I'M A DOCTOR WHO SPECIALISES IN DIET AND NUTRITION - HERE'S WHY I DON'T HAVE CONCERNS ABOUT VEGAN DIETS
By mindbodygreen.com - Dr Gareth Davis
As a doctor and weight loss expert, I often receive requests to counter arguments that claim a vegan diet is bad for you. Most I ignore. As much as I would like to respond to the anti-vegan propaganda, it would often mean that I'd basically be arguing with people who have no understanding of science or treating patients.
But recently, one article on this website really got under my skin. There are many articles I love on this site, and many I disagree with. But I found this particular one to be particularly troublesome. Let's go through why.
The author starts with the title, "I'm A Nutritionist. Here's Why I Have Concerns About Vegan Diets." Well, I'm a medical doctor who specializes in diet and has studied nutrition in depth — and I am not the least bit worried by a vegan diet.
To start, her first "worry" is that vegans are not getting enough protein. You gotta be kidding me. I recently wrote a book on this topic, Proteinaholic: How Our Obsession with Meat Is Killing Us and What We Can Do About It. The bottom line: There is zero, and I mean zero, evidence that vegans get too little protein.
In fact, I've never seen a case of protein deficiency, as long as there's adequate consumption of calories. The recommended dietary allowance (RDA) for optimal protein intake is 0.8 kg/lean body mass. So that would be 44 grams for females (about the amount found in three cups of cooked beans) and 54 for males. This is enough protein for 99% of the population — and beans, nuts, grains and veggies, which have tons of protein, could cover this amount easily.
Also, if vegans aren't getting enough protein, then why in the Adventist Health Study do vegans live longer? Why do the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study, the Nurses' Health Study and the EPIC-PANACEA study, to name just a few, show that higher protein is associated with diabetes, heart disease and cancer?
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