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B12 and More Scaremongering About Veganism in the News

There are articles spreading across the internet this week about a recent study in Ireland linking neural tube birth defects to vitamin B12 deficiency. The study pointed out that a) women who consume little or no animal products, as well as b) women who have intestinal disorders that prevent them from absorbing B12 properly, are at highest risk of being B12 deficient and that it's this B12 deficiency that increases the chance of the development of neural tube defects. At least some of the articles mention the B12 absorption issue, but not all of them do, which is unfortunate, since awareness should be raised of this condition. Furthermore, not mentioning the absorption issue leaves all of the negative attention focused on veganism.

One example of this is the UK Telegraph's article, which has me particularly irked since along with omitting the mention of the absorption issue, it states flat-out in its title that a "Vegan diet increases the risk of birth defects". Like some of the other articles I scanned, it makes a reference to supplementation, but fails completely to mention the wide range of foods that are fortified with B12 already. All of the 4-5 articles I scanned that covered the study emphasized that B12 can "only" be found in meat, eggs or dairy; few of them made more than a slight reference to supplementation, and none mentioned the absurdly high percentage of foods like soy products and cereals that are already fortified with B12 -- foods that aren't, in fact, animal-derived. (See this article from the Vegetarian Resource Group for more information on how to get B12 in your diet from non-animal sources.)

What concerns me even further is that Telegraph's article (along with a few others) fails to mention what this one does, which is that

[f]or the study, the researchers analysed stored blood samples originally collected during early pregnancy from three groups of Irish women between 1983 and 1990. During that time, pregnant women in Ireland rarely took vitamin supplements.

So, these articles are now going around, associating veganism with birth defects. This, in and of itself, is what's going to be kicked around in mainstream media for the next little while, since villifying veganism seems to be the trendy thing these days. This study, however, was conducted using women who weren't taking any vitamin supplements at all at a time when the B12-fortified foods so readily available and plentiful now were probably incredibly scarce. Vegans today live in a completely different context, yet if clarification of these significant facts in these articles about the study isn't provided, yet another myth about the (gasp!) dangers of being vegan will be perpetuated -- possibly for years to come.

Philadelphia City Paper article claims rising fuel prices are making it harder to eat vegan

The article is a bit misleading and seems to be a whole lot of writing just for the sake of writing. Rising fuel prices are making it more expensive to eat anything. The article perpetuates the myth that veganism is complicated and requires special food substitutes that are only available in specialty stores.

A quote from the article:

Vegans, according to Widener University professor of economics Joseph Fuhr, have been particularly hard hit by increasing food prices, driven up by the price of gas. "They have less flexibility in terms of what to buy," he says. So when one item increases in price, it's that much harder to find a substitute.

"When you're cooking for a vegan person," says Rachel Klein, who runs Miss Rachel's Traveling Fare, a local vegan and vegetarian catering service, "you can't get everything you need from one store. ... I'm going to Whole Foods, I'm going to Trader Joe's, to Wegmans, to ShopRite. I'm going to the Vietnamese market." Gas prices on these errands add up.

Things are especially difficult for restaurants. "People are expecting a certain level of quality that we're not going to sacrifice," says Rich Landau, owner of Horizons restaurant in Bella Vista. "At a restaurant like ours, it's got to be about freshness ... We need trucks in front every day." With new fuel service costs, that can cost Landau an extra $10 to $15 per day — which he is eating, rather than passing along to his customers.

As for the first two paragraphs of this quote, these people being quoted seem to be making the assumption that vegans require specialty processed foods that can only be found in health food stores (which means having to burn more gas driving around). That's grossly misleading. I get most of my stuff from one of the two major supermarkets in town, and most of the foodstuff that I get is pretty basic -- legumes, produce, whole grains, tofu, et al. -- and is pretty much available almost anywhere I'd shop. Even the specialty processed vegan foods (e.g. meat subs) are generally available most anywhere now, as well.

As for the last paragraph in the quote -- I'd hope that this applies to any kind of restaurant, not just vegan restaurants, and it does nothing to support the article's claim that vegan diets, specifically, are dependent on cheap gas in any way. At least no more than any other diet.

Read the rest of the article here.