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In their July, 2009 edition of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, the ADA has refined their position toward vegetarianism:

“It is the position of the American Dietetic Association that appropriately planned vegetarian diets, including total vegetarian or vegan diets, are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and may provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases. Well-planned vegetarian diets are appropriate for individuals during all stages of the life cycle, including pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, and adolescence, and for athletes.”

This is a disturbing and sad development and shows just how far from the world of good science the ADA has fallen. Consider these facts:

* Vitamin B12 that can be used in the body occurs only in animal-based foods.
* B12 deficiency has been found in babies being breastfed by strict vegetarians.
* Ability to assimilate B12 declines with age.
* Carotene in vegetables is normally converted to Vitamin A in the upper intestine, but only if there is fat in the diet. That’s fat (animal) not oil (vegetable). Take animal products out of the diet and the body is left without the ability to create this strong antioxidant and anti-cancer defense.
* Trace minerals like cobalt help our bodies use the iron and other essential vitamins and minerals, and occur most generously and in most usable form in animal foods.
* Babies fed a vegetarian diet are subject to deficiencies of B12 (necessary for proper brain and nervous system development), zinc, folic acid, calcium, B2, protein, calcium and calories.

My favorite quote on vegetarianism comes from The Milk Book by William Campbell Douglass, MD:

“There is no society in the world that is entirely vegetarian. The Hindus in India come closest. …the greater percentage of the population, who subsist almost entirely on vegetable foods, suffer from kwashiorkor, other forms of malnutrition, and have the shortest life span in the world.”

At no time in her life does a woman’s body need nutrition more desperately than during her childbearing years. Her children and grandchildren are shortchanged if she skimps on healthy food during these years. Pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood—these are not the times in our lives to be engaging in risky nutritional fads.

Why should we care what the ADA says? Their own website says this about them:

“The American Dietetic Association is the world’s largest organization of food and nutrition professionals. ADA is committed to improving the nation’s health and advancing the profession of dietetics through research, education and advocacy.”

That the “world’s largest organization of nutrition professionals” is advocating such a dangerous diet for people whose diet matters so greatly provest that the are not at all “commted to improving the nation’s health” and that the “research, education and advocacy” they practice is in dire need of reexamination.

Shame on the ADA for this ill-conceived position!

This post is part of Real Food Wednesdays hosted by Cheeseslave, because vegetables are real food, but so are meats, eggs, dairy and animal fats.