Although the data is not recent, they are the only ones we have: in Spain 7.8%of the adult population is defined as Veggie, a term that encompasses Veganos (0.2%), vegetarians (1.3%) and flexitaros(6.3%), according to The Green Revolution study, conducted by Lantern.
The environment, little by little, is becoming friendlier to vegetarianism, but social networks have also helped give voice to those who fiercely oppose this type of food.In addition, the food industry takes advantage of the reef to sell vegan ultraprocessed, and it becomes more difficult to discern between what is healthy and what does not.To clarify concepts Lucía Martínez, dietitian-nutritionist, co-director of the Alleris Nutrition Center, author of the blog tell me what you eat and one of the professionals in the sector with the most followers on social networks, has written awareness vegetarians (Paidós), a vegetarian manual withA lot of common sense.
Has social networks give wings to fury against vegetarianism?Is there veggie-phobia?
In the networks you always find bipolarity.Those who go to vegetarians have even a name, they are the Vegan-Haters!There are those who feel attacked or questioned because other people have a diet that entails a political position that questions the food production system, the consumption system and the care of the environment.We have a good example with the book The vegetarian myth, which was published more than nine years ago, but resulted in Spanish recently and generated controversy.
"Those who go to vegetarians on social networks even have a name, they are the Vegan-Haters!"
Its author, Lierre Keith American writer, feminist and food activist explained in the book how she ended 20 years of veganism dismantling its principles and ensuring that this diet "hurts you"...What do you think about your arguments?
In order not to have bias, I would refer to articles that have written my classmates who follow traditional diets and have written on the subject, such as Juan Revenga.It would be the same as if I start writing a book saying that the traditional diet is going to kill you, that you look at hospitals full of people with traditional food.I would be using fallacious arguments, because what causes all that is the insane diet, not the omnivorous diet.A badly raised vegan diet is bad for health, like any poorly raised diet.
Is veganism losing essence, with the boom of new ultraprocessed vegan products -and very little healthy -?
At the health level, it is losing essence, because the food industry has seen a reef.Before the vegans were things that did not consume them because they had no choice, and now they have them in any establishment.Healthy food such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes and olive oil, we have had a lifetime;But I would say that about 90% of what we have added, of the new vegan products that come to the market, they are ultraprocessed and highly unhealthy.
"I would say that about 90% of what we have added, of the new vegan products that come to the market, are ultra -processed and highly unhealthy."
Should we be careful with everything labeled as ‘Vegan’?
Yes.You see products with a packaging with words like ‘Healthy’ or ‘100% vegetable’, with fruits and vegetables, with the V with the leaf (it is the vegan product symbol), and people believe they are buying chard!These products do not put them on sale to buy them only the vegan population, they put them for everyone.And many traditional diet people buy it because they think they are buying something healthier.We have to criticize that mass of people.
With the Light products they also sold the greatest disasters, they told us that they did not get fat and were healthier because they had less calories or with 0% mg, in which they removed the fat and added sugar.They are recycling of the food industry, which takes a concept, perverts, exploits it and sells you what it can.
What is the worst product - as regards to health - what have you seen?
I remember some vegan sausages of the white brand of a well -known supermarket chain, whose first ingredients is water and the second sunflower oil (the ingredients are placed on the list by order of quantity in the product).So you are basically buying water, oil and some starch, with a ridiculous protein fraction.
Vagana pastry is also worth mentioning imitating the classic.As a substitute for the cream, the so -called vegetable cream is used (also used in poor quality pastry because it is cheap), which is only water, hydrogenated vegetable fat and sugar.That's the worst.If you ask me to do it more insane, I would have to fail the law and almost add cyanide.It is as if they had designed the most insane that we can.There are others that are done with nuts or coconut milk and are better, but more expensive.
"You see products with a packaging with words like 'Healthy' or '100% vegetable' and people believe they are buying chard!"
That is why you say that the fight should not be aimed at getting vegan donuts but to abolish donuts...
The vegan donut is equally insane that the non -vegan or sometimes more donut, because to replace egg, for example, it is used fat from the worst quality and starches.The vegan and vegetarian had been a critical consumer par excellence ... Why now (some) are celebrating that there have been low quality ultraprocesses, instead of claiming seasonal food, proximity, promoting that other consumption model?There are many social media accounts - very followed - dedicated to spreading these products.There are parties on Twitter or Instagram when the supermarket on duty takes out a new vegan ice cream, and that is why many people believe that Vegan is equal to healthier, when it is not necessarily so, at all, at all.The Vegan label or seal only reports the origin of the ingredients, it does not tell us whether or not it is healthy.
"It is not uncommon for vegetarian people who come to their head doctor are alarmed by the forecast of all types of deficiencies that they will suffer in the future, with recipes from a thousand multivitamin supplements they do not need," we read in their book.Do you recommend not listening to the GP?Isn't it a bit dangerous?
You can tell people not to listen to a doctor if the professional does not have specific training, gives tips based on obsolete ideas or their own judgments and does not respect the patient's decisions.If your healthcare professional, just say that you are vegetarian, without asking what type of diet you carry or do any type of anamnesis, it scares you with protein deficits and anemias or other shortcomings and advises you to consume meat, you can say that this person is not formedIn that specific topic, you have the right to ask for a second opinion and resort to another professional.While if you give you adapted advice, it makes you analytical if it is necessary and asks you what you usually eat, then wonderful and pay attention.
“The vegan donut is equally insane that the non -vegan or sometimes more donut, because to replace egg, for example, it is used fat from the worst quality and starches”
He warns the vegans to take the supplementation of the B12 is absolutely essential ... what can happen to them if they do not take it?
The B12 deficit is clinically manifested in a type of anemia that is megaloblastic, different from the ferropenic. Pero en personas vegetarianas es habitual que el déficit de b12 se manifeste con sintomatología difusa como hormigueos en los pies, pérdida de visión y concentración, náuseas, dolores de cabeza, problemas digestivos… Yesntomas que podrían deberse a cualquier motivo.Many times if it is not diagnosed, it can lead to more serious things.It happens that basic analytics may not detect the B12 deficit well, especially when consumed analogous to it.To avoid all that, it is best for vegetarians to take the B12 supplement that has no contraindications and is very cheap.
"Suspicious women are still looking at pregnant women".No reason?
We have many countries that give advice to vegetarian pregnant women without disheveled: United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Nordic countries ... In these places there are nutrition advice to vegetarian pregnant women, just like those who follow a traditional diet, for example aboutB12 supplementation or healthy vegetarian food.The issue is that the professional has to know how to advise and be prepared.
"We have many countries that give advice to vegetarian pregnant women without disheveled: United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Nordic countries ..."
And vegan babies?Is it a 100% safe food option for your health?
We have many children who grow in vegetarian and vegan families without problems.We need training and just as parents are explained how to introduce chicken and fish in babies, also know what to give instead of that.We have the Generalitat Guides of Catalonia from 0 to 3 years that include tips for vegetarians and are official guides.It is important that health professionals are trained because lifestyle chooses each family, not the health professional.You can feed a child with a vegan diet or a traditional diet.
What responds to those who believe that a vegetarian diet endangers the health of the little ones?
There are many mothers and fathers who endanger the health of their child giving porridge and sugary cookies, pastries, processed meat etc..What needs to be done with these parents is to give the necessary nutritional education, give them resources to feed their children well and prevent obesity and type 2 diabetes.The same with a family that carries an insane or poorly raised vegetarian diet.Information is needed.
One thing that could help to do is have a nutritionist in public health, instead of getting our hands to our heads because there are vegetarian families who do not do it well (just like there are traditional diet families that are making it fatal).Our Ministry of Health should copy from the rest of Europe and include nutritionists in the public health system, since they are the health professional indicated to give food advice.
"There are families that endanger the health of their child giving porridge and sugary cookies, pastries, processed meats"
He said that "there are families that endanger the health of their child giving porridge and sugary cookies".Do they really put them in danger?
Of course.Average sugar consumption in children in Spain is absolutely fired with about 22 lumps per day.The food industry is selling those "my first" something or the bumps for loads loaded with sugar.and breach the indications of the WHO that say that you do not have to give added sugar until the year of age, and from there, the minimum possible.
There are children who consume a barbarity of sugar that has a negative effect on their health.And I don't say it, says the same WHO, it has nothing to do with being vegan, sugar is super vegan!That is why we have the child obesity rates that we have.
María Merino, the nutritionist who gave chickpeas to breakfast her son raised blisters and also had many support on social networks, when he said that the little boy had never seen a cookie ...
That someone eats chickpeas for breakfast is perfect from the nutritional point of view but, if you are also removing and if you remove cookies to put chickpeas, then it is already fantastic.The controversy was because for us, culturally, legumes do not go at breakfast.If the tweet had been an English child who took beans for breakfast, no one would have been impeded, since the Anglo -Saxons do have that habit.If the nutritionist had since his son has not seen the cookies because he gives him toast of bread with tomato and oil, the tweet would have passed without sorrow or glory.
A child would not have to see cookies for breakfast, or in any case continuously.There is no problem that a child has breakfast chickpeas or any other healthy food.
“That someone eats chickpeas for breakfast is perfect from the nutritional point of view but, if you are also removing and if you remove cookies to put chickpeas, then it is already fantastic”
In the future, he says, there will be at least one vegetarian boy or girl in each kind of preschool ... Why do you think?
I have no evidence of it, it is a personal intuition, but I think it will be so.We have more and more school dining rooms with vegetarian option - because there is more demand - and the trend is up.Just as we have had more diversity culture in the classrooms and adapt their diets according to each culture, over the years we will have more vegetarian children and that will help normalize, because what most helps to normalize things is to live with them and see that nothing happens.
Is it dangerous for someone with eating disorders to become vegan?
It is a complicated issue, we have to be careful with this message.One thing is a long -distance vegetarian or vegan, and then suffers a TCA as any other person can suffer.In that case, the thing is to respect the diet, because if we force her to eat things she does not contemplate, it can be worse.As in another omnivorous person we make you eat fried jets.
Other thing is that at the beginning of a TCA, the vegan diet is often used as an excuse to restrict the diet and avoid certain dishes, because it is believed that being vegan weights away, or to avoid social events with food.We can distinguish the two scenarios and professionals must detect if veganism is implicit in the person and is part of their lifestyle, or when acquiring it is part of the evolution of the disorder and is used as an excuse to reject some foods.In any case, the key message is that in a suspicion of a TCA there is always to resort to a professional and trust his team.
"We have more and more school dining rooms with vegetarian option - because there is more demand - and the trend is upwards"
The 8 euro -white brand yogurt packs are not too reliable...Surely they have been manufactured from milk of "livestock farms where animals are exploited to nausea", we read ...
I do not speak of quality, I speak of ethics.I put it as an example because it is everywhere.When something is so cheap, someone is always paying the price, and we have a good example with clothes (five -euro t -shirts produced in Bangladesh with people whose rights are being trampled).Manufacture five euros t -shirts ethically is impossible, unless you are Harry Potter.Similarly, foods of animal origin are produced by exploiting animals very wildly, and that is why those prices are often low as the example of yogurts.
But it is not always the case, surely many farmers who do things well will put their hands to their heads...
The one who eats eggs from his grandmother's happy chicken, who pecks in the courtyard and dies of the old woman is 0.01% of the population.The one who eats flesh of happy pigs and cows that are loose in the meadow is 0.01%.We do not give advice and information based on anecdote, but based on the general.Therefore, products of animal origin are produced by exploiting animals very wildly to the extreme because it is the only way to assume the demand and to be profitable.
"Foods of animal origin occur exploiting animals very wildly, and that is why they have those prices often ridiculously low"
Not that I believe it, the information says it.We have had it in Prime Time in La Sexta with a "saved", the reports of the animal farms are there, the documentary "slaughterhouse" that is collecting a lot of international awards, investigations of many NGOs and also, we have our common senseand our neurons.
We can assume that it is impossible to supply the current demand with loose chickens and pigs eating acorns in the meadows.They are stabulated animals and fed with feed, birds overcrowded brutally, in the case of pigs it is also quite heartbreaking ... It is not necessary for people to create what I tell you.People can read animal welfare laws and see the minimums that guarantee these laws, which are very minimal and that are not always complied with.And then decide if they want to keep supporting that.
