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Research Project Investigating vegan/vegetarian supplements

1K views 11 replies 6 participants last post by  TailFin 
#1 ·
Hi,
I am in my final year of a BSc Human Nutrition degree and am also a vegan of 20+ years. My dissertation is the advice being given out by health food stores/shops to vegetarians and vegans on supplements for their particular diets. It is not my intention to investigate their knowledge of the products they are selling but the advice given and if the customer really needs that supplement (s). Therefore I am establishing a baseline as to what supplements vegetarians and vegans are already taking, how often they take them and why or why they do not take supplements.
My overall aim is to improve the knowledge and service of these shops so that vegetarians and vegans get the right products and are not given supplements if they do not require them. The questionnaire also has details of my institution and contact details for my supervisor if you need to validate this request.
There is also a prize draw of a vegan cookbook (Veganomicon) that will be drawn next year (Febuary)for those that leave their e-mail address at the end of the questionnaire.https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/...U1VmRDN2TVE6MQ

Thanks in advance.


Andi Sernicki
 
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#6 ·
Done. i don't take any pills but i take loads of superfoods. When i was vegetarian i was taking spirulina.
 
#8 ·
By superfood i mean things like goji.
 
#9 ·
Hi,

There are a whole group of foods termed as "superfoods":

Blueberries, Acai berries, Pomegranate juice, Cranberries, Goji berries, Green tea, Oily fish, Olive oil, Wheatgrass and Broccoli for examples.

However none of these have been proven to be a superfood and in fact the term superfood is not recognised in the scientific arena as it is a marketing strategy. They do have nutrients that are benificial to health and well-being but so do a lot of other foods and therefore a good varied diet is the key to good health

I just like to make sure that people have the facts.

Thanks

Andi

References:

Gibney, M.J., Margetts, B.M., Kearney, J.M., Arab, L., (2004). Public Health Nutrition. First ed. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Science.

Lunn, J., (2006).
Superfoods. Nutrition Bulletin. 31 171-172. <http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-3010.2006.00578.x/pdf> .

Shils, M., Shike, M., Ross, C., Caballero, B., Cousins, R., (eds.) (2006). Modern nutrition in health and disease. 10th ed. Philadelphia; London: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
 
#10 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sernicki View Post

However none of these have been proven to be a superfood and in fact the term superfood is not recognised in the scientific arena as it is a marketing strategy. They do have nutrients that are benificial to health and well-being but so do a lot of other foods and therefore a good varied diet is the key to good health

I just like to make sure that people have the facts.
Given this is for a research project, I thought I should mention that science does not prove things. Science supports claims through evidence found using the scientific method.

And, survey completed.
 
#11 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by TailFin View Post

Given this is for a research project, I thought I should mention that science does not prove things. Science supports claims through evidence found using the scientific method.

And, survey completed.
Yes but as sernicki said there is no such thing as a "superfood", it's just a name that anyone can slap on a food with beneficial health effects (proven or not) as a marketing strategy. There is no scientific evidence that a goji berry is a superfood, because science doesn't even have a definition for such a food.
 
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