The Big Debate

People now have access to scientific information like never before.

PEOPLE NOW HAVE ACCESS to scientific information like never before. However this surfeit of information often includes few details and more opinions, leading to faulty inferences and sensationalisation. Information relating to diet and food are often conflict-ing and create controversies. Now vegetarianism seems to be under the scanner. A recent study published by some Mumbai based researchers claims that vegetarians are at higher risk for developing coronary artery disease.

This is because vitamin B12, a vitamin found in animal foods only like dairy, eggs, meat, poultry, fish etc. helps keep Homocys-teine levels low. Homocysteine is an artery damaging amino acid. And its high proportion may cause coronary heart disease. Vegetarians, by that logic, have low vitamin B12 levels and there-fore are 8220;at risk8221;. However, what the study does not tell you is that Ho-mocysteine levels are also sen-sitive to Riboflavin, Vitamin B6 and Folate, found primarily in vegetables, fruits and nuts. Inadequate intake of these vi-tamins can raise Homocys-teine levels in blood. The title of the study seems to suggest that those who eat fruits and vegetables are at in-creased risk of devel-oping heart diseases, while non-vegetarians stand protected.

It is these unquali-fied claims that leave people confused. Firstly, when we over-simplify any 8220;cause and effect8221; relationship, we lose perspective. Coronary artery disease is a multi-factorial disease: which means that there are several risk factors, which singly or together can increase risk of the disease. These include family history, smoking, diabetes, obesity, hypertension, high levels of Ho-mocysteine, lack of exercise, faulty diets etc.

Secondly, how do we define a vege-tarian or a non-vegetar-ian in the Indian context? Most Indian vegetarians end up piling on 5 Ps: potatoes, paneer, paranthas, puris and pulses, with hardly any veg-etable and fruit intake. Further high fat diets rich in polyunsatu-rated fat thanks to re-fined oils or saturated fats vanaspati are the norm rather than the exception. Then there are those who guzzle loads of dairy products and milk in self indulgence owing to their 8220;no-meat status8221;. A complete opposite is the Western coun-terpart, a typically converted health conscious vegetarian who consumes whole grains, legumes, fresh fruits and veg-etables, plenty of nuts, seeds, soya and good fat. While non-vegetarian Indians may be eating meat, fish, poultry only once or twice a week and may or may also not eat adequate protective food. Therefore, rather than focusing on what we don8217;t eat meat in this case and label ourselves as vegetari-ans or non-vegetarians, it may be better if we focus on what we eat. It is clearly established by researchers that it is the in-telligent consumption of beneficial foods rather than sim-ply avoiding harmful ones that leads to good health.

Ishi Khosla is a well-known nutritionalist and will be writing a weekly column