The Vegan's Notebook
Health
Vegetarians and vegans enjoy better health than their omnivore peers, as a group. The most consistent professional advice over time has suggested that a vegetarian diet with sufficient caloric intake is healthier than a non-vegetarian diet with similar caloric intake. Increasing the diversity of the vegetarian diet increases the health benefits. Personally, I've often wondered - how do omnivores really increase the diversity of their diet other than by increasing the variety of the vegetarian foods they must eat?
- Physicians Committe for Responsible Medicine
- Group of medical Doctors and laity who provide a wealth of current information on medical practice, research, and health. Veg-friendliness from a scientific stance.
- American Heart Association presentation on vegetarian diets.
- Vegetarian eating habits can be very good for your cardiovascular health. They easily fit very well with the other, well-proven, guidance given for good heart health. Also, they point out that such a diet is good for health in general.
- Where do you get your protein?
- List of vegan sources for nutrients. They note that B12 is tricky to find in plant sources. I would add that vegan foods are commonly fortified with B12.
- Vegan Society's Nutrition page
- An article that discusses practical guidlines for maintaining a nutritionally complete vegan diet.
- American Dietetic Association on Vegetarian Diets
- A comparitively exhaustive list of the mainstream scientific study results on vegetarianism. One of the strongest arguments that vegetarianism is healthy.
- Vegetarian Nutrition Dietetic Practice Group of the ADA
- Useful for analyzing specific concerns of dietitions on vegetarianism
- The Vegetarian Site - Studies
- Occasionally updated list of recent nutritional studies related to vegetarianism.
- Intenational Vegetarian Union - Health & Nutrition
- IVU links to a broad scope of articles with a scientific interest.
- Exploding the Protein Deficiency Myth
- A breakdown of the myth of human dependency upon livestock for dietary protein. Includes a hypothesis of why the protein myth persists.