If you come across any articles in the press  about vegetarianism, you might, and rightfully so, get an impression that people like to jump to conclusions about everything vegan or vegetarian. A recent article on the Radio Taiwan International website is simply designed to make non-vegetarians feel better about themselves. At least if they don’t really think about what they’re reading.

According to Dr. Hung, one main reason is that many vegetarian foods are fried in oil that contains trans-fatty acids, and this form of acid is extremely harmful to the health.

Trans fat is bad for you - no argument here. However, is there a study that shows that vegetarians consume more trans fat than non-vegetarians? I want to see one before I believe anyone claiming this. No doubt a lot of people indulge in unhealthy eating habits such as consuming oil fried foods on a regular basis. However, if someone becomes a vegetarian for health reasons they’re sure to be more careful about eating anything that’s not fresh green vegetables or fruit.

Dr. Hung doesn’t stop here of course.

Dr. Hung said another reason is that vegetarians tend to eat a lot of bean products. But such products contain fairly high purine content that breaks down into uric acid.

I wonder if Dr. Hung knows enough about products that contain purine. In fact, meat products contain more purine than beans.

In a 12-year study that followed eating habits and gout incidence in large number of men it was found that eating food rich in purine, such as meat and seafood, was associated with high risk of gout… Moderate intake of purine-rich vegetables or protein was not associated with an elevated risk of gout.

Apparently it’s not like non-vegetarians are safer from uric acid in any respect.

It’s just another clueless attempt to say something silly about vegetarian diet and ask people to eat meat (not explicitly though) and lots of green leafy veggies and drink water - just to stay on the right side of fashion.

I’m just curious if one has to have a higher IQ to see how baseless the arguments of Dr Hung are?

Armin Meiwes is a cannibal, at least he’s known as one for eating a man who didn’t have enough excitement in his life and volunteered for dinner.  When the court ordered a psychiatric examination for  Mr Meiwes they found that as a little boy Armin always wanted to eat his school mates. He resisted the urge for quite a while at least long enough to find someone willing to be eaten. Surely enough that last dinner brought Armin to prison. And now according to News.com.au Armin turned “vegetarian”,  

“He finds the idea of factory farming as distasteful as his crime was and now sticks to vegetarian dishes.” 

That’s surely appears more radical than any trasformationof a butcher or a chicken farmer into a vegetarian, but aren’t we jumping to conclusions. The guy is quoted as saying he doesn’t like factory farmed meat. This doesn’t mean he turned vegetarian voluntarily. There’s hardly a choice in jail even other inmates cannot be classified as organic food.

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Animal-derived ingredients are used in production of many alcoholic beverages. Most commonly the ingredients used are gelatine, egg white, milk protein. Until recently blood was added to some wines, however due to the outbreak of mad cow disease its use is now illegal. Alcoholic drinks rarely labelled with a list of ingredients and even if there was one anything that’s used in processing but didn’t make it in to the final products wouldn’t be listed. Many wine producers now realise that it’s not necessary to use animal derived ingredients. Many wines and beers are made cruelty free way and are suitable for vegans.

• List of beers suitable for vegans
• List of wines suitable for vegans
• List of Australian alcoholic beverages suitable for vegans or vegetarians

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We always knew that but here’s a scientific view of a “cereal chemist” (what a job title) J.R. Oliver.

Bread is able to provide more satisfying bulk (by virtue of the complex carbohydrates) and almost as much protein. As a protein source, bread is cheap: at $1.20/680 g loaf, bread will provide 45 g protein per dollar whereas T-bone at $8/kg only provides 18 g protein per dollar. However, bread protein is deficient in the amino acid lysine and as such cannot be used as a total meat protein replacement. Nonetheless it has a valuable contribution to make to the diet because of its proteins, its complex carbohydrates and also because it is a valuable source of many vitamins (B-group particularly) and minerals.

This is definitely a good news despite the claim that bread cannot be used as “a total meat replacement” due to lack of lysine. Legumes are one of the richest sources of lysine.

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