Mon, Jan-10-22, 13:19
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Plan: Muscle Centric
Stats: 238/153/160
BF:
Progress: 109%
Location: UK
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Women who eat little meat and dairy put their health at risk, says scientist
Quote:
Women who eat little meat and dairy put their health at risk, says scientist
The health of many young women is being compromised by a lack of vital nutrients in their diet because they consume little or no red meat and dairy products, a senior scientist has warned.
Ian Givens, professor of food chain nutrition and director of the Institute for Food, Nutrition and Health at Reading University, said half of females aged between 11 and 18 were consuming below the minimum recommended level of iron and magnesium and a quarter consumed too little iodine, calcium and zinc.
He said that young women were more at risk than young men from such deficiencies and this could be because they were “more sensitive to the messages put out about how bad” meat and dairy products were for the environment, meaning more became vegetarian or vegan.
Givens told a briefing on alternative sources of protein organised by the Science Media Centre that there were good environmental reasons for eating more plant-based and less animal food, but warned: “We do need to make this move with some caution.
“We already have a nutrition situation which is quite marginal in many ways and for some of the issues I think we will not know the outcome for quite a long time.
“Teenage years are absolutely critical for bone development. If you don’t get it right it has major significance in terms of bone health in the elderly, increasing the risk of breakages which can reduce the quality of life.”
He said calcium and magnesium were important for bone development and young women who suffered deficiencies in their adolescence could face even greater problems after the menopause, when losing the benefits of oestrogen meant they would already be at higher risk of bone weakness.
He said women in older age groups were also more at risk from deficiencies than men. Analysis of the government-funded National Diet and Nutrition Survey revealed that 11 per cent of males aged 11 to 18, 54 per cent of females aged 11 to 18 and 27 per cent of females aged 19 to 64 consumed less than the minimum recommended level of iron. Only 2 per cent of males aged 19 to 64 consumed less than the minimum recommended level of iron. Red meat is a source of iron, though it is also found in beans and nuts.
Givens said iodine deficiency was particularly worrying in young women approaching child-bearing age because it was essential for foetal health.
He said milk was the biggest source of iodine for most people but relatively few plant-based milk alternatives were fortified with the mineral.
He called for broader comparisons of the benefits of meat and plant-based products, looking not only at the differences in carbon emissions per unit of food but whether alternatives to meat and dairy were providing the same amount of nutrients.
Separately a survey by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) has found more than a third of people would be willing to try meat grown in a laboratory, and about a quarter would eat insects.
Concern about the environment was the most common reason given for being willing to try those alternative sources of protein.
Among people unwilling to eat lab-grown meat, 42 per cent said nothing could encourage them to try it, 27 per cent could be persuaded if they knew it was safe to eat and 23 per cent if they could trust that it was properly regulated.
Professor Robin May, the chief scientific adviser of FSA, said the agency was talking with regulators in Singapore, where lab-grown chicken was approved for sale in 2020.
He said the agency was considering two applications for approval of insect-based food.
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https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/...ntist-ch2dz0z58 |
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