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From:	John Mayer (c-71-236-40-29.hsd1.tn.comcast.net)
Subject:	Re: Vegan Protein Misinformation
Date:	July 18, 2007 at 10:27 pm PST

In Reply to: Good Luck to You--Hope you like the book! (nt) posted by robin K on January 25, 2006 at 8:05 am:

So much misinformation out there about nutrition; we must be
careful not to respond to meat-eater misinformation with vegan
misinformation. For example, I don't know the source of the notion
that lions get most of their bulk from grass, but it's certainly not
true. Cats, big and small, discard the plant-filled stomachs of their
prey as do wolves. You could say their bulk comes from grass,
though, if the animals they eat are grass-eaters. Likewise it is not
acidity from meat that causes osteoporosis. The most likely cause
of acidosis in athletes is going to be the build-up of lactic acid
from prolonged exercise. But that will be self-correcting ordinarily,
and will not cause osteoporosis.

Excessive protein, as from your brother's meat-heavy diet, could
damage his kidneys which, with the lungs, is the main controller of
blood pH and thus cause metabolic acidosis. But that still won't
cause osteoporosis.

Actually, it is not known exactly how osteoporosis comes about,
but load-bearing exercise is, indeed, a good way to resist it; this
may be the main reason women are more susceptible than men as
they have traditionally been less physical. Weight-lifting is now
being encouraged in women partly for this reason. Adequate
calcium in your diet will help prevent it; a cup of kale has way more
calcium than a cup of skimmed milk (of course, milk is mostly
water), without the deletrious effects of milk protein. Finally,
steroids have been linked to osteoporosis, should your brother be
tempted. Probably the main reasons that vegans don't ever get
quite as big as meat-eating bodybuilders is that health-conscious
body-builders who avoid meat probably aren't going to be taking
steroids, either. But steroid users somehow don't look quite real, in
my opinion. As a body-building friend, Jerry Weintz, once said,
"Would you rather look like you've been carved from marble... or
from styrofoam?"

• VSET