4 ms·

A child does not need vitamin supplements in a omnivore diet though

vertex-four 7y ago
Depends on the actual food supplied. They could probably do with it if they eat fish fingers and chips every night.
mumblemumble 7y ago
In many countries, it's darn near impossible to achieve an omnivore diet that isn't supplemented. There's direct supplementation in things like vitamin D milk, folate fortified wheat, and iodized salt, but, also, supplements added to animal feed serve to increase the levels of some nutrients in their meat. Notably, B12. What's interesting to me is the level of overlap between the list of things that vegetarians are advised to take pills for, and the list of nutrients for which fortification is typically applied to animal products. The big gap is calcium, which people are often advised to get from milk, but that also seems like a kind of crap piece of public health advice given that ~75% of the world population is lactose intolerant. My sense is that vegetarians and vegans do have a higher need to voluntarily supplement their diets, but this is as much about public policy around fortification assuming that everyone eats an omnivorous diet as it is about the vegetarian or vegan diet itself.
- iudqnolq 7y ago
  You're stat is technically close to correct, but the implication is wrong for many HN readers. Around 68% of the global pollution have lactose malabsorbtion, but only 36% of people in the US have lactose malabsorbtion. Not everyone with lactose malabsorbtion is lactose intolerant. > You are more likely to have lactose intolerance if you are from, or your family is from, a part of the world where lactose malabsorption is more common. In the United States, the following ethnic and racial groups are more likely to have lactose malabsorption: > African Americans > American Indians > Asian Americans > Hispanics/Latinos https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/digestive-diseases/lactose-intolerance/definition-facts#common https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/digestive-disea...
  - iudqnolq 7y ago
    Weak evidence for my presumption many HN readers come from the US https://www.similarweb.com/website/news.ycombinator.com#overview https://www.similarweb.com/website/news.ycombinator.com#over...
PhasmaFelis 7y ago
A child doesn't need a coat if they live in the tropics. That doesn't mean there's anything wrong with raising kids in Vancouver.
- rfvdbvcvb 7y ago
  There's a lot of things wrong with raising a kid in Vancouver, but as a Canadian living in less benign parts of the country, what do you need a coat for in Vancouver??

Depends on the actual food supplied. They could probably do with it if they eat fish fingers and chips every night.

In many countries, it's darn near impossible to achieve an omnivore diet that isn't supplemented. There's direct supplementation in things like vitamin D milk, folate fortified wheat, and iodized salt, but, also, supplements added to animal feed serve to increase the levels of some nutrients in their meat. Notably, B12. What's interesting to me is the level of overlap between the list of things that vegetarians are advised to take pills for, and the list of nutrients for which fortification is typically applied to animal products. The big gap is calcium, which people are often advised to get from milk, but that also seems like a kind of crap piece of public health advice given that ~75% of the world population is lactose intolerant. My sense is that vegetarians and vegans do have a higher need to voluntarily supplement their diets, but this is as much about public policy around fortification assuming that everyone eats an omnivorous diet as it is about the vegetarian or vegan diet itself.

iudqnolq 7y ago
You're stat is technically close to correct, but the implication is wrong for many HN readers. Around 68% of the global pollution have lactose malabsorbtion, but only 36% of people in the US have lactose malabsorbtion. Not everyone with lactose malabsorbtion is lactose intolerant. > You are more likely to have lactose intolerance if you are from, or your family is from, a part of the world where lactose malabsorption is more common. In the United States, the following ethnic and racial groups are more likely to have lactose malabsorption: > African Americans > American Indians > Asian Americans > Hispanics/Latinos https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/digestive-diseases/lactose-intolerance/definition-facts#common https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/digestive-disea...
- iudqnolq 7y ago
  Weak evidence for my presumption many HN readers come from the US https://www.similarweb.com/website/news.ycombinator.com#overview https://www.similarweb.com/website/news.ycombinator.com#over...

PhasmaFelis 7y ago

A child doesn't need a coat if they live in the tropics. That doesn't mean there's anything wrong with raising kids in Vancouver.

rfvdbvcvb 7y ago
There's a lot of things wrong with raising a kid in Vancouver, but as a Canadian living in less benign parts of the country, what do you need a coat for in Vancouver??