Last night, my neighborhood of Jamaica Plain hosted a talk by Frances Moore Lappe, author of the groundbreaking classic Diet for a Small Planet (1971), which addressed hunger and promoted vegetarianism. One of the facts that she popularized is one I quote all the time: It takes 16 pounds of grain or soy to produce 1 pound of meat.

Chocolate bars are no longer safe for a vegetarian diet! Mars, Twix, Bounty, Snickers made from the stomachs of baby calves!

Taking into account a great interest of our society to vegetarianism and the fact that accoucheurs-gynaecologists that work with our magazine quite often deal with women-vegetarians, which don’t want to quit their diet at all even during bearing and nursing a baby, we offer here two articles that support opposite points of view on the problem

A vegetarian diet could be responsible for genital defects in baby boys, according to BBC-funded research carried out by scientists in Bristol.

Vegetarianism is the practice of a diet that excludes all animal flesh, including poultry, game, fish, shellfish or crustacea, and slaughter by-products. The reasons for choosing vegetarianism may be related to morality, religion, culture, ethics, aesthetics, environment, society, economy, politics, taste, or health.There are several variants of the diet, some of which also exclude eggs and/or some products produced from animal labor such as dairy products and honey. Veganism, for example, excludes all animal products from diet. By some strict definitions, animal products are not used for attire either, whether or not the production of clothing or items has involved the actual death of an animal (dairy, eggs, honey, wool, silk, down feathers, etc.) A generic term for both vegetarianism and veganism, as well as for similar diets, is "Plant-based diets".Vegetarian diets have been found to satisfy the nutritional needs for all stages of life, and large-scale studies have shown vegetarianism to increase longevity, improve health, and significantly lower risks of cancer and other diseases.