Why failure to thrive on vegetarian diets is rarely talked about

[Guest guest]

http://www.beyondveg.com/nicholson-w/veg-prob/veg-prob-scen1b.shtml

 

When not everyone does well on the diet, the easy answers provided by

the vegetarian movement are no longer so simple.

 

If you find yourself facing one of the six problem scenarios mentioned

previously, you aren't alone--though you might not think so, given the

positive press vegetarian nutrition often receives today. In fact,

where health is concerned, most people do well, often quite well, on

vegetarian diets when they first switch. (Certainly they usually do

better, at least, if they had previously been following the " standard

American diet " --often referred to as " SAD " by people pursuing

healthier alternative diets.) And the positive press with respect to

the long-term impact on certain degenerative diseases such as

cardiovascular disease and so forth is well-deserved. Numerous studies

have shown that diets higher in fiber, fruits, and vegetables and

lower in saturated fats (such as vegetarianism, though it is not the

only such diet, of course) are considerably healthier than the SAD

when looking at certain degenerative diseases.

 

" Failure to thrive " is usually mild and unrecognized as such at first.

However, there is another side to the vegetarian story that rarely

gets talked about, which is the phenomenon known as " failure to

thrive " (FTT). Normally this term is used to describe infants who fail

to do well or to meet minimum standards for growth and development,

due to some shortfall in the standard of care received. However, the

term can also be applied to anyone not doing well health-wise when

they might otherwise be expected to.

 

Where vegetarianism is concerned, it means that despite following

prudent recommendations for the diet, some people simply do not

experience the best health, or, put differently perhaps, " well-being. "

This can range anywhere from mild symptoms such as:

 

* Lassitude or " being hungry all day " and " not feeling satisfied, "

as described above; to

* Poor sex drive or poor-quality sleep; to

* Behavioral effects such as not being able to get one's mind off

food (not uncommon if one is not feeling physically satiated or

otherwise satisfied on the diet), or

* The yo-yo syndrome of not being able to stay on the diet

consistently due to cravings; to

* Emotional effects such as a vague, nonspecific loss of zest for

life (which is usually more apparent to other people than to the

person themselves); to

* Actual deficiencies in some cases.

 

Prudent vegetarian diets are sufficient " on paper. " Usually, since

well-planned vegetarian diets are sufficient on paper, overt

deficiencies are rare (other than of vitamin B-12 occasionally in pure

vegans not taking a supplement). However, there is much that is still

being discovered about nutrition, and--as is discussed elsewhere on

the site--given that vegetarian diets are not the kind of diet that

the human species evolved on, it may be there are dietary factors,

particularly micronutrients, that don't measure up on diets that

significantly deviate from our natural one. Or some elements in the

diet may not be extracted as efficiently from plant foods, whether in

general, or by certain individuals. (See Timeline of Dietary Shifts in

the Human Line of Evolution for a footnoted discussion of dietary

developments indicating the diet the human species is naturally

adapted to. Also see Key Nutrients vis-a-vis Omnivorous Adaptation and

Vegetarianism for a discussion of differences between plant and animal

foods in absorption efficiency of certain dietary nutrients.)

 

But even allowing for the somewhat " covert " or subliminal nature of

the above kinds of early or mild symptoms that might predispose people

to believe FTT is not really real in the first place, what are the

other reasons why FTT doesn't get talked about much? There are a few

separate ones:

 

* The self-selection effect among long-term (successful) vegans

screens out awareness of failure to thrive. This first reason

generally underlies the other additional reasons FTT is seldom

acknowledged or discussed. Most people who try vegetarian diets

usually do not stick with them for a long period of time, and go on to

something else. At any point in time, therefore, the pool of currently

practicing vegetarians is composed mostly of long-term vegetarians.

This sets up a " self-selection " effect that filters awareness, whereby

most of the vegetarians you talk to are inevitably either the most

motivated or the most " successful " ones who do the best on the diet

long-term.

 

Yet ironically, many more people are ex-vegetarian than

currently vegetarian. But since practicing vegetarians tend to be far

more vocal, those are the voices most people hear about vegetarianism

from. Thus, the ex-vegetarian population is something of a " silent

majority " that doesn't get heard from much compared to current

vegetarians, because most often, they simply go on to something else

that becomes their focus instead, and the subject is dropped before it

has much of a chance to make an impact on others.

 

* The large number of " social dropouts " diverts attention and is a

scapegoat for the actual cases. Why do people " drop out " ? Oftentimes,

of course, it is strictly for social reasons having to do with peer

pressure from family, friends, or workmates, or just the social

inconveniences of not being able to find good vegetarian meals outside

the home. Or people may simply like animal foods, and eventually find

they don't want, or have trouble trying, to give them up despite the

proposed benefits of doing so (not surprising given the evolutionary

heritage of Homo sapiens, with meat being a natural food that most of

us enjoy). And vegetarianism often is an enthusiasm of younger, more

idealistic people that doesn't last or doesn't " stick " as they get out

into the world, and start dealing with the everyday vicissitudes of

life that make idealism of any sort difficult.

 

However, the foregoing primarily tends to describe people who

haven't practiced vegetarianism for a very long time before dropping

out--often before there would be much likelihood of developing FTT

anyway. And since most people who embrace vegetarianism do at least

passably well on the diet at first, and FTT--if/when it occurs--may

take anywhere from a few months to a few years to several years

(sometimes longer) to develop, dropouts of this particular variety

don't really tell us very much about failure to thrive. I.e., despite

the way in which " social dropouts " are brought up as a refutation of

FTT, they are a " red herring " and mostly irrelevant to the question.

 

* Moral ostracism marginalizes willingness of FTT dropouts to

speak out. But it would be erroneous to conclude that the FTT

population will automatically be insignificant just because there are

a lot of " social dropouts " or because there is no publicity about the

phenomenon. In addition to the " self-selection " effect discussed above

about why FTT is not heard about much, there is also a strong tendency

toward moral ostracism toward ex-vegetarians by current vegetarians.

(Anyone who doesn't believe this should listen in on a conversation

among " ethical " vegetarians about some failed ex-vegetarian sometime.

So much for " compassion " as one of the underlying values of

vegetarianism, if it doesn't apply to fellow human beings.) This quite

commonly results in either blackout of contrary information (within

the vegetarian community), or failure to take it seriously when it

does surface.

 

* Pat answers. But of course, not all cases of FTT completely

escape attention. Instead they may be rationalized. Usually this

happens by explaining away all examples of FTT as failures to

" intelligently plan, " or adhere to, the diet instead. While in some

cases this might well be true, most often what occurs is that the

people making such comments don't really know if it is or not, because

rarely do people explaining away FTT bother with finding out all the

particulars of the cases that come up. (For more on how morally based

ostracism operates to screen out awareness of FTT in the vegetarian

community, see both Drawbacks to Relying Exclusively on Clinical

Studies of Diet [go about halfway down the page] and Failure to

Thrive: Your Health is More Important than Dietary Dogma.)

 

 

Failure to thrive is real, but its extent unknown.

 

After adopting the diet, cases of FTT are small in the beginning, but

increase over the long-term. Now that the vegetarian and alternative

diet movement has had almost three decades to mature since it began

mushrooming in the U.S. with the contingent of baby-boomers who began

adopting it starting in the late 1960s and early 1970s, results

contrary to the standard healthy script of what is supposed to happen

have had time to surface and undergo more close re-examination. Based

on anecdotal reports, the number of people who experience FTT is small

in the beginning after the diet is adopted, but will increase over

time. Some begin not doing well within just a few months. For others

it may be a decade or longer before they realize their state of health

is not what it once was. Sometimes people find they have very slowly

adjusted to a lowered sense of well-being without realizing it until

some years later. It would be nice if one could put a percentage

figure on the rate of FTT among those who try vegetarian diets, but

unfortunately this number is unknown at present.

 

(Note: Vegan advocate Michael Klaper, M.D. has been attempting, since

about 1997/1998, to put together what appears to be the first-ever

study on failure to thrive in vegans, and also appears to be one of

the very few vegan advocates to acknowledge it publicly as a

worthwhile issue. It is a prospective study and not longitudinal, and

thus will not be able to determine rates of incidence; but it is a

start, and those who are interested in this topic may want to check

out the web page for the study at

http://www.vegsource.com/klaper/study.htm.)

 

Most individuals with FTT make changes quietly, and go on to other

diets. Some of these individuals who have had extensive firsthand

experience from which they can speak have been forced to seriously

question their diets--or at the least, the claim that they will work

for everyone. And in some cases these individuals have even gone so

far as to re-introduce animal foods back into their diets (some

including carefully chosen portions of flesh) and are experiencing

improved health. Others who haven't seen fit to make that kind of

change may nevertheless have made compromises in the area of adding

supplements or other auxiliary items to their diets formerly eschewed.

(You can read stories of a few such individuals here on the website:

see Dietary Problems in the Real World.)

 

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(What Happens if Vegetarian Diets Are Not Best for Everyone?)