Women deficient in B12 -- found in meat, fish and eggs -- run higher risk of having baby with serious malformations!

These and other warnings brought to you by the House Committee on Un-Carnivorous Activities.

Actually the top three headlines were brought to us by Sharon Kirkey, staff health writer for Canwest Publishing. They appeared in the Vancouver Sun, and the Calgary Herald, and were followed by an article linking vitamin B12 deficiency in pregnant women to an increased incidence of birth defects. The study that the article is based on, conducted in Ireland, is only described in general terms. Still, it states that more research is needed to “con-firm” (Kirkey’s spelling) the findings. “Vegans and women who eat little or no meat, fish, eggs, milk or cheese are at the highest risk”, the article states with no empirical evidence or background information to back it up.

 

Vegans know better, but even I was a temporary victim of this fear mongering. After reading the article, I ran about the house, gathering up all my packaged food and reading the nutritional information. As it turns out, I am getting about 300% of the recommended daily intake of B12. I wiped the sweat from my forehead, checked the windows to make sure the neighbours weren’t watching me and locked the door. I paced the house nervously, wondering when they were going to come for me. I received messages that they’d already caught and interrogated my wife at her workplace. I could feel the walls closing in. I could feel their bloody red hands reaching for my throat…

Then I came to my senses and realized that they couldn’t touch us. Not yet! I got online. This journalistic pandemic had spread throughout the land: Vancouver, Calgary, Ottawa, Phoenix. Were the food industry overlords trying to scare vegans out of propagating the free world with more vegans? It appeared more and more like the hatred and paranoia that Canwest was trying to incite was really to distract us. But from what?

 

One by one, the real headlines became clear in the media haze.

Researchers Link Obesity to Birth Defects

The spindoctors didn’t give up easily, firing back with Fried Eggs May Decrease Blood Pressure: Study.

But they could not prevent the truth from fighting free:

U.S. Supreme Court Rejects Lawsuits Against Producers of Agent Orange

So, while we’re supposed to be gorging ourselves on fried eggs in a desperate attempt to lower our blood pressure which shot up because we were worrying about not getting enough B12 and spawning malformed babies, Monsanto and Dow Chemical are inexplicably let off the fiscal hook for making and selling chemicals that have led to millions of deformed babies in far off south east Asia. I have never seen a deformed vegan baby, but I have been to Vietnam and Cambodia and have seen, with my own eyes, the countless deformed victims of Agent Orange. So you tell me, who’s telling the truth?

 

Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine official press release on the matter:

 

Public release date: 2-Mar-2009

Contact: Tara Failey
This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
202-527-7319 x319
Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine

 

Doctors endorse vegan and vegetarian diets for healthy pregnancies
Nutrition experts available for comment in response to Pediatrics study about B12

WASHINGTON--Well-planned vegetarian and vegan diets are healthful choices for pregnant women and their children, and vitamin B12 needs can be easily met with fortified foods or any common multivitamin, say doctors and dietitians with the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM). PCRM nutrition experts are available for comment in response to a new Pediatrics study showing that low levels of vitamin B12 may increase the risk for neural tube defects.

The Pediatrics study is based on analysis of stored blood samples originally collected during pregnancy from three groups of Irish women between 1983 and 1990. It's not clear if any of the women were vegan, but the study clearly states that this population was deliberately chosen because vitamin supplementation and food fortification were rare at that time. The women lived in a region of traditionally high neural tube defects prevalence, suggesting a moderately high genetic predisposition.

Experts agree that pregnant women can thrive on vegan diets. The American Dietetic Association, the nation's largest organization of food and nutrition professionals, states that "well-planned vegan and other types of vegetarian diets are appropriate for all stages of the life cycle, including during pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, and adolescence." Vegetarian diets offer a number of nutritional benefits, including lower levels of saturated fat and cholesterol and higher levels of fiber, folate, and cancer-fighting antioxidants and phytochemicals.

"Women who follow vegan diets not only have healthy pregnancies, they are often healthier than moms who consume meat," says Susan Levin, M.S., R.D., staff dietitian with PCRM. "By eating a variety of fruits, vegetables, and other healthful vegetarian foods and including breakfast cereals or other foods fortified with vitamin B12, mothers and their children can obtain all the nutrients they need to thrive."

Choosing a vegetarian or vegan diet can also help women avoid the unhealthy hormones and environmental toxins found in dairy products, meat, and fish. Analyses of vegetarians' breast milk show that the levels of environmental contaminants in milk are much lower than in non-vegetarians.

Vitamin B12 needs can be met easily with fortified breakfast cereals and soymilk, which are low in fat and calories. The most convenient and reliable B12 source is a daily multivitamin.

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For more information or an interview with Ms. Levin or another PCRM nutrition expert or a vegan mother, please contact Tara Failey at 202-686-2210, ext. 319, or This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it .

Founded in 1985, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine is a nonprofit health organization that promotes preventive medicine, conducts clinical research, and encourages higher standards for ethics and effectiveness in research.