Year of the Vegan is sweeping the media, but 2019 is much too late. Why is it that dietary trends engage the public only after science has passed them by?

It’s not impossible to maintain health with a vegan diet, but it’s not easy either. Here are just a few examples.

• Certain nutrients in vegetables aren’t absorbed without the presence of fats, so you need a healthy fat source combined with all salads and veggies. As far as oils go, that’s extra virgin olive oil (EVOO), avocado oil, and occasionally coconut oil. Every other seed- and grain-based oil is effectively poison,  and many of those are in vegan foods. Try finding EVOO-based hummus, for example. Fortunately, it’s easy to make at home.
• You need three servings of wild fatty fish per week or else a fish oil supplement. Happily, vegans can substitute an algae oil supplement.
• Creatinine is a necessity for producing the cell’s energy source, ATP, yet most vegetarians and vegans (V&V) have lower blood levels of it than omnivores do since it mainly comes from red meat and fish. So vegans should take a creatinine supplement.
• The major dietary precursor to acetylcholine, the memory and learning neurotransmitter, is choline, which is also a key component of cell membranes. It’s found in seafood and poultry, but the best source is eggs. No more than 10% of people in the US reach the recommended level of 425-550 mg per day (women-men), including the omnivores. But it’s harder for V&Vs, who have to eat two cups of broccoli or Brussels sprouts to get the amount of choline found in one egg yolk.

V&V diets are also protective in many way, and if you eat organic produce–avoiding fungicides, pesticides, and herbicides–it’s fantastic for the microbiome. And the human body is pretty adaptable, with healthy native populations thriving on diets ranging from almost all marine meat (Inuit) to vegan (Brokpa in Himalayas).  Devil’s in the details though. Inuits get enough carbs because they eat fresh or even raw meat, and the Brokpa diet includes walnuts.

I admire and respect all who become vegan to oppose cruelty to animals, or to reduce antibiotics in the environment or destruction of soil. I also think V&V would be an improvement for almost everyone on a standard Western diet. To achieve excellent health though, it must be an informed choice executed with attention.

Just like pretty much everything that is meaningful and effective.