Vegetarian Diet and deficiency
For iron deficiency in a strict vegetarian, as plant iron are less
easy to absorb it is needed to be taken more frequently, eg. every
meal, examples: beancurd, wholegrain cereals, beans and seeds, nuts,
fruits. Taking vitamin C can enhance iron absorption and fruits,
berries, tomatoes, cabbages are good, while tannins which are in
tea, coffee and soft drinks can inhibit iron absorption so it should
not be taken so often…
For calcium, leafy green vegetables, nuts and seeds (almonds,
brazils, sesame seeds), soya products, and dried fruits are all good
sources
For vitamin B12, there aren’t any relible plant sources of vitamin
B12 to-date… tempeh, miso, shoyu and tamari found no significant
B12, spirulina (an algae) and nori (a seaweed) contains vitB12
analogues that cannot be differentiated by tests and cannot be
utilised, but there are B12 fortified cereals, margarines, and food
preparations; of course need to take with adequate folate while
taking
too much coffee and alcohol would reduce absorption.
In general for a vegetarian they need to take "colourful" vegetables
and fruits (some vegetables and fruits of different colours eg
green, red, purple) as well as plenty of nuts and cereals, as well
as soya products. Also they are better kept themselves away from
caffine and alcohol. Plenty of exercises are important to all.
My personal view is that being a vegetarian one really have to eat a
large variety of vegetables and nuts to stay healthy, which I do not
think people in HK would do this well, nor there are adequate cheap
market products available, nor much people have enough knowledge in
handling this diet. Worse that there are many "vegemeat" - those
vegecha-siu, vegengap-san etc in those vegeshops, which are fatty
and NOT healthy at all.
I think this is really the problem of vegetarian diet in HK so I
don’t agree with what CUHK published vegetarian diet increases risk
of CV diseases. What we preach about healthy eating is
more towards a vegetarian (including dairy products and eggs) one!
A good website to know what they know and information are morealess
neutral:
Vegetarian Society UK - http://www.vegsoc.org/index.html
Interersting sites:
about tempeh - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempeh
about soya products - http://www.soya.be/
