Vegan Nutrition with Dina Aronson, M.S. R.D.

Dina Aronson, MS, RD is a vegan dietitian whose specialties include chronic disease prevention, vegetarian/vegan nutrition, and lifestyle management. She is the founder and director of VeganRD.com, a nutrition consulting company. Active in many vegetarian nutrition organizations, Dina was the recipient of the American Dietetic Association's Recognized Young Dietitian of the Year Award in 2002.

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My pediatrician knows I am a vegan but said I should give my baby egg yolks because the cholesterol is so important for brain development. Are there alternatives, and where can I find literature to share with my husband and doctor to educate them? Thanks. - Tova

Dear Tova,

Cholesterol is not found in plant foods, but that is OK! We do not need to get cholesterol from the foods we eat because the healthy human body makes every milligram of cholesterol that it needs for optimal growth and development. Cholesterol is synthesized (created) in the liver from other nutrients that we get from our diets, such as fats. A well-nourished baby does not need egg yolks any more than s/he needs pigs' feet.

In fact, this is the reason that plants are cholesterol-free: plants do not have livers. But animals do, so meat and other animal products contain cholesterol.

There are no vegan "alternatives" to dietary cholesterol, again because no vegan foods contain cholesterol. However, optimal levels of calories, fats, carbohydrates, protein, vitamins, minerals, and fluid are all essential for proper growth, development, and synthesis of cholesterol.

Your pediatrician may want to check out his or her basic biochemistry text book, which will confirm that cholesterol is not an essential (needed from food) nutrient. It will also outline the several steps of cholesterol synthesis in the liver; all of the precursors (compounds needed to create cholesterol) are already present in the body.

By the way, human breast milk (which is, strictly speaking, an animal product) does contain cholesterol (yup, even a vegan mom's - because mom's body creates it, and some is naturally present in milk). This is, of course, fine because mother's milk is the perfect food for babies. But if medical experts and formula manufacturers thought that dietary cholesterol was so important for brain development, they would put cholesterol in infant formula. They don't.

If you'd like to come armed, so I recommend you bring him or her the American Dietetic Association's Position Paper on Vegetarian Diets, which can be downloaded from here:
http://www.eatright.org/Member/Files/veg.pdf

This paper does not explicitly state that cholesterol is not necessary to get from foods, but it is implied, because it does state that a well-planned, completely plant-based diet is safe and adequate for all stages of life.

Disclaimer: The advice given here is for eductional purposes only. You should not use this information to diagnose or treat a health problem or disease without consulting with a qualified health care provider.

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