Vegetology, the makers of Vitashine vegan vitamin D3 have a new vegan supplement out for joints, Joint-vie. They sent me three bottles along with three bottles of their vegan omega 3 supplement Opti3 Omega-3 EPA & DHA. Other than some free products occasionally, I get no compensation from Vegetology.

Two tablets of Joint-vie include 400 IU vitamin D, 200 mg of calcium, 187.5 mg of magnesium, 80 mg of vitamin C, 37.5 µg of vitamin K2, 500 mg of vegan glucosamine, and 425 of a vegan version of chondroitin (called Phytodroitin).

In 2011, I wrote an article, Glucosamine and Chondroitin. My conclusion was that the therapies have not been shown to be generally effective. But that said, I think it’s great that there’s now a vegan version for people who want to try it and especially for those who would otherwise buy chondroitin made from shark cartilage.

It’s also good to have a vegan vitamin K2 product other than natto. I couldn’t tell from the label what version of K2 Joint-vie contains.

As always, here are my Daily Recommendations for the nutrients I think all vegans need to be aware of.

I won’t be able to give any recommendations for any individuals regarding these supplements. Chris from Vegetology will probably be tracking any comments on this blog post so I will let him answer any specific questions people have.

I have updated the article B12 in Plant Foods with a new study on B12 activity in Chlorella:

In a 2015 (USA) study, Merchant et al. fed 17 B12-deficient vegans and vegetarians a Chlorella pyrenoidosa supplement for 60 days (1). Average serum MMA levels decreased from 441 nmol/L at baseline to 301 nmol/L at 30 days and 297 nmol/L at 60 days. Average serum homocysteine levels decreased from 10.0 µm/L at baseline to 9.5 µmol/L at 30 days and 9.0 µmol/L at 60 days. No adverse effects were noted from the chlorella regimen.

Some caveats:

• Average serum MMA levels appeared to stabilize on this regimen at above recommended levels. B12 deficiency is generally defined as serum MMA levels above 270 nmol/L, the same standard used in this study by Merchant et al.

• The study was funded by Sun Chlorella Corporation of Japan and the lead author of the study is a paid consultant.

• A daily regimen of 45 Sun Chlorella A tablets (totaling 9 g) were used in this study. That amount of tablets would be quite costly. While it might require fewer than 45 tablets to achieve the same results, we can’t tell from this study.

In summary, it appears that at least some batches of chlorella have vitamin B12 activity, but it’s too soon to know how much chlorella vegans would require for optimal B12 status.

References

1. Merchant RE, Phillips TW, Udani J. Nutritional Supplementation with Chlorella pyrenoidosa Lowers Serum Methylmalonic Acid in Vegans and Vegetarians with a Suspected Vitamin B(12) Deficiency. J Med Food. 2015 Oct 20. [Epub ahead of print] | link

Special note: A study was just released suggesting that the algae chlorella has vitamin B12 activity. I will be reporting on that as soon as I get the paper.

A paper was published in the July edition of Molecular Nutrition and Food Research reviewing the four different forms of vitamin B12 (1). The four forms are cyanocobalamin (CNCbl), hydroxocobalamin (HOCbl), methylcobalamin (MeCbl), and adenosylcobalamin (AdoCbl).

A quick summary is that MeCbl and AdoCbl are the two forms of vitamin B12 that are co-enzymes–the body actually uses these forms and needs both of them. But CNCbl is the form most commonly found in supplements and fortified foods while HOCbl is the form usually contained in B12 shots.

There has been a debate for about the last 10 years as to whether supplementing with the co-enzyme forms is better than supplementing with CNCbl or HOCbl. The paper by Obeid et al. suggests that people do not benefit more from the co-enzyme forms. Even for people with genetic defects of vitamin B12 metabolism, injections with HOCbl are preferable to supplementing with the co-enzyme forms.

Excerpt:

Currently, we do not have sufficient evidence to suggest that the benefits of using MeCbl or AdoCbl override that of using CNCbl or HOCbl in terms of bioavailability, biochemical effects, or clinical efficacy. There is uncertainty regarding the claimed superior role of Cbl coenzyme forms for prevention and treatment of Cbl deficiency. However, HOCbl may be an advantageous precursor of the cofactors, particularly in the inherited disorders of metabolic Cbl processing. CNCbl is a more stable and inexpensive form that appears to be best suited for oral supplementation and parenteral [intravenous] treatment as well.

.

References

1. Obeid R, Fedosov SN, Nexo E. Cobalamin coenzyme forms are not likely to be superior to cyano- and hydroxyl-cobalamin in prevention or treatment of cobalamin deficiency. Mol Nutr Food Res. 2015 Jul;59(7):1364-72. | link

Dr. Michael Greger has released his Latest in Clinical Nutrition Volume 27.

As always, there’s lot of interesting stuff!

From the Harvard School of Public Health: Butter is not back: Limiting saturated fat still best for heart health

Excerpt:

People who replace saturated fat (mainly found in meats and dairy foods) in their diets with refined carbohydrates do not lower their risk of heart disease, according to a new study led by researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. On the other hand, those who replace saturated fats with unsaturated fats (found in vegetable oils and nuts) or whole grains lower their heart disease risk.

Came across a sensible article on vitamin D supplementation today. Thanks, Jeff!

Vitamin D: Don’t Overdo a Good Thing by Tod Cooperman, M.D.

Excerpt:

“It seems that initial reports led some experts to ignore the recommendation of the National Academies’ Institute of Medicine, which says that only people with vitamin D levels under 20 ng/mL are deficient. Instead, these experts argued that people need to maintain levels which are at least 50 percent higher–30 ng/mL….Further feeding this frenzy have been clinical laboratories — which profit from more vitamin D tests. When you get a vitamin D test back, the “normal” range shown next to your result often extends up to 100 ng/mL (which is actually far beyond the normal range), leading people with levels in the 20s, for example, to believe they needed more vitamin D.”

A study from Taiwan shows differences between vegans, lacto-ovo vegetarians, and omnivores (1).

I’m only going to report the findings for vegans, but the study abstract lists the findings for lacto-ovo vegetarians if you’re interested.

At baseline, vegans had lower rates of abnormally high waist circumference, body mass index, blood pressure, blood glucose, total cholesterol, and LDL cholesterol. Vegans had a higher rate of abnormally low HDL cholesterol, but a lower rate of abnormally high total to HDL cholesterol ratio (which is more important than absolute HDL levels). Theses finding are all very similar to what’s been found in Western vegans.

Subjects were followed for an average of 2 years. The one statistically significant finding during follow-up for vegans was that each additional year of a vegan diet lowered the risk of obesity by 7%.

Other items of note are that the lower rates of high blood pressure could be explained by lower body mass index and that vegans ate the smallest amount of fried foods of any diet group.

In conclusion, Taiwanese vegans have better metabolic markers than omnivores.

References

1. Chiu YF, Hsu CC, Chiu TH, Lee CY, Liu TT, Tsao CK, Chuang SC, Hsiung CA. Cross-sectional and longitudinal comparisons of metabolic profiles between vegetarian and non-vegetarian subjects: a matched cohort study. Br J Nutr. 2015 Sep 10:1-8. [Epub ahead of print] | link

I have updated the VeganHealth.org article Cancer, Vegetarianism, and Diet with results from the Netherlands Cohort Study-Meat Investigation Cohort (1).

The study found that vegetarians had a non-statistically significant, reduced risk for colorectal cancer. In comparison to non-vegetarians, the rate for vegetarians was .78 (.51, 1.20) when adjusted for age and gender, and .89 (.58, 1.39) when further adjusted for energy, smoking, alcohol, body mass index, physical activity, and education.

It follows a long line of research that has mostly found non-significant differences between vegetarians and non-vegetarians for colorectal cancer (see Table 3).

Some other interesting findings from the report:

– Fiber and soy product intake contributed most to the observed inverse risk.

– People who ate meat only once a week had a borderline statistically lower risk (.72, .52-1.00) than those eating meat 6-7 days per week in the model adjusting only for age and gender. Adjusting for the remaining variables (mentioned above) weakened the association.

– Substituting 5% of energy from meat protein with 5% of energy from dairy protein was associated with a 24% reduced risk of colorectal cancer, after adjustment for confounding variables (P=0.055). Dairy products may protect against colorectal cancer risk due to their high calcium content.

This is only a very small piece of the puzzle on diet, meat, dairy, vegetarianism and colorectal cancer, but it underlines the recommendations that vegans make sure they’re getting enough calcium.

In summary, there is some good news here, but it suggests that vegans get enough calcium.

1. Gilsing AM, Schouten LJ, Goldbohm RA, Dagnelie PC, van den Brandt PA, Weijenberg MP. Vegetarianism, low meat consumption and the risk of colorectal cancer in a population based cohort study. Sci Rep. 2015 Aug 28;5:13484. | link | PDF Available

A reader asked me to comment on the study, Effect of Omega-3 Fatty Acids, Lutein/Zeaxanthin, or Other Nutrient Supplementation on Cognitive Function (1). It is a recent study that got some attention for showing that omega-3 supplements failed to prevent cognitive decline in older people.

I contacted the authors to get the blood levels of EPA and DHA at baseline to compare them to typical levels in non-supplementing vegans. Unfortunately, they didn’t measure them in a way that allowed for me to compare to studies on vegans. If they had been similar to typical levels in vegans we would have some evidence that the lower levels in vegans are not a problem, but since I couldn’t tell, I don’t consider it to provide any evidence that vegans cannot benefit from omega-3 supplements.

The good news is that this report could help reduce the use of fish oil supplements by non-vegetarians.

For more on this issue, see Omega-3 Fatty Acid Recommendations for Vegetarians.

References

1. Chew EY, Clemons TE, Agrón E, Launer LJ, Grodstein F, Bernstein PS; Age-Related Eye Disease Study 2 (AREDS2) Research Group. Effect of Omega-3 Fatty Acids, Lutein/Zeaxanthin, or Other Nutrient Supplementation on Cognitive Function: The AREDS2 Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA. 2015 Aug 25;314(8):791-801. | link

Dr. Michael Greger of NutritionFacts.org recently released his DVD Latest in Clinical Nutrition Volume 26: Volume 26 – Dr. Greger Takes on Smoothies.

Dr. G has also released his 2015 Live Year-in-Review Presentation streaming for free. In it he presents a very interesting history of the medical profession’s promotion of cigarette smoking and compares it to the promotion of meat-eating.

Check ’em out!