Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Properly planned vegan diets are healthful and have been found to satisfy
nutritional needs, and offer protection against heart disease, cancer, and
other diseases.[6][7] Various polls have reported vegans to be between
0.2%[4] and 1.3%[8] of the U.S. population, and ranging from 0.25%[5] 0.4%[9]
to 2%[10] of the UK population.
Contents
[hide]
• 1 History
• 2 Definition
• 3 Animal products
• 4 Demographics
• 5 Ethics
o 5.1 Philosophical foundations
o 5.2 Advocacy organizations
o 5.3 Criticisms
o 5.4 Debate over animals killed in crop
harvesting
• 6 Health
o 6.1 Dietetic association positions
o 6.2 Nutritional benefits
6.2.1 Mental health benefits
o 6.3 Nutritional concerns
6.3.1 Specific nutrients
6.3.1.1 Vitamin B12
6.3.1.2 Iron
6.3.1.3 Calcium, vitamin D
6.3.1.4 Iodine
6.3.1.5 Choline
6.3.2 Pregnancies and children
6.3.3 Eating disorders
• 7 Resources and the environment
• 8 Similar diets and lifestyles
• 9 Cuisine
• 10 See also
• 11 Notes
• 12 References
• 13 External links
[edit] History
The Vegan Society was founded in 1944 by Donald Watson and Elsie
Shrigley in order to organize vegetarians who did not consume dairy or
other animal products.[11] The first vegan society in the United States was
founded in California in 1948 by Dr. Catherine Nimmo and Rubin
Abramowitz[12] and was subsequently incorporated into the American
Vegan Society after its founding in 1960 by Jay Dinshah.[13] In 1984, a
"breakaway" group from the Vegan Society, the Movement for
Compassionate Living, was founded by former Vegan Society secretary
Kathleen Jannaway to promote sustainable living and self-sufficiency in
addition to veganism.[14] Today, there are many vegan societies worldwide,
including national societies in Australia, India, New Zealand, and South
Africa.[nb 1] In 1993, the advocacy organization which would become Vegan
Outreach was founded by Matt Ball and Jack Norris.[15]
[edit] Definition
Donald Watson, creator of the term vegan, and founder of the Vegan
Society.
The word "vegan" was coined in 1944 by Donald Watson, founder of the
Vegan Society, who combined the first three and last two letters of
vegetarian to form "vegan," which he saw as "the beginning and end of
vegetarian."[11][17] "Vegan" is pronounced /ˈviːɡən/.[18] Some people
pronounce "vegan" as /ˈvɛdʒən/,[19] but Watson and the North American
Vegetarian Society consider the latter pronunciation to be incorrect.[20]
In 1951, the Vegan Society formally defined veganism as "the doctrine
that man should live without exploiting animals.” According to this
understanding, veganism is not itself a set of actions or practices but
instead “a principle, from which certain practices logically flow.”[21]
The Vegan Society has also used other definitions, which put more
emphasis on veganism as a practice or lifestyle:
Animal products such as ground bone and powdered fish organs may be
used in the production of a product although they may not appear as an
ingredient in the final product.[25][26][27] Many of these ingredients are
obscure,[28][29] may also have non-animal sources,[30] and may not even be
identified.[25] Although the organization Vegan Outreach has the opinion
that "it can be prohibitively expensive and time-consuming to shun every
minor or hidden animal-derived ingredient",[31][32] the Vegan Society will
not certify a product as vegan unless its production does not involve, or
have involved, the use of any animal product, by-product or derivative.[33]
[edit] Demographics
United States
United States Representative Dennis Kucinich and his wife Elizabeth. The
Kuciniches like other notable persons, are known in part for their veganism
and support of animal welfare.[38][39]
United Kingdom
In 2002, the UK Food Standards Agency carried out a National Diet and
Nutrition Survey, which reported that 5% of respondents self-identified as
vegetarian or vegan. Though 29% of that 5% said they avoided "all animal
products", only 5% reported avoiding dairy products.[5] Based on these
figures, approximately 0.25% of the UK population follow a vegan diet.[nb 4]
In 2005, The Times estimated there were 250,000 vegans in Britain, which
suggests around 0.4% of the UK population is vegan.[9][nb 5] A 2007 survey
for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs of UK attitudes
and behaviour towards the environment found that 2.24% of the
population identified as vegan.[10] In the same study, vegetarians who did
not eat chicken or fish made up 2.7% of the population. The DEFRA study
indicated that slightly more men than women are vegan, that more
vegans live in towns or cities than the country, and that people aged 16–
29 were vegan more often than any other age group.
The Netherlands
The Netherlands Association for Veganism estimates there to be
approximately 16,000 vegans in the Netherlands, or around 0.1% of the
Dutch population.[43]
Sweden
Various polls and research conducted during the 1990s put the overall
percentage of Swedish residents being vegan at between 0.27% and 1.6%.
[44]
A study of the eating patterns of 2,538 Swedish children of ages 4, 8
and 11 by the Swedish National Food Administration found that about 1%
of the children were vegetarian, less than 1% were lacto-vegetarians, but
found no children to be vegans.[45] A 1996 study of over 67,000 Swedish
students between the ages of 16 and 20 found 0.1% to be vegan,[46] and
found a particularly high concentration of vegans in Umeå where 3.3% of
the students were vegan.[47]
Norway
A 1996 study of 952 15-year old students in Bergen found 0.2% of females
to be vegan, but found no male participants to be vegan.[46]
Germany
[edit] Ethics
See also: Animal rights, Ethics of eating meat, and Factory farming
Gandhi abjured cow milk, saying that: "[S]ince I had come to know that
the cow and the buffalo were subjected to the process of phooka, I had
conceived a strong disgust for milk."[64]
[edit] Criticisms
William Jarvis, writing for the Nutrition & Health Forum newsletter, attacks
"ideologic vegetarians," whom he claims believe that "all life is sacred"
and that "all forms of life have equal value," saying that these beliefs "can
lead to absurdities such as allowing mosquitoes to spread malaria, or
vipers to run loose on one's premises."[77] However, the ideas that all life is
sacred or that all forms of life have equal value are not universal among
vegans, many of whom do not grant moral standing to insects, for
example. As the advocacy organization Vegan Action notes, "[m]any
vegans, however, are not opposed to using insect products, because they
do not believe insects are conscious of pain."[78] A similar view is
expressed by Gary Varner, a philosophy professor at Texas A&M
University.[79] "The case for thinking that all vertebrates can feel pain is
thus very strong, while the case for thinking that invertebrates can feel
pain is extremely weak by comparison (with the possible exception of
cephalopods like octopus and squid)."[80] Varner and vegans who share his
view do not feel obliged to respect the rights of mosquitoes, as they do
not believe mosquitoes can suffer. Vegans and vegetarians also typically
do not deny the moral right of self-defence.[81]
[edit] Health
In 2003, the Dietitians of Canada joined with the ADA to release a position
paper to the same effect.[87] Similarly, the British Nutrition Foundation
considers "well balanced" vegetarian diets to be nutritionally adequate,[88]
and the Irish Nutrition and Dietetic Institute considers "well planned"
vegetarian diets to be "nutritionally balanced for both adults and children".
[89]
In contrast, both the Swiss Federal Nutrition Commission and the German
Society for Nutrition recommend against a vegan diet, particularly for
children, the pregnant and the elderly.[90][91]
A 2006 study found that in people with type 2 diabetes a low-fat vegan
diet reduced weight, total cholesterol, and LDL cholesterol and did so to a
greater extent than the diet prescribed by the American Diabetes
Association.[100]
The Vegan Society and Vegan Outreach, among others, recommend that
vegans either consistently eat foods fortified with B12 or take a B12
supplement.[117][118][119] Tempeh, seaweed, spirulina, organic produce, soil
on unwashed vegetables, and intestinal bacteria have not been shown to
be reliable sources of B12 for the dietary needs of vegans.[109][120][121]
[edit] Iron
Iron deficiency may lead to iron deficiency anaemia. Iron is less well
absorbed from vegetarian diets (approximately ten percent absorption
from vegetarian diets, versus approximately 18 percent absorption from
an omnivorous diet); vegetarians who exclude all animal products may
need almost twice as much dietary iron each day than non-vegetarians.
On the other hand, the iron status of omnivores and vegans appears to be
similar, and body absorption processes may adjust to low intakes over
time by enhancing absorption efficiency.[122] Molasses is a high-iron food
source and many vegans take it in spoonfuls as an iron supplement.[103][123]
The authors of The China Study argue that osteoporosis is linked to the
consumption of animal protein because animal protein, unlike plant
protein, increases the acidity of blood and tissues which is then
neutralized by calcium pulled from the bones.[127] The authors add that "in
our rural China Study, where the animal to plant ratio [for protein] was
about 10%, the fracture rate is only one-fifth that of the U.S.," where
consumption of animal products including dairy, is higher.[128]
[edit] Iodine
[edit] Choline
Vegans may be at risk of choline deficiency and may benefit from choline
supplements.[130] Choline has many functions in the body, and choline
deficiency may cause a number of health concerns.[131] The Institute of
Medicine has set the Adequate Intake of choline at 425 mg (milligrams)
per day for women and 550 mg/day for men,[132][133] though dietary intake
requirements for choline are not yet fully understood.[133][134]
Cattle - especially when kept on enormous feedlots such as this one - have
been shown as a contributing factor in the rise in greenhouse gas
emissions.
Main article: Environmental vegetarianism
People who adopt veganism for environmental reasons do so on the basis that a
strictly vegetarian diet consumes fewer resources and causes less environmental
damage than an animal-based diet.[153][154][155] Animal agriculture is linked to climate
change, water pollution, land degradation, and a decline in biodiversity.[155][156][157]
Additionally, an animal-based diet uses more land,[157][158] water,[159] and energy than a
strictly vegetarian diet.[157][160][161]
The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis argues that while
most meat production in industrialized countries uses inefficient grain
feeding methods through intensive farming, meat production is not
invariably a poor use of land, especially in countries like China and Brazil.
Since a proportion of all grain crops produced are not suitable for human
consumption, they can be fed to animals to turn into meat, thus improving
efficiency.[167][168] Further, greenhouse gas emissions are not limited to
animal husbandry, but also to several plant based sources such as rice
cultivation.[169][170]
In the developing world, notably Asia and Africa, fossil fuels are seldom
used to transport feed for farm animals. Sheep or goats, for example,
require no fuel, since they graze on farmlands, while bales of hay for
bovines are still transported mainly using bullock carts or similar devices.
Few of the meat processing techniques that occur in developed countries
takes place in the majority of developing countries. Animals are also often
herded to the place of slaughter (with the exception of poultry) resulting in
a very low use of fossil fuels.[171] In fact farm animals in developing world
are used for multiple purposes from providing draught power, to
transportation while also serving as meat once it reaches the end of its
economic life.
A 2007 study which simulated various diets' land use for the geography of
New York State concluded that although vegetarian diets used the
smallest amount of land per capita, a low fat diet which included some
meat and dairy (less than 2 oz of meat/eggs per day—significantly less
than consumed by the average American) could support slightly more
people on the same available land than could be fed on some high fat
vegetarian diets, since animal food crops can be grown on lower quality
land than crops for human consumption.[172][173]
Diets such as raw veganism and fruitarianism are related to veganism, but
have significant differences from standard veganism. There are also
numerous religious groups that regularly or occasionally practice a similar
diet, including adherents to some Buddhist traditions,[176] Brahmins,
Hindus,[177] Jains,[178] Eastern Orthodox Christians,[179][180] Rastafari,[181] and
Seventh-day Adventists.[182] Some small[183][184][185][186] Sikh[187] sects have
lacto-vegetarian lifestyles.
People who adhere to veganism for ethical reasons are often involved in
other social change efforts like anti-racism, feminism, or LGBT work. As
well, there is a growing tradition of vegans who understand their work as
rooted in nonviolence in general.[188]
[edit] Cuisine
The cuisines of most nations contain dishes suitable for a vegan diet,
including ingredients such as tofu, tempeh and the wheat gluten-based
product seitan in East Asian diets.[189][190][191][192] Many recipes that
traditionally contain animal products can be adapted by substituting plant-
based ingredients. For example, almond milk, grain milk, soy milk or other
plant milk can be used to replace cow's milk[192][193] and eggs can be
replaced by applesauce or commercial starch-based substitute products,
depending upon the recipe.[192][193][194] Additionally, artificial "meat"
products ("analogs" or "mock meats") made from non-animal derived
ingredients such as soy or gluten including imitation sausages, ground
beef, burgers, and chicken nuggets are widely available.[192][195]