I read an interesting article today posted on veggieboards. Sorry I didn’t save the link. It talked about rising incidents of rickets in England and the conclusion was directly attributed to increasing vegan diets in the population, though it didn’t state what percentage of those with rickets were actually vegan. The article stated that there are three sources of vitamin D, which can prevent rickets: milk, sunlight, and fatty fish. In addition to lack of milk in vegan diets, the author of the article also discussed the problem of wearing sunscreen that blocks the absorption of vitamin D.

Sunlight is the best and most efficient way to obtain the benefits of vitamin D, so it was interesting that most of the article focused on vegan diets, without much proof to back it up. I found many of the comments regarding this article very enlightening. For example, one person commented on the fact that vitamin D is not natural to milk, but has been added to milk, so basically any food can be fortified with vitamin D, such as ricemilk or soymilk. The Rice Dream I buy in the grocery store is organic and fortified with A, D, B12, and calcium. Another comment stated that one of the reason that children in England are getting rickets is because of the high levels of smog. It has been shown that the smog in Egland is so thick that it blocks essential sunrays used to make vitamin D in the body. It is always interesting to read both sides to a story. I found the article and the comments enlightening. The milk industry has been taking a hit lately and are certainly not happy with the growing number of vegans or the growing amount of research that demonstrates that milk does nothing to improve health, but can actually damage health in some cases.

Since I am on the subject of milk, I was watching a commercial for milk in which it made the claim that milk builds strong muscles, but in very small, white colored text at the bottom of the screen it stated that increases in muscle strenght are only evidenced when combined with weightlifting exercise. Duh, anyone who engages in weightlifting exercises will evidence increases in muscle strength. The disclaimer was so small and hard to read that I had to rewind the add four times to read the entire statement (I love my DVR).

One final antedote for the day. My husband asked me “you know what is good?” as he was holding some grated cheese in his hand. I replied “puss.” “He said you know what is even better?” as he sprinkled the cheese on a tomato slice. I replied “oh, puss covered tomato.”

Anyway, hope everyone is having a good evening. I need to get to bed soon so I can get up and workout in the morning. Gotta build my muscle strength, without the assistance of milk.

[tags] vegan politics blog blogs milk vitaminD, health, rickets [/tags]