Risks
Vegetarians who abstain from dairy products or animal flesh face the greatest
nutritional risks because some nutrients naturally occur mainly or almost
exclusively in animal foods.
Vegans, who eat no animal foods (and, rarely, vegetarians who eat no animal
flesh but do eat eggs or dairy products), risk vitamin B12 deficiency, which
can result in irreversible nerve deterioration. The need for vitamin B12
increases during pregnancy, breast-feeding, and periods of growth, according
to Johanna Dwyer, D.Sc., R.D., of Tufts University Medical School and the New
England Medical Center Hospital, Boston. Writing in 1988 in the American
Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Dwyer reviewed studies of the previous five
years and concluded that elderly people also should be especially cautious
about adopting vegetarian diets because their bodies may absorb vitamin B12
poorly.
Ovo-vegetarians, who eat eggs but no dairy foods or animal flesh, and vegans
may have inadequate vitamin D and calcium. Inadequate vitamin D may cause
rickets in children, while inadequate calcium can contribute to risk of
osteoporosis in later years. These vegetarians are susceptible to iron
deficiency anemia because they are not only missing the more readily absorbed
iron from animal flesh, they are also likely to be eating many foods with
constituents that inhibit iron absorption--soy protein, bran, and fiber, for
instance. Vegans must guard against inadequate calorie intake, which during
pregnancy can lead to low birth weight, and against protein deficiency, which
in children can impair growth and in adults
can cause loss of hair and muscle mass and abnormal accumulation of fluid.
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