• The inefficiency of animal products
• Positive health effects of going veggie or vegan
• Can a baby be fed vegan
• Biofortification of vegetables to replace animal products

• Leonard et al., 2024 : Systematic review found that shifts towards environmentally friendly diets (i.e. PB ones) was often associated with lower levels Zinc, Calcium, B12 and Vit D, but higher levels of iron and folate.

B12

• dietary sources of B12
• sub-clinical Deficiency affects between 2.5% and 26% of the general, omni population depending on the definition used
  • Framingham heart studies suggest 9%
• Pawlak, Lester and Toyin, 2014 reviewed 40 small scale studies and found widely vary, but generally high levels of B12 deficiency among veggies and vegans.
• The vegan society have comprehensive recommendations and info around B12

Calcium

• A meta analysis of 74 studies, including 7k vegans and 51k vegetarians suggested that vegans, but not vegetarians, consume substantially less calcium than omnivores. That said, there is actually no agreed upon requirement for calcium. In fact, people who eat less calcium might just absorb more.
• Calcium from plant sources is absorbed twice as well as calcium from milk.

Iron

• Haider et al., 2017 suggests veggies have lower Iron, though non veggies may have too much iron that can lead to diabetes
• Non-haem iron is less bioavailable than haem iron, hence vegetarians require an iron intake almost twice that of carnivores (Institute of Medicine Panel on Micronutrient, 2000).

Iodine

• Concern that those who do not eat dairy or fish may not have enough Iodine^[1]
• Using a daily supplement containing up to 150 micrograms in the form of potassium iodide or potassium iodate

Fortified non-dairy mylks are probably insufficient

• B12 and Iodine are essential nutrients where the typical westerner gets nearly all of it from dairy. Some, but crucially not all, plant mylks are fortified with iodine and B12. Even those that do require you to drink half a litre daily to get enough idoine. As such its best to take supplements.

Protein

• Bioavailability of protein in veg foods
• Mariotti and Gardner, 2019 Veggies and vegans generally get enough protein, especially for kids, though we're not as sure with older adults
• Humanity overconsumes protein anyway: Berners-Lee, Watson and Hewitt 2018

# References