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How could you not eat red meat?

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The breast-fed infants of two mothers who did not eat any animal products, including milk and eggs, developed brain abnormalities as a result of a vitamin-B12 deficiency, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news - web sites) (CDC) reported Thursday.

The primary sources of vitamin B12, which is essential for brain development, are animal products like meat, dairy products and eggs. Since the mothers ate little or no animal products, too little vitamin B12 was transmitted to their children through breast milk, according to the CDC's Dr. Maria Elena Jefferds.

Jefferds added that these cases serve as a reminder to parents and pediatricians to ensure that both pregnant women and mothers who breast-feed their infants consume enough B12, either through diet or B12-containing supplements.

"You have to make sure you're getting it," she said, in reference to vitamin B12.

And don't abandon breast-feeding altogether, Jefferds cautioned. Breast-feeding has many advantages, and mothers who choose to not eat animal products should still continue to breast-feed their infants.

"Vegetarians should absolutely breast-feed, there's no question about that," she said.

In the January 31st issue of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, Jefferds and her colleagues describe the cases of two babies who showed signs of brain abnormalities as a result of a deficiency in vitamin B12.

In one case, doctors examined and diagnosed the deficiency in a 15-month-old child with slow growth and mental development. Her mother said she had avoided consuming all animal products for many years, and had breast-fed the baby for 8 months after birth.

After receiving supplements of vitamin B12, the child began to improve, but was still below her age group in speech and language at 32 months of age.

Jefferds explained in an interview that many children fully recover from vitamin-B12 deficiencies but that, in some cases, a prolonged period of low consumption of vitamin B12 can cause irreversible damage.

"I think it really depends on how severe the deficiency was, and how long it was taking place for," she said.

She added that while both children described in the report showed lingering symptoms of low vitamin B12, over time, those impairments may disappear.

The initial symptoms of low vitamin B12 in infants are often vague and not obvious, Jefferds noted. She recommended that doctors keep the possibility of a deficiency "on their radar screen," and ask mothers if they eat animal products or take supplements that contain enough vitamin B12, also known as cobalamin.

Vegans eat only plant-based foods, using grains, legumes, fruits and vegetables to fill all their dietary needs. Vegetarians, on the other hand, typically avoid meat, but may eat some animal products, such as milk, eggs and possibly fish.

i don't understand vegans. not wanting to eat red meat is one thing but no animal products? hello!! there is a reason humans are concidered omnivores, we're designed to eat other animals lower down the food chain! i know too much red meat is bad for my heart but keeping to a vegan diet is bad for you too. its all about moderation. my step sister stayed on a vegan diet for a while and she got so sick. she was real pale and weak, i think its more a political thing than a diet. there is a real difference between vegans and vegaterians and i don't like it one bit.

and i'm spent...

<rant on>

You guys should see what happens after labor & delivery with one of these! The placenta actually partially imbeds INTO the uterine wall making it d*mn near impossible to expel (NOT a normal scenario).

Surprise! Apparently healthy baby's out, placenta refuses to budge, traction on the umbilical pulls the cord out of the placenta. Get out the tools quick and start digging: at this rate of flow the mother will bleed to death in 10 minutes if they can't get ALL the placental pieces removed AND get that uterus to reduce in size thus shutting down the bleeding.

D*mn Vegans! You can't consistently mess with nutrition in pregnancy and expect a perfectly healthy mom OR baby. I HATE to see the damage simple ignorance like this causes. We're omnivores and are made that way for a good reason: survival! Unless you actually know what you're doing, don't stake your life and the life of your child on some Disney-fied view of the natural world. We're part of it; accept it and move on, ya know?

<rant off>

I can't live without eating meat.
it's just too damn good!!

I think the message to be said here though, for the "vegans" is if you're not gonna eat the meat, at least take the proper vitamin supplements to make up for the lack of meat.

here is a reason to be though.......


shania twain

You couldn't pay me enough to be a vegan. I've never personally known a vegetarian/vegan who wasn't either sick all the time or mentally unstable.

or to put it in the words of Dennis Leary:

"meat tastes like murder, and murder tastes pretty <goshdarn> good"

I am a Vegan, so is my wife.
This report is an insult to my intelligence.
2 babies have problems and the world is in an uproar.
Doh! They must not have kept up with there vitamins.
What about all the childhood diabetes because of redmeat?
What about the childhood deaths due to SIDS, aka smoking?

I have two children, both under age 4, both breast feed until they were two and no problems.
My wife has never eaten meat, no sexual comments here.
She is 5'5" and 120 lbs. and I am 6'4" and 295 lbs.
We make sure we eat Nutrional yeast for B-12.
We take a multivitamin.

1/2 the world does not eat red meat!
Americans have a poor diet.
Many athletes and actors are vegans.
Listen to Dr. Atkins long enough and through natural selection, all the stupid people will be dead.

What makes meat taste good? Blood, Fat, Urine.
Where is the disease? All three.