Nutrition & Diet New study: Replacing dairy products with unfortified PB alternatives.

[Andy_T]

Hello all,

I was just made aware that there is a new "horror" study making the rounds on Facebook and British Tabloids, that there has been a study performed by the University of Surrey and Queen’s University Belfast and published in Lancet Planetary Health.

Of course, when the title of the study gets re-packaged on Facebook, they tend to drop the attribute "unfortified" from plant-based alternatives, and "could lead to deficiencies in certain nutrients" immediately becomes "could be putting your health at risk" ...

For us, it will be, of course, interesting how we can counter this horror story when it will start invading all spaces shortly....

Here is a link to the original study:

Replacing Dairy with Plant-Based Alternatives May Increase Nutrient Deficiency Risk

A UK study shows that swapping dairy products for plant-based alternatives without fortification could reduce intake of iodine, calcium, vitamin and B12.

www.surrey.ac.uk

 

[Andy_T]

Of course, this is in the UK, and the main deficiency of an important nutrient in the study is IODINE.

I researched that and found out that the UK decided to not make it mandatory to add iodine to salt, like many other countries did, because the British population already consumed enough iodine from milk.

And why is there iodine in milk?

As nature intended it, farmers use iodine washes to disinfect cows‘ udders, and also add iodine as supplement to cattle feed.

So every vegan who is now scared should pick up table salt with added iodine the next time they go shopping…

 

[Tom L.]

@Andy_T I vaguely remember reading something about the "goiter belt": there is an area of the U.S. where the soils tend to be deficient in Iodine, and folks in that area tended to have that condition. But these days, I don't think that many people are restricted to eating locally grown food, so I don't know if health authorities are concerned about that. Google time....

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42473852/

This article mentions an estimated prevalence of about 1.3-2.5% in working-age adults.

 

[Andy_T]

I have heard about similar areas in Europe, e.g. alpine regions in Switzerland, Southern Germany and Austria. And yes, it should not be that much of a problem nowadays. Austria (since 1963) and Switzerland (since 1922) have been legally requiring table salt producers to add iodide to their products as a countermeasure.

Goiter is no fun.