h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

What are some common fallacies that you, as a veggie, find yourself explaining away?

For instance, the myth that there is "no non-animal source of vitamin B12". Of course that isn't true. B12 found in animals is produced in their guts when they consume plants contaminated with certain bacteria. Delicious nutritional yeast is absolutely loaded with it!

Or that vegans and vegetarians don't get enough protein, when what they mean is that we don't get the excessive amounts of protein found in your typical diet.

Or that vegans don't get enough calcium, when it's a fact that the calcium in dairy products isn't as easily assimilated as that found in say, leafy green vegetables. Vegans are less prone to osteoporosis than those who consume milk.



What other myths about vegetarian and/or vegan diets do you hear often? How do you combat the misinformation?

Mostly the stuff about the lack of iron and protein. I tell people that if you eat a sensible diet you won't have a problem

I found out something else quite fun about vitamin B12 a while back, and that is this: it's only possible to become deficient if you have a certain medical condition. When you get vitamin B12, and it only needs to be a tiny amount, your body re-cycles it. If I took my rda of vitamin B12 now, and never took any B12 after that, it would take 15-20 years for me to use up that B12 completely!

Isn't that amazing?

That is amazing, yes- and good to know! Thanks for sharing that info.

Here are a couple of links detailing about it, if you are interested [and want the proper science next time an anti-veggie brings this up]:

http://www.vegsoc.org/info/b12.html

http://www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk/articles/article.aspx?ArticleID=42#

Thanks for those articles, although I notice that they both unfortunately claim that B12 cannot be obtained except through animal sources and that vegans and vegetarians can only get B12 through reabsorption or fortified foods.

But it is very useful to know that reabsorption continues for such a long time.

I'd heard before that unwashed vegetables that had been fertilized with manure added to B12 intake, but I'm not likely to go that route!