News Release
March 18, 2005
Contact: Howard White, 202-686-2210, ext. 339, hwhite@pcrm.org
Cautions About Vegan Diet
Baseless, says Physicians Group
Research on Undernourished Children Was Misinterpreted as Research
on Vegans
WASHINGTON—A researcher’s cautions about a vegan diet
that were publicized at the meetings of the American Association
for the Advancement of Science in February were not based on studies
of vegans at all, but rather were based on a study of undernourished
Kenyan schoolchildren, says the Physicians Committee for Responsible
Medicine (PCRM).
The study was designed to test whether adding oil, meat, or milk
to the diets of malnourished Kenyan children would improve their
overall health, growth, muscle mass, and intelligence test scores.
Dr. Lindsay Allen, a nutritionist at the University of California-Davis,
and now with the United States Department of Agriculture, was the
principal researcher for the study, which was partially funded by
the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.
The two-year research project tracked the progress of 544 children
with an average age of seven years. One group was fed 400 grams
of meat daily; another had its diet supplemented with milk; another
with the equivalent calories in vegetable oil. The control group
continued to consume the highly restricted, near-starvation diet
that is typical fare for many poor Kenyans.
Not surprisingly, the three groups receiving nutritional supplements—meat,
milk, and vegetable oil—outperformed the control group in
every measured category.
The study was trumpeted at the AAAS meeting as an attack on vegan
diets. Dr. Allen has distanced herself from criticisms of vegan
diets, saying vegan diets are probably healthier for adults and
even many children than the average U.S. or U.K. diet.
“The only conclusion you can draw from this study,”
said PCRM Nutrition Director Amy Joy Lanou, Ph.D., “is that
if you add ANY food, you can improve the health of chronically undernourished
children. To draw the conclusion that vegan diets are somehow less
healthy for children is absurd.”
Dr. Lanou points to study results that show the group receiving
supplemental vegetable oil—high-energy, but devoid of nutrients—also
showed marked improvement over the control group. Moreover, she
said, study has little relevance to Europe or North America, where
excess food intake, especially overconsumption of meat, dairy, and
sweets has led to epidemics of obesity, diabetes, and hypertension.
Dr. Lanou said, “There’s little doubt that a varied
vegetarian or vegan diet is the healthiest regimen for everyone,
young and old.”
Founded in 1985, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine
is a nonprofit health organization that promotes preventive medicine,
especially good nutrition. PCRM also conducts clinical research
studies, opposes unethical human experimentation, and promotes alternatives
to animal research.
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