Et tu (again), Rodale?

Society benefits from (civilized) culture clashes.

Not for the first time, Rodale misleads, this time by neglecting to mention that you can get your B12 more healthily through supplements. Wasn't it a Rodale publication that advised you to make your hot dog healthier by eschewing the bun? Really? The very Post article that the Rodale post draws from has this to say:

Researchers studying 41,000 Seventh-Day Adventists found that eating meat increased their risk of diabetes. The scientists pointed to hamburgers, bacon and hot dogs as the worst offenders.

Did I miss the Post article the first time around? Because it, too, misleads, just from the headline. Yes, one could say that vegetarian diets "have risks." One could also say that non-vegetarian diets have risks. One could even say, as the article goes on to do, that they have more risks. Statements such as,

In particular, [vegetarian/vegan] regimes, if poorly planned, may be relatively low in protein, calcium, Vitamin B12 and zinc.

Guess what? Omnivorous diets, if poorly planned, may also be relatively low in all those things. The key words are "if poorly planned," not "such regimes."

As we get older, many of our mineral and vitamin requirements increase, and we need fewer calories to maintain our weight. For this reason, it might be harder to go vegetarian at the age of 50 than it was earlier.

“You have to make sure the calories you eat are very nutrient-rich per bite; otherwise your health might suffer more, and faster, than that of a younger person,” advises Boston University’s Salge Blake. 

Right. Good news: plant-based food is much more nutrient-rich per bite than animal-based food.

Back to the B12 issue... most packaged tofu, tempeh, soy milk, and other such products are supplemented with B12. As for iron (emphasis added),

You can find iron in dark green leafy vegetables, prune juice, dried beans and bulgur. Interestingly, studies indicate that iron deficiency appears to be no more common in vegetarians than in meat-eaters, possibly because vegetarians know they are at risk and eat to deal with that. “In our lab we have noticed that when people become vegetarian, the amount of iron in their diet actually goes up. By eating legumes and green leafy vegetables, they tend to consume larger amounts of the nutrient, making up for the worse absorption of ‘non-heme’ iron,” says Barnard.

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