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Vegan diet may increase risk of birth defects

By Lucy Halfhead on Monday 2 March 2009

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Pregnant woman who are strict vegetarians or vegans may be at greater risk of having a child with birth defects, researchers warned.

They are likely to be deficient in vitamin B12 – found in meat, eggs and milk – which increases the risk of neural tube defects, such as spina bifida, which causes partial paralysis, and anencephaly where the brain does not develop and is normally fatal shortly after birth.

A team from the National Institutes of Health, Trinity College Dublin, and the Health Research Board of Ireland found women with low levels of B12 were 2.5 to three times more likely to have a child with a neural tube defect while those classed as deficient in B12 were five times more likely to have a child with a defect.

Women who may become pregnant or who are pregnant are advised to take folic acid supplements because it is known that the vitamin folate protects against these defects and it has been suggested that taking vitamin B12 may reduce the risk further.

In America all women of childbearing age are recommended to consume 400 micrograms of folic acid each day to ensure they have sufficient levels if they fall pregnant unintentionally.

Dr James Mills, senior investigator in the Division of Epidemiology, Statistics, and Prevention Research, in America, said it would be wise for women to do the same with B12. ‘Our results offer evidence that women who have adequate B12 levels before they become pregnant may further reduce the occurrence of this class of birth defects,’ he said.

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Monday 2 March 2009

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And if they take a B-12 supplement, or indeed eat Marmite every day? I'm tired of the anti-Vegan/Vegetarian propaganda that seems to crop up more and more. Most Vegans and Vegetarians are more aware of there diet than omnivores and eat to subsitute what they may lack from not eating meat.
Comment by Meg on March 02 13:41

I am a vegan, and I take a supplement of B vitamins. Most vegans are careful with their food to make sure they get enough nutrients - its only when you cut out meat and dairy without replacing them with anything that you get problems.
Comment by Emma on March 02 20:57

It is only since I became a vegan that I became more aware and realised that as an omnivore my diet was terribly lacking. It is easy to be a vegan and I think its a more natural diet anyway. Saturated fat is very bad for us. I think it is quite ignorant to say that a vegan diet can be harmful because there are vegan athletes and also there has been vegans around for decades now. Generations of vegans. The actor, Joaquin Phoenix was raised as a vegan. He is a second generation vegan or he might be a third for that matter. Veganism goes back furthner than you might think, it's not that new.
Comment by Lindy on March 08 00:01