided the calories needed to power other parts of the body, freeing available carbohydrates to focus on the brain… Even in that case, it’s carbs, not meat that powers the brain

Anyway, nowadays vegetarians have about the same body mass index as meat-eaters. So meat doesn't seem to do much to affect energy gain. (But raw-dieters, whether vegetarian or meat-eaters, are much thinner on average than cookivores, whether vegetarian or meat-eaters.) Bottom line: meat is less important than cooking when it comes to energy gain.

evolvinghealthscience.blogspot.com...

originally posted by: ketsuko
a reply to: SeaWorthy

Not as much. We made lentil soup this past week, and my protein was short and I had to eat much more of it. Carbs were fine without rice.

I was needing 1c and 1/2 of the lentil, a hard-boiled egg, and 3/4c cottage cheese to get the same amount of the same nutrients as 1c and 1/2 of chili.

What we need is not much

41 g Protein 1 cup of beans

The DRI (Dietary Reference Intake) is 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight, or 0.36 grams per pound. This amounts to: 56 grams per day for the average sedentary man. 46 grams per day for the

Every time legumes like beans, lentils, and peanuts are combined with grains like wheat, rice, and corn, a complete protein is born. Peanut butter on whole wheat is an easy snack that, while pretty high in calories, provides a heaping dose of all the essential amino acids and plenty of healthy fats to boot

a reply to: SeaWorthy

That they use when fighting one to rip each other apart and/or for mating display purpose per-chance?

a reply to: SeaWorthy

The fact remains that you still have to ingest far more material in order to meet your requirement if you are eating solely from vegetarian/vegan sources.

Now, I have never said it's not possible to meet your requirements on vegan/vegetarian diets, but I have been saying all along that it's harder because those sources are less efficient providers of those nutrients.

And what this doctor is saying is that those nutrients are vital for growing, developing bodies. Haven't you ever sat with a young child at mealtimes? Have you ever tried getting them to eat beyond their "full" point or tried getting them to eat things they may not want to? As an adult, you or I can sit there in front of a pile of vegetarian protein and force ourselves to eat all of it because we know we have to. Try getting a kid to do that once they are done.

What a miserable childhood, but if they don't, they risk growing up malnourished. That's this doctor's point. And I get it because the point I've been trying to make to you is that if I had to feed myself like that, I'd be having to chronically force myself to feel like I'm overeating ... eating beyond satiation to the point of physical discomfort in order to eat enough to be healthy.

a reply to: SeaWorthy

You also have GI issues with too much grain and the wrong kinds of grain. It causes blood sugar spikes.

originally posted by: SeaWorthy

originally posted by: andy06shake
a reply to: whywhynot

So why do we have incisors and canine teeth?

Because it's not for ripping vegetables apart, that's a given.

Think about how much vegetable matter the average person would need to consume each day just to get the required calories to survive?

Plant-based diets are great but do they really give us all that we require?

The ones on plant eating apes are bigger

You are aware Bonobo's eat meat also right? They even engage in cannibalism. They also use tools and fight wars between groups competing for food and territory.

An omnivorous diet is our natural diet, the diet we evolved to exist on. People who eat meat are simply eating the diet our species eats. We are also a top predator.

We are animals ourselves. Our weapon is our intelligence.

When a pack of wolves take down a deer and tear it apart and start eating it before it's dead, they are doing as nature intended. When we kill animals for food, it's just as natural as what a wolf does.

originally posted by: smkymcnugget420
a reply to: Annee

Doing Vegan correctly is HARD

How so, food and plant based multivitamins are a thing... everyone knows this right?

The human body requires certain proteins.

There are seaweed based proteins that can be used.

This requires knowledge and dedication to make sure the body gets everything it needs.

Just eliminating meat isn't enough.