Are Strict Vegan Diets Healthy?

I've recently started reading Jack Norris' blog. Mr. Norris is a Registered Dietitian and a vegan. He addressed this question (Are strict vegan diets healthy?) in his latest post:
Try it Again, Dr. Kim!

Dr. Kim is a chiropractor who runs a fasting clinic in Ontario, Canada. This was the post by Dr. Kim that Mr. Norris was discussing in his blog:
More Thoughts on Earthlings Documentary, Including Potential Problems with a Strict Vegan Diet

Dr. Kim was a strict vegan for 4 years, but he says:

"I only felt like I was optimally supporting my health for the first two of those years. The last two years were marked by low energy, constant cravings for some animal foods, skin breakouts, and emotional lows that I had never previously experienced."

This is what he ate for 4 years:

"My strict vegan diet consisted of plenty of fresh leafy greens, tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumbers, celery, sprouts, many varieties of steamed greens, steamed root vegetables like potatoes, sweet potatoes, hard squashes, carrots, and red beets, whole grains like brown rice and quinoa, a wide variety of fruits (including avocados), legumes like chickpeas and red beans, and small amounts of raw nuts and seeds. I also drank fresh lettuce-based vegetable juices a few times a week."

Mr. Norris says that Dr. Kim probably wasn't getting enough vitamin B12:

"Obviously, if a vegan is not taking B12 supplements or eating fortified foods, for more than two years, chances are excellent they are going to get fatigued and have mental issues."

He also says he probably lacked adequate protein:

"If you read Dr. Kim’s description of his diet you have to get well into his list before you come across a plentiful source of protein (quinoa), and the most reliable sources that most vegans rely on, even raw foodists, are listed second to last and last!"

So, both Jack Norris and Dr. Kim state that vegan diets fail to provide adequate vitamin B12. Mr. Norris says that vegans need to be attentive to consuming higher protein plant foods. Dr. Kim says vegans risk deficiencies in the longer-chain omega-3 fatty acids DHA and EPA, in vitamin A (not the plant-based carotenoid precursors), cholesterol and saturated fats (although our body makes these from plant food, he says not enough are made), and several minerals including zinc, iron, and calcium.

I think B12 and minerals are a problem. I still don't know about protein, longer-chain omega-3s, saturated fat, and vitamin A. Although, it's true that animal foods are good sources for these.

What do you think?
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The Curious Hawk And The Angry Goose

I was on the deck whistling for Chuck and putting out food. I decided to fill the water containers. When I bent down to get the hose a large shadow passed over me. A red tailed hawk had landed in a branch almost directly above me! This is one big bird. I put the hose down and walked towards her, only 10 or 15 feet separating us. The hawk cocked its head this way and that. I whistled to her, she didn't fly away. I went inside to get my glasses and went back out and she was still there plumping her wings. I've never been this close to a hawk, certainly never one that was so at-ease around humans. I began to think maybe it wasn't a good idea to be so close, it being a wild animal, so I backed up and as I opened the door she dropped off the branch and flew by me. Blessed be, within feet! Her wing span looked wider than I am tall.

This is a red-tailed hawk (not mine) from Richard's Bird Blog. He has a nice set there of this juvenile learning to fly. Mine had a bigger head and a broader wing span, perhaps an adult.



This isn't a hawk but the video was making rounds yesterday and it was the reason I backed off:


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Kitchens In Cuba

Shaun sent this article from NPR that shows kitchens in modern-day Cuba:
What Our Kitchens Might Say About Us

The communist-ruled island has been under a U.S. trade embargo for 50 years, and life for most Cubans is still difficult, despite recent economic reforms.

Silverman's images show the kitchens as she finds them. Well-used pots sit on stoves or burners, utensils hang from plaster walls with faded paint, and mismatched plates are piled haphazardly.

Some of the kitchens don't have tables and chairs. Usually, Silverman says, she would see a pot of rice cooking or a metal coffee maker ready to brew a fresh cup. There seems to be an absence of food on display or on countertops — like fruit in a bowl or vegetables in a basket — stark reminder of most Cubans' difficult economic situation.

"People are still rationed. They get a ration card and you get a certain amount of food a month," she explains. "There are supermarkets, but there are very few ... people buying food on a daily basis. Not everybody has refrigerators."

Below are 3 of the 30 photographs that photographer Ellen Silvermann is showing in her series Spare Beauty: The Cuban Kitchen in New York City this week.






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Paleo Diet Author Says Potatoes “Punch Holes Into The Membranes Of The Intestines"

I saw that Loren Cordain, professor at Colorado State University and author of the original 2002 meat-based "Paleo Diet" has a new book, "The Paleo Answer."

Browsing the comments led me to one by Jimmy Moore (Livin' La Vida Low-Carb), who recently interviewed Cordain for his site:

The LLVLC Show (Episode 556): Professor Loren Cordain Introduces Antinutrient Foods In ‘The Paleo Answer', Jimmy Moore, March 7, 2012

Moore lists points covered in the interview. This apparent quote by Cordain popped out for me:

- Potatoes will “punch holes into the membranes of the intestines."

I thought this was an unusual way to describe a mechanism. What is getting punched? A membrane transport protein? How does a potato punch? What part of a potato does the punching? Does everyone who ever ate a potato have holes in their intestines? Do the holes heal? Why doesn't someone who eats lots of potatoes, say Chris Voigt, get peritonitis?

Chris Voigt ate 20 potatoes a day for 60 days:



Perhaps I'm being as cheeky as Cordain. But ... why single out potatoes? When you look at any food up close, there's some particle that's harmful, whether naturally present or put there by humans. Tomatoes and eggplant have glycoalkaloids too, sometimes more than potatoes. There's arsenic in chicken, mercury in tuna, endocrine disruptors in cow fat, oxalate in spinach, coumarins in celery and parsley, aflatoxin in peanuts, hydrazines in mushrooms, phenolic compounds in fruits and vegetables that destroy B vitamins, and on. Even the Drs. Jaminet in their grain- and bean-free, carb-restricted "Perfect Health Diet" endorse potatoes. It really is a matter of picking your poison in life. ________

Antidepressants: "Basically Expensive Tic Tacs"

Why The Serotonin Hypothesis For Depression Is Losing Ground; And Why Antidepressants May Be No Better Than Placebos.

Four arguments:

1. Serotonin is only one player. There are hundreds of substances that act as neurotransmitters and that affect mood and mental state. These include amino acids (e.g. GABA, aspartate, glutamate), monoamines (e.g. serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine, histamine), acetylcholine, nitric oxide, and a host of peptides (e.g. beta-endorphin).

2. The "chemical imbalance" hypothesis assumes a one-way mechanism, that is, brain chemistry affects mind. It's actually two-way, in that mind, the thoughts we choose to think over and over, can change brain chemistry and brain structure, just as exercising a muscle can change muscle shape and size. (Exercise can also effect brain chemistry, by, for example, the release of endorphins.) Indeed, "chemical imbalance" assumes a measure of "chemical balance" which has not been established.

3. Drugs sold in the US that increase levels of serotonin in the synapse (SSRIs: Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors) are used as antidepressants. But drugs sold in Europe that decrease levels of serotonin (SSREs: Selective Serotonin Reuptake Enhancers) are also used as antidepressants (e.g. Tianeptine/Coaxil).

"If depression can be equally affected by drugs that increase serotonin and by drugs that decrease it, it's hard to imagine how the benefits can be due to their chemical activity.
...
The belief that antidepressants can cure depression chemically is simple wrong."
- Irving Kirsch (to Sharon Begley of Newsweek), researcher, professor, and clinical psychologist, author of "The Emperor's New Drugs: Exploding the Antidepressant Myth"

4. Finally, evidence has been accumulating that, in most cases, SSRIs work no better than placebos in relieving mild to moderate depression. Here's one recent study, a meta-analysis or study of studies. It included 6 gold-standard, randomized, placebo-controlled trials:
Antidepressant Drug Effects And Depression Severity, JAMA, 2010

It found:

"The magnitude of benefit of antidepressant medication compared with placebo increases with severity of depression symptoms and may be minimal or nonexistent, on average, in patients with mild or moderate symptoms."

It's not fair to say that antidepressants work no better than placebos, implying that the placebo effect is not robust. The placebo effect is real, effective, enduring, and provides the foundation for a $10 billion antidepressant industry in the US.

Before signing off I should note two things that keep appearing in my reading as on a par with, and possibly better than taking antidepressants:

Adequate sleep. While antidepressants improved mood by 1.8 points on a 54-point scale used to gauge the severity of depression, better sleep improved mood by 6 points.

Exercise. Gretchen Reynolds in her New York Times article, Prescribing Exercise To Treat Depression, cites a 2011 study that found impressive rates of remission in a group of patients with major depressive disorder who walked for 30 minutes a day.
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Scotts Miracle-Gro Knowingly Sold Poisoned Birdseed For Two Years

The birdseed was laced with pesticides to prevent insects from eating it during storage. The pesticides are known toxins to birds (and fish and other wildlife), a fact made known to Scotts' managers by 2 of its employees. Scotts went ahead with it anyway:

Scotts Miracle-Gro – The Bird-killing Company?, The Guardian, 21 March

The EPA investigated and:

"The Scotts Miracle-Gro company entered guilty pleas to all charges in U.S. District Court and these guilty pleas were accepted by Judge James Graham on Tuesday, 13 March 2012."

Scotts said they stopped selling the birdseed in 2008, but there's still some out there:

"[Scotts] sold more than 73 million packages of these poisoned bird foods nationwide to an unsuspecting public for a period of more than two years. Only 2 million of those 73 million units could be recalled."

With unfortunate effects:

"[A] San Diego county couple who lost nearly all of their domestic aviary birds at the end of January 2010 after feeding Scotts Miracle-Gro Morning Song Wild Bird Seed that they had recently purchased from a local Wal-Mart. Out of a flock numbering nearly 100 birds, only eight survived."

Just to make a buck:

"Even if a penalty of $73 million -- merely $1 for each poisoned bird food item sold -- was levied against the company, Scotts Miracle-Gro will probably still earn a profit from sales of all their illegal products."

People say we should do away with the EPA. Scotts only admitted what they were doing, and stopped what they were doing, because of the EPA's investigation.
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