From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of
animal products, particularly in diet, and an associated philosophy that rejects the
commodity status of animals. A follower of the diet or the philosophy is known as a
vegan (
VEE-gən). Distinctions may be made between several categories of veganism.
Dietary vegans (or strict
vegetarians) refrain from consuming animal products, not only meat but also
eggs,
dairy products and other animal-derived substances. The term
ethical vegan is often applied to those who not only follow a vegan diet but extend the
philosophy into other areas of their lives, and oppose the use of animals for any purpose. Another term is
environmental veganism, which refers to the avoidance of animal products on the premise that the
industrial farming of animals is environmentally damaging and
unsustainable.
Well-planned vegan diets are regarded as appropriate for all
stages of life, including during infancy and pregnancy, by the American
Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics,
Dietitians of Canada, and the
British Dietetic Association. The German Society for Nutrition does not recommend vegan diets for children or adolescents, or during pregnancy and
breastfeeding. Vegan diets tend to be higher in
dietary fiber,
magnesium,
folic acid,
vitamin C,
vitamin E,
iron, and
phytochemicals; and lower in
dietary energy,
saturated fat,
cholesterol,
long-chain omega-3 fatty acids,
vitamin D,
calcium,
zinc, and
vitamin B12.
Unbalanced vegan diets may lead to nutritional deficiencies that
nullify any beneficial effects and may cause serious health issues. Some of these deficiencies can only be prevented through the choice of
fortified foods or the regular intake of
dietary supplements. Vitamin B
12 supplementation is especially important because its
deficiency causes blood disorders and potentially irreversible neurological damage.
Donald Watson coined the term
vegan in 1944 when he co-founded the
Vegan Society
in England. At first he used it to mean "non-dairy vegetarian", but
from 1951 the Society defined it as "the doctrine that man should live
without exploiting animals". Interest in veganism increased in the 2010s, especially in the latter half. More vegan stores opened and vegan options became increasingly available in supermarkets and restaurants in many countries.
Origins
Vegetarian etymology
The term "vegetarian" has been in use since around 1839 to refer to
what was previously described as a vegetable regimen or diet. Modern dictionaries based on scientific linguistic principles explain its origin as an irregular compound of
vegetable and the suffix
-arian (in the sense of "supporter, believer" as in
humanitarian). The earliest-known written use is attributed to actress, writer and
abolitionist Fanny Kemble, in her
Journal of a Residence on a Georgian plantation in 1838–1839.
History
The practice can be traced to
Indus Valley Civilization in 3300–1300 BCE in the
Indian subcontinent, particularly in northern and western India and in Pakistan. Early vegetarians included Indian philosophers such as
Mahavira and Acharya
Kundakunda, the
Tamil poet
Valluvar, the Indian emperors
Chandragupta Maurya and
Ashoka; Greek philosophers such as
Empedocles,
Theophrastus,
Plutarch,
Plotinus, and
Porphyry; and the Roman poet
Ovid and the playwright
Seneca the Younger. The Greek sage
Pythagoras may have advocated an early form of strict vegetarianism, but his life is so obscure that it is disputed whether he ever advocated any form of vegetarianism at all. He almost certainly prohibited his followers from eating
beans and from wearing
woolen garments.
Eudoxus of Cnidus, a student of
Archytas and
Plato,
writes that "Pythagoras was distinguished by such purity and so avoided
killing and killers that he not only abstained from animal foods, but
even kept his distance from cooks and hunters". One of the earliest known vegans was the Arab poet
al-Maʿarri (
c. 973 – c.
1057). Their arguments were based on health, the
transmigration of souls,
animal welfare, and the view—espoused by Porphyry in
De Abstinentia ab Esu Animalium ("On Abstinence from Animal Food",
c. 268 – c.
270)—that if humans deserve justice, then so do animals.
Vegetarianism established itself as a significant movement in 19th-century England and the United States. A minority of vegetarians avoided animal food entirely. In 1813, the poet
Percy Bysshe Shelley published
A Vindication of Natural Diet, advocating "abstinence from animal food and spirituous liquors", and in 1815,
William Lambe, a London physician, claimed that his "water and vegetable diet" could cure anything from tuberculosis to acne.
Lambe called animal food a "habitual irritation", and argued that "milk
eating and flesh-eating are but branches of a common system and they
must stand or fall together".
Sylvester Graham's meatless Graham diet—mostly fruit, vegetables, water, and bread made at home with
stoneground flour—became popular as a health remedy in the 1830s in the United States. Several vegan communities were established around this time. In Massachusetts,
Amos Bronson Alcott, father of the novelist
Louisa May Alcott, opened the
Temple School in 1834 and
Fruitlands in 1844, and in England,
James Pierrepont Greaves founded the Concordium, a vegan community at
Alcott House on
Ham Common, in 1838.
Vegetarian Society
In 1843, members of
Alcott House created the British and Foreign Society for the Promotion of Humanity and Abstinence from Animal Food, led by Sophia Chichester, a wealthy benefactor of Alcott House. Alcott House also helped to establish the UK
Vegetarian Society, which held its first meeting in 1847 in Ramsgate, Kent.
The Medical Times and Gazette in London reported in 1884:
There are two kinds of Vegetarians—one an extreme form,
the members of which eat no animal food whatever; and a less extreme
sect, who do not object to eggs, milk, or fish. The Vegetarian
Society ... belongs to the latter more moderate division.
An article in the Society's magazine, the
Vegetarian Messenger,
in 1851 discussed alternatives to shoe leather, which suggests the
presence of vegans within the membership who rejected animal use
entirely, not only in diet. By the 1886 publication of
Henry S. Salt's
A Plea for Vegetarianism and Other Essays,
he asserts that, "It is quite true that most—not all—Food Reformers
admit into their diet such animal food as milk, butter, cheese, and
eggs..." The first known vegan cookbook, Rupert H. Wheldon's
No Animal Food: Two Essays and 100 Recipes, was published in London in 1910.
The consumption of milk and eggs became a battleground over the
following decades. There were regular discussions about it in the
Vegetarian Messenger; it appears from the correspondence pages that many opponents of veganism came from vegetarians.
During a visit to London in 1931,
Mahatma Gandhi—who
had joined the Vegetarian Society's executive committee when he lived
in London from 1888 to 1891—gave a speech to the Society arguing that it
ought to promote a meat-free diet as a matter of morality, not health.
Lacto-vegetarians acknowledged the ethical consistency of the vegan
position but regarded a vegan diet as impracticable and were concerned
that it might be an impediment to spreading vegetarianism if vegans
found themselves unable to participate in social circles where no
non-animal food was available. This became the predominant view of the
Vegetarian Society, which in 1935 stated: "The
lacto-vegetarians, on the whole, do not defend the practice of consuming the dairy products except on the ground of expediency."
Vegan etymology (1944)
In August 1944, several members of the
Vegetarian Society asked that a section of its newsletter be devoted to non-dairy vegetarianism. When the request was turned down,
Donald Watson, secretary of the Leicester branch, set up a new quarterly newsletter in November 1944, priced
tuppence. He called it
The Vegan News. He chose the word
vegan himself, based on "the first three and last two letters of 'vegetarian
'" because it marked, in Mr Watson's words, "the beginning and end of vegetarian", but asked his readers if they could think of anything better than
vegan to stand for "non-dairy vegetarian". They suggested
allvega,
neo-vegetarian,
dairyban,
vitan,
benevore,
sanivores, and
beaumangeur.
The first edition attracted more than 100 letters, including from
George Bernard Shaw, who resolved to give up eggs and dairy. The new
Vegan Society held its first meeting in early November at the Attic Club, 144
High Holborn, London. Those in attendance were
Donald Watson, Elsie B. Shrigley, Fay K. Henderson, Alfred Hy Haffenden, Paul Spencer and Bernard Drake, with Mme Pataleewa (
Barbara Moore, a Russian-British engineer) observing.
World Vegan Day
is held every 1 November to mark the founding of the Society and the
month of November is considered by the Society to be World Vegan Month.
Barbara Moore attended the first meeting of the Vegan Society as an observer.
The Vegan News changed its name to
The Vegan in November 1945, by which time it had 500 subscribers. It published recipes and a "vegan trade list" of animal-free products, such as
Colgate toothpaste,
Kiwi shoe polish, Dawson & Owen stationery and Gloy glue. Vegan books appeared, including
Vegan Recipes by Fay K. Henderson and
Aids to a Vegan Diet for Children by Kathleen V. Mayo.
The Vegan Society soon made clear that it rejected the use of
animals for any purpose, not only in diet. In 1947, Watson wrote: "The
vegan renounces it as superstitious that human life depends upon the
exploitation of these creatures whose feelings are much the same as our
own ...". From 1948,
The Vegan's front page read: "Advocating living without exploitation", and in 1951, the Society published its definition of
veganism as "the doctrine that man should live without exploiting animals".In 1956, its vice-president, Leslie Cross, founded the Plantmilk Society; and in 1965, as Plantmilk Ltd and later
Plamil Foods, it began production of one of the first widely distributed
soy milks in the Western world.
The first vegan society in the United States was founded in 1948
by Catherine Nimmo and Rubin Abramowitz in California, who distributed
Watson's newsletter. In 1960,
H. Jay Dinshah founded the
American Vegan Society (AVS), linking veganism to the concept of
ahimsa, "non-harming" in
Sanskrit. According to
Joanne Stepaniak, the word
vegan was first published independently in 1962 by the
Oxford Illustrated Dictionary, defined as "a vegetarian who eats no butter, eggs, cheese, or milk".
Increasing interest
Alternative food movements
In the 1960s and 1970s, a vegetarian food movement emerged as part of the
counterculture in the United States
that focused on concerns about diet, the environment, and a distrust of
food producers, leading to increasing interest in organic gardening. One of the most influential vegetarian books of that time was
Frances Moore Lappé's 1971 text,
Diet for a Small Planet. It sold more than three million copies and suggested "getting off the top of the food chain".
The following decades saw research by a group of scientists and doctors in the United States, including physicians
Dean Ornish,
Caldwell Esselstyn,
Neal D. Barnard,
John A. McDougall,
Michael Greger, and
biochemist T. Colin Campbell, who argued that diets based on
animal fat and animal protein, such as the
Western pattern diet, were detrimental to health. They produced a series of books that recommend vegan or vegetarian diets, including McDougall's
The McDougall Plan (1983),
John Robbins's
Diet for a New America (1987), which associated meat eating with environmental damage, and
Dr. Dean Ornish's Program for Reversing Heart Disease (1990).
In 2003 two major North American dietitians' associations indicated
that well-planned vegan diets were suitable for all life stages. This was followed by the film
Earthlings (2005), Campbell's
The China Study (2005), Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin's
Skinny Bitch (2005),
Jonathan Safran Foer's
Eating Animals (2009), and the film
Forks over Knives (2011).
Into the mainstream (2010s)
Interest in veganism in the 2010s was reflected in Wikipedia, where vegan pages received more views than vegetarian ones.
The vegan diet became increasingly mainstream in the 2010s, especially in the latter half.
] The Economist declared 2019 "the year of the vegan". The European Parliament defined the meaning of
vegan for food labels in 2010, in force as of 2015. Chain restaurants began marking vegan items on their menus and supermarkets improved their selection of vegan processed food.
The English Wikipedia article on veganism was viewed 73,000 times in
August 2009 but 145,000 times in August 2013; articles on veganism were
viewed more during this period than articles on vegetarianism in the
English, French, German, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish Wikipedias. In 2016 Google searches for "vegan" increased by 90 percent, up from a 32 percent increase the previous year.
The global mock-meats market increased by 18 percent between 2005 and 2010, and in the United States by eight percent between 2012 and 2015, to $553 million a year. The Vegetarian Butcher (
De Vegetarische Slager), the first known vegetarian butcher shop, selling mock meats, opened in the Netherlands in 2010, while America's first vegan butcher, the Herbivorous Butcher, opened in Minneapolis in 2016. By 2016, forty-nine percent of Americans were drinking
plant milk, although 91 percent still drank dairy milk.
In the United Kingdom, the plant milk market increased by 155 percent
in two years, from 36 million litres (63 million imperial pints) in 2011
to 92 million (162 million imperial pints) in 2013. The country has seen a 185% increase in new vegan products between 2012 and 2016. In 2011, Europe's first vegan supermarkets appeared in Germany: Vegilicious in Dortmund and
Veganz in Berlin.
Veganism rose in popularity in Hong Kong and China, particularly among
millennials. China's vegan market is estimated to rise by more than 17 percent between 2015 and 2020, which is expected to be "the fastest growth rate internationally in that period".
This exceeds the projected growth in the second and third
fastest-growing vegan markets internationally in the same period, the
United Arab Emirates (10.6%) and Australia (9.6%) respectively. In total, as of 2016, the largest share of vegan consumers globally currently reside in
Asia Pacific with nine percent of people following a vegan diet.
Veganz in Berlin, Europe's first vegan supermarket
Countering the image of self-deprivation projected by vegan
straight edges and
animal rights activists, veganism was promoted as glamorous; in 2015, the editor of
Yahoo! Food declared that it had become "a thing". Celebrities, athletes, and politicians adopted vegan diets—some seriously, some part-time. The idea of the "flexi-vegan" gained currency:
New York Times food columnist
Mark Bittman, in
VB6 (2013), recommended eating vegan food until 6 pm. In 2013, the
Oktoberfest in Munich—traditionally a meat-heavy affair—offered vegan dishes for the first time in its 200-year history.
Critics of veganism questioned the evolutionary legitimacy and
health effects of a vegan diet, and pointed to longstanding philosophical traditions which held that humans are superior to other animals. Celebrity chef
Anthony Bourdain wrote in 2000 that "[v]egetarians, and their
Hezbollah-like splinter-faction, the vegans, are a persistent irritant to any chef worth a damn".
Several vegetarian writers argued that the restrictions of a vegan
lifestyle are impractical, and that vegetarianism is a better goal.
Veganism by country
Australia: Australians topped Google's worldwide searches for the word "vegan" between mid-2015 and mid-2016.
A Euromonitor International study concluded the market for packaged
vegan food in Australia would rise 9.6% per year between 2015 and 2020,
making Australia the third-fastest growing vegan market behind China and
the United Arab Emirates.
Austria: In 2013, Kurier estimated that 0.5 percent of Austrians practised veganism, and in the capital, Vienna, 0.7 percent.
Belgium: A 2016 iVOX online study found that out of 1000 Dutch-speaking residents of Flanders and Brussels of 18 years and over, 0.3 percent were vegan.
Canada: In 2018, one survey estimated that 2.1 percent of adult Canadians considered themselves as vegans.
Germany: As of 2016,
data estimated that people following a vegan diet in Germany varied
between 0.1% and 1% of the population (between 81,000 and 810,000
persons).
India:
In the 2005–06 National Health Survey, 1.6% of the surveyed population
reported never consuming animal products. Veganism was most common in
the states of Gujarat (4.9%) and Maharashtra (4.0%).
Israel: Five percent (approx. 300,000) in Israel said they were vegan in 2014, making it the highest per capita vegan population in the world. A 2015 survey by Globes and Israel's Channel 2 News similarly found 5% of Israelis were vegan. Veganism increased among Israeli Arabs.
The Israeli army made special provision for vegan soldiers in 2015,
which included providing non-leather boots and wool-free berets.
Italy: Between 0.6 and three percent of Italians were reported to be vegan as of 2015.
Netherlands: In 2018, the Dutch Society for Veganism (Nederlandse Vereniging voor Veganisme) estimated there were more than 100,000 Dutch vegans (0.59 percent), based on their membership growth.
Romania: Followers of the Romanian Orthodox Church keep fast
during several periods throughout the ecclesiastical calendar amounting
to a majority of the year. In the Romanian Orthodox tradition, devotees
abstain from eating any animal products during these times. As a
result, vegan foods are abundant in stores and restaurants; however,
Romanians may not be familiar with a vegan diet as a full-time lifestyle
choice.
Sweden: Four percent said they were vegan in a 2014 Demoskop poll.
Switzerland: The Vegan Society Switzerland (Vegane Gesellschaft Schweiz) estimated in 2016 that one percent of the population was vegan.
United Kingdom:
In the UK, where the tofu and mock-meats market was worth £786.5
million in 2012, two percent said they were vegan in a 2007 government
survey. A 2016 Ipsos MORI
study commissioned by the Vegan Society, surveying almost 10,000 people
aged 15 or over across England, Scotland, and Wales, found that 1.05
percent were vegan; the Vegan Society estimates that 542,000 in the UK
follow a vegan diet. According to a 2018 survey by Comparethemarket.com,
the number of people who identify as vegans in the United Kingdom has
risen to over 3.5 million, which is approximately seven percent of the
population, and environmental concerns were a major factor in this
development.
However, doubt was cast on this inflated figure by the UK-based Vegan
Society, who perform their own regular survey: the Vegan Society
themselves found in 2018 that there were 600,000 vegans in Great Britain
(1.16%), which was seen as a dramatic increase on previous figures.
United States: Estimates of vegans in the U.S. vary from 2% (Gallup, 2012) to 0.5% (Faunalytics, 2014). According to the latter, 70% of those who adopted a vegan diet abandoned it.
Top Trends in Prepared Foods 2017, a report by GlobalData, estimated
that "6% of US consumers now claim to be vegan, up from just 1% in
2014."
Animal products
Avoidance
Vegans do not eat
beef,
pork,
poultry,
fowl,
game, animal
seafood,
eggs,
dairy, or any other
animal products. Dietary vegans might use animal products in clothing (as
leather,
wool, and
silk),
toiletries, and similar. Ethical veganism extends not only to matters
of food but also to the wearing or use of animal products, and rejects
the
commodification of animals altogether.
The British Vegan Society will certify a product only if it is free of
animal involvement as far as possible and practical, including
animal testing, but "recognises that it is not always possible to make a choice that avoids the use of animals", an issue that was highlighted in 2016 when it became known that the UK's newly-introduced
£5 note contained tallow.
An important concern is the case of medications, which are routinely tested on animals to ensure they are effective and safe, and may also contain animal ingredients, such as lactose, gelatine, or stearates.
There may be no alternatives to prescribed medication or these
alternatives may be unsuitable, less effective, or have more adverse
side effects.
Experimentation with laboratory animals is also used for evaluating the
safety of vaccines, food additives, cosmetics, household products,
workplace chemicals, and many other substances.
Philosopher
Gary Steiner
argues that it is not possible to be entirely vegan, because animal use
and products are "deeply and imperceptibly woven into the fabric of
human society". Animal products in common use include
albumen,
allantoin,
beeswax,
blood,
bone char,
bone china,
carmine,
casein,
castoreum,
cochineal,
elastin,
emu oil,
gelatin,
honey,
isinglass,
keratin,
lactic acid,
lanolin,
lard,
rennet,
retinol,
shellac,
squalene,
tallow (including sodium tallowate),
whey, and
yellow grease. Some of these are chemical compounds that can be derived from animal products, plants, or
petrochemicals.
Allantoin, lactic acid, retinol, and squalene, for example, can be
vegan. These products and their origins are not always included in the
list of ingredients. Vegetables themselves, even from organic farms, may use animal manure; "vegan" vegetables use plant compost only.
Some vegans will not buy woollen jumpers, silk scarves, leather
shoes, bedding that contains goose down or duck feathers, pearl
jewellery, seashells, ordinary soap (usually made of animal fat), or
cosmetics that contain animal products. They avoid certain vaccines; the
flu vaccine,
for example, is usually grown in hens' eggs, although an effective
alternative, Flublok, is widely available in the United States.
Non-vegan items acquired before they became vegan might be donated to
charity or used until worn out. Some vegan clothes, in particular
leather alternatives, are made of petroleum-based products, which has
triggered criticism because of the environmental damage involved in
their production.
Eggs and dairy products
Modern methods of factory farming are considered highly unethical by most vegans.
The main difference between a vegan and vegetarian diet is that
vegans exclude dairy products and eggs. Ethical vegans avoid them on the
premise that their production causes animal suffering and premature
death. In egg production, most male
chicks are culled because they do not lay eggs. To obtain milk from
dairy cattle, cows are made pregnant to induce
lactation;
they are kept lactating for three to seven years, then slaughtered.
Female calves can be separated from their mothers within 24 hours of
birth, and fed milk replacer to retain the cow's milk for human
consumption. Male calves are slaughtered at birth, sent for
veal production, or reared for beef.
Honey and silk
Vegan groups disagree about insect products.
Neither the Vegan Society nor the American Vegan Society considers
honey, silk, and other insect products as suitable for vegans. Insect products can be defined much more widely, as commercial bees are used to pollinate about 100 different food crops.
Pet food
Due to the environmental impact of meat-based pet food and the ethical problems it poses for vegans, some vegans extend their philosophy to include the diets of pets. This is particularly true for domesticated cats and dogs, for which vegan pet food is both available and nutritionally complete, such as
Vegepet. However, this practice has been met with caution and criticism, especially toward vegan cat diets due to
felids being
obligate carnivores. Furthermore, although nutritionally complete vegan pet diets are comparable to meat-based ones for cats and dogs, as of August 2015
many commercial vegan pet food brands do not meet the Association of
American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) regulations for nutritional
adequacy.
Vegan diet
Soy
Soy-based dishes are a staple of vegan diets because soy is a
complete protein; i.e. it has all the
essential amino acids for humans and can be relied on entirely for protein intake. They are consumed most often in the form of
soy milk and
tofu
(bean curd), which is soy milk mixed with a coagulant. Tofu comes in a
variety of textures, depending on water content, from firm, medium firm
and extra firm for stews and stir-fries to soft or silken for salad
dressings, desserts and shakes. Soy is also eaten in the form of
tempeh and
textured vegetable protein (TVP); also known as textured soy protein (TSP), the latter is often used in pasta sauces.
Plant milk, cheese, mayonnaise
| Nutritional content of cows', soy, and almond milk
|
|---|
Plant milks—such as
soy milk,
almond milk,
cashew milk,
grain milks (oat milk, flax milk and
rice milk),
hemp milk, and
coconut milk—are used in place of cows' or goats' milk.
[m] Soy milk provides around 7 g (¼oz) of protein per
cup
(240 mL or 8 fl oz), compared with 8 g (2/7oz) of protein per cup of
cow's milk. Almond milk is lower in dietary energy, carbohydrates, and
protein. Soy milk should not be used as a replacement for breast milk for babies. Babies who are not breastfed may be fed commercial
infant formula, normally based on cows' milk or soy. The latter is known as
soy-based infant formula or SBIF.
Butter and
margarine can be replaced with alternate vegan products.
Vegan cheeses are made from seeds, such as
sesame and
sunflower; nuts, such as cashew,
pine nut, and almond; and soybeans, coconut oil,
nutritional yeast,
tapioca,
and rice, among other ingredients; and can replicate the meltability of
dairy cheese. Nutritional yeast is a common substitute for the taste of
cheese in vegan recipes. Cheese substitutes can be made at home, including from nuts, such as
cashews.
Egg replacements
Tofu can be used as an egg replacement
Commercial egg substitutes are available for cooking and baking. The
protein in eggs thickens when heated and binds other ingredients
together. For pancakes a tablespoon of
baking powder can be used instead of eggs. Silken (soft) tofu and mashed potato can also be used.
Aquafaba from
chickpeas can be used as an egg replacement and
whipped like egg whites. Another egg alternative in pastries is banana. Half a banana replaces an egg.
Raw veganism
Raw veganism, combining veganism and
raw foodism, excludes all animal products and food cooked above 48 °C (118 °F). A raw vegan diet includes vegetables, fruits, nuts,
grain and legume sprouts, seeds, and sea vegetables. There are many variations of the diet, including
fruitarianism.
Nutrients
Protein
Proteins are composed of
amino acids. Vegans obtain all their protein from plants,
omnivores usually a third, and ovo-lacto vegetarians half. Sources of plant protein include legumes such as soy beans (consumed as tofu,
tempeh,
textured vegetable protein, soy milk, and
edamame), peas, peanuts, black beans, and chickpeas (the latter often eaten as
hummus); grains such as
quinoa, brown rice, corn, barley,
bulgur, and wheat (the latter eaten as bread and
seitan); and nuts and seeds. Combinations that contain high amounts of all the essential amino acids include
rice and beans, corn and beans, and hummus and whole-wheat pita.
Soy beans and quinoa are known as
complete proteins because they each contain all the essential amino acids in amounts that meet or exceed human requirements. Mangels et al. write that consuming the
recommended dietary allowance (RDA) of protein—0.8 g/kg (12gr/lb) of body weight—in the form of soy will meet the biologic requirement for amino acids. In 2012, the United States Department of Agriculture ruled that soy protein (tofu) may replace meat protein in the
National School Lunch Program.
The American Dietetic Association said in 2009 that a variety of
plant foods consumed over the course of a day can provide all the
essential amino acids for healthy adults, which means that
protein combining in the same meal may not be necessary.
Mangels et al. write that there is little reason to advise vegans to
increase their protein intake; but erring on the side of caution, they
recommend a 25 percent increase over the RDA for adults, to 1g/kg
(15gr/lb) of body weight.
Vitamin B12
Vitamin B12 is a bacterial product needed for
cell division, the formation and maturation of
red blood cells, the
synthesis of DNA, and normal
nerve function. A deficiency may cause
megaloblastic anaemia and neurological damage, and, if untreated, may lead to death. The high content of folacin in vegetarian diets may mask the hematological symptoms of vitamin B
12
deficiency, so it may go undetected until neurological signs in the
late stages are evident, which can be irreversible, such as
neuropsychiatric abnormalities, neuropathy, dementia and, occasionally,
atrophy of optic nerves. Vegans sometimes fail to obtain enough B
12 from their diet because among non-fortified foods, only those of animal origin contain sufficient amounts. The best source is
ruminant food. Vegetarians are also at risk, as are older people and those with certain medical conditions. A 2013 study found that "vegetarians develop B
12
depletion or deficiency regardless of demographic characteristics,
place of residency, age, or type of vegetarian diet. Vegans should take
preventive measures to ensure adequate intake of this vitamin, including
regular consumption of supplements containing B
12."
B
12 is produced in nature only by certain bacteria and
archaea; it is not made by any animal, fungus, or plant. It is synthesized by some
gut bacteria in humans and other animals, but humans cannot absorb the B
12 made in their guts, as it is made in the
colon which is too far from the
small intestine, where absorption of B
12 occurs.
Ruminants, such as cows and sheep, absorb B
12 produced by bacteria in their guts.
Animals store vitamin B12 in liver and muscle and some pass the vitamin into their eggs and milk; meat, liver, eggs and milk are therefore sources of B12.
It has been suggested that
nori (an
edible seaweed),
tempeh (a fermented soybean food), and
nutritional yeast may be sources of vitamin B
12. In 2016, the
Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics established that nori, fermented foods (such as tempeh),
spirulina,
chlorella algae, and unfortified nutritional yeast are not adequate sources of vitamin B
12 and that vegans need to consume regularly fortified foods or supplements containing B
12. Otherwise, vitamin B
12 deficiency may develop, as has been demonstrated in case studies of vegan infants, children, and adults.
Vitamin B
12 is mostly manufactured by
industrial fermentation of various kinds of bacteria, which make forms of
cyanocobalamin, which are further processed to generate the ingredient included in supplements and fortified foods. The
Pseudomonas denitrificans strain was most commonly used as of 2017. It is grown in a medium containing
sucrose,
yeast extract, and several metallic salts. To increase vitamin production, it is supplemented with
sugar beet molasses, or, less frequently, with
choline. Certain brands of B
12 supplements are vegan.
Calcium
High-calcium foods may include fortified plant milk or fortified tofu. Plant sources include broccoli, turnip,
bok choy,
collards, and
kale; the bioavailability of calcium in spinach is poor. Vegans should make sure they consume enough vitamin D, which is needed for calcium absorption.
A 2007 report based on the Oxford cohort of the
European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition,
which began in 1993, suggested that vegans have an increased risk of
bone fractures over meat eaters and vegetarians, likely because of lower
dietary calcium intake. The study found that vegans consuming at least
525 mg (8gr) of calcium daily have a risk of fractures similar to that
of other groups.
A 2009 study found the bone mineral density (BMD) of vegans was 94
percent that of omnivores, but deemed the difference clinically
insignificant.
Vitamin D
Vitamin D
(calciferol) is needed for several functions, including calcium
absorption, enabling mineralization of bone, and bone growth. Without it
bones can become thin and brittle; together with calcium it offers
protection against
osteoporosis. Vitamin D is produced in the body when ultraviolet rays from the sun hit the skin; outdoor exposure is needed because
UVB radiation does not penetrate glass. It is present in
salmon,
tuna,
mackerel and
cod liver oil, with small amounts in cheese, egg yolks, and beef liver, and in some
mushrooms.
Most vegan diets contain little or no vitamin D without fortified
food. People with little sun exposure may need supplements. The extent
to which sun exposure is sufficient depends on the season, time of day,
cloud and smog cover, skin
melanin content, and whether
sunscreen is worn. According to the
National Institutes of Health,
most people can obtain and store sufficient vitamin D from sunlight in
the spring, summer, and fall, even in the far north. They report that
some researchers recommend 5–30 minutes of sun exposure without
sunscreen between 10 am and 3 pm, at least twice a week.
Tanning beds emitting 2–6% UVB radiation have a similar effect, though tanning is inadvisable.
Vitamin D comes in two forms.
Cholecalciferol (vitamin D
3) is synthesized in the skin after exposure to the sun or consumed from food, usually from animal sources.
Ergocalciferol (vitamin D
2) is derived from
ergosterol from UV-exposed mushrooms or yeast and is suitable for vegans. When produced industrially as supplements, vitamin D
3 is typically derived from
lanolin in sheep's wool. However, both
provitamins and vitamins D
2 and D
3 have been discovered in
Cladina spp. (especially
Cladina rangiferina) and these
edible lichen are harvested in the wild for producing vegan vitamin D
3. Conflicting studies have suggested that the two forms of vitamin D may or may not be
bioequivalent. According to researchers from the
Institute of Medicine, the differences between vitamins D
2 and D
3 do not affect metabolism, both function as
prohormones, and when activated exhibit identical responses in the body.
Iron
Oatmeal with blueberries, toasted almonds and almond milk; one packet of instant oatmeal contains 8.2 mg (1/8gr) of iron.
In some cases
iron and the
zinc status of vegans may also be of concern because of the limited
bioavailability of these minerals.
There are concerns about the bioavailability of iron from plant foods,
assumed by some researchers to be 5–15 percent compared to 18 percent
from a nonvegetarian diet.
Iron-deficiency anemia is found as often in nonvegetarians as in vegetarians, though studies have shown vegetarians' iron stores to be lower.
Mangels et al. write that, because of the lower bioavailability of iron from plant sources, the Food and Nutrition Board of the
National Academy of Sciences established a separate
RDA
for vegetarians and vegans of 14 mg (¼gr) for vegetarian men and
postmenopausal women, and 33 mg (½gr) for premenopausal women not using
oral contraceptives.
Supplements should be used with caution after consulting a physician,
because iron can accumulate in the body and cause damage to organs. This
is particularly true of anyone with
hemochromatosis, a relatively common condition that can remain undiagnosed.
High-iron vegan foods include
soybeans,
blackstrap molasses, black beans,
lentils,
chickpeas,
spinach,
tempeh,
tofu, and
lima beans. Iron absorption can be enhanced by eating a source of
vitamin C at the same time, such as half a cup of cauliflower or five fluid ounces of
orange juice.
Coffee and some herbal teas can inhibit iron absorption, as can spices that contain
tannins such as
turmeric,
coriander, chiles, and
tamarind.
Omega-3 fatty acids, iodine
Alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), an omega-3 fatty acid, is found in
walnuts, seeds, and vegetable oils, such as
canola and
flaxseed oil. EPA and DHA, the other primary omega-3 fatty acids, are found only in animal products and algae.
Iodine supplementation may be necessary for vegans in countries where salt is not typically
iodized,
where it is iodized at low levels, or where, as in Britain and Ireland,
dairy products are relied upon for iodine delivery because of low
levels in the soil. Iodine can be obtained from most vegan multivitamins or regular consumption of seaweeds, such as
kelp.
Health research
As of 2014, few studies were rigorous in their comparison of
omnivore,
vegetarian, and vegan diets, making it difficult to discern whether
health benefits attributed to veganism might also apply to vegetarian
diets or diets that include moderate meat intake.
In preliminary
clinical research, vegan diets lowered the risk of
type 2 diabetes,
high blood pressure,
obesity, and
ischemic heart disease. A 2016
systematic review from
observational studies of vegetarians showed reduced
body mass index, total
cholesterol,
LDL cholesterol, and glucose levels, possibly indicating lower risk of
ischemic heart disease and
cancer, but having no effect on
mortality,
cardiovascular diseases,
cerebrovascular diseases, and mortality from cancer.
Eliminating all animal products may increase the risk of deficiencies of vitamins
B12 and
D, calcium, and omega-3 fatty acids. Vitamin B
12 deficiency occurs in up to 80% of vegans that do not supplement with vitamin B
12. Vegans might be at risk of low
bone mineral density without supplements. Lack of B
12 inhibits normal function of the nervous system.
Professional and government associations
Pregnancy, infants and children
The
Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and
Dietitians of Canada
consider well-planned vegetarian and vegan diets "appropriate for
individuals during all stages of the lifecycle, including pregnancy,
lactation, infancy, childhood, and adolescence, and for athletes".
The German Society for Nutrition cautioned against a vegan diet for
pregnant women, breastfeeding women, babies, children, and adolescents. The position of the
Canadian Pediatric Society
is that "well-planned vegetarian and vegan diets with appropriate
attention to specific nutrient components can provide a healthy
alternative lifestyle at all stages of fetal, infant, child and
adolescent growth. Attention should be given to nutrient intake,
particularly protein, vitamins B
12 and D, essential fatty acids, iron, zinc, and calcium.
According to a 2015
systematic review,
there is little evidence available about vegetarian and vegan diets
during pregnancy, and a lack of randomized studies meant that the
effects of diet could not be distinguished from
confounding factors.
It concluded: "Within these limits, vegan-vegetarian diets may be
considered safe in pregnancy, provided that attention is paid to vitamin
and trace element requirements." A daily source of vitamin B
12 is important for pregnant and lactating vegans, as is vitamin D if there are concerns about low sun exposure.
A different review found that pregnant vegetarians consumed less zinc
than pregnant non-vegetarians, with both groups' intake below
recommended levels; however, the review found no significant difference
between groups in actual zinc levels in bodily tissues, nor any effect
on gestation period or birth weight.
Researchers have reported cases of vitamin B
12 deficiency in lactating vegetarian mothers that were linked to deficiencies and
neurological disorders in their children. A doctor or registered dietitian should be consulted about taking supplements during pregnancy.
Vegan diets have attracted negative attention from the media
because of cases of nutritional deficiencies that have come to the
attention of the courts, including the death of a baby in New Zealand in
2002 due to
hypocobalaminemia, i.e. vitamin B
12 deficiency.
Personal items
Vegans replace
personal care products and
household cleaners containing animal products with products that are vegan, such as vegan
dental floss made of
bamboo
fiber. Animal ingredients are ubiquitous because they are relatively
inexpensive. After animals are slaughtered for meat, the leftovers are
put through a
rendering process and some of that material, particularly the fat, is used in toiletries.
Common animal-derived ingredients include:
tallow in soap;
collagen-derived
glycerine, which used as a lubricant and
humectant in many haircare products, moisturizers, shaving foams, soaps and toothpastes;
lanolin from sheep's wool is often found in lip balm and moisturizers;
stearic acid
is a common ingredient in face creams, shaving foam and shampoos, (as
with glycerine, it can be plant-based, but is usually animal-derived);
Lactic acid, an
alpha-hydroxy acid derived from animal milk, is used in moisturizers;
allantoin— from the
comfrey plant or cows' urine —is found in shampoos, moisturizers and toothpaste; and
carmine from
scale insects, such as the female
cochineal, is used in food and cosmetics to produce red and pink shades.
Animal Ingredients A to Z (2004) and
Veganissimo A to Z
(2013) list which ingredients might be animal-derived. The British
Vegan Society's sunflower logo and PETA's bunny logo mean the product is
certified vegan, which includes no
animal testing. The Leaping Bunny logo signals no animal testing, but it might not be vegan.
The Vegan Society criteria for vegan certification are that the product
contain no animal products, and that neither the finished item nor its
ingredients have been tested on animals by, or on behalf of, the
manufacturer or by anyone over whom the manufacturer has control. Its
website contains a list of certified products, as does Australia's Choose Cruelty Free (CCF).
Beauty Without Cruelty, founded as a charity in 1959, was one of the earliest manufacturers and certifiers of animal-free personal care products. Several international companies produce animal-free products, including clothes, shoes, fashion items, and candles.
Vegans avoid clothing that incorporates silk, wool (including
lambswool,
shearling,
cashmere,
angora,
mohair,
and a number of other fine wools), fur, feathers, pearls,
animal-derived dyes, leather, snakeskin, and any other kind of skin or
animal product. Most leather clothing is made from cow skins. Vegans
regard the purchase of leather, particularly from cows, as financial
support for the
meat industry.
Vegans may wear clothing items and accessories made of
non-animal-derived materials such as hemp, linen, cotton, canvas,
polyester,
artificial leather (pleather), rubber, and vinyl.
Leather alternatives can come from materials such as cork,
piña (from pineapples), and mushroom leather.
Philosophy
Ethical veganism
Pigs, as well as chicken and cattle, often have their movement restricted
Ethical veganism is based on opposition to
speciesism, the assignment of value to individuals on the basis of species membership alone. Divisions within
animal rights theory include the
utilitarian,
protectionist approach, which pursues improved conditions for animals. It also pertains to the rights-based
abolitionism,
which seeks to end human ownership of non-humans. Abolitionists argue
that protectionism serves only to make the public feel that animal use
can be morally unproblematic (the "happy meat" position).
Law professor
Gary Francione,
an abolitionist, argues that all sentient beings should have the right
not to be treated as property, and that adopting veganism must be the
baseline for anyone who believes that non-humans have intrinsic moral
value. Philosopher
Tom Regan,
also a rights theorist, argues that animals possess value as
"subjects-of-a-life", because they have beliefs, desires, memory and the
ability to initiate action in pursuit of goals. The right of
subjects-of-a-life not to be harmed can be overridden by other moral
principles, but Regan argues that pleasure, convenience and the economic
interests of farmers are not weighty enough. Philosopher
Peter Singer,
a protectionist and utilitarian, argues that there is no moral or
logical justification for failing to count animal suffering as a
consequence when making decisions, and that killing animals should be
rejected unless necessary for survival.
Despite this, he writes that "ethical thinking can be sensitive to
circumstances", and that he is "not too concerned about trivial
infractions".
An argument proposed by
Bruce Friedrich,
also a protectionist, holds that strict adherence to veganism harms
animals, because it focuses on personal purity, rather than encouraging
people to give up whatever animal products they can.
For Francione, this is similar to arguing that, because human-rights
abuses can never be eliminated, we should not defend human rights in
situations we control. By failing to ask a server whether something
contains animal products, we reinforce that the moral rights of animals
are a matter of convenience, he argues. He concludes from this that the
protectionist position fails on its own
consequentialist terms.
Philosopher
Val Plumwood maintained that ethical veganism is "subtly
human-centred",
an example of what she called "human/nature dualism" because it views
humanity as separate from the rest of nature. Ethical vegans want to
admit non-humans into the category that deserves special protection,
rather than recognize the "ecological embeddedness" of all.
Plumwood wrote that animal food may be an "unnecessary evil" from the
perspective of the consumer who "draws on the whole planet for
nutritional needs"—and she strongly opposed factory farming—but for
anyone relying on a much smaller ecosystem, it is very difficult or
impossible to be vegan.
Bioethicist Ben Mepham, in his review of Francione and
Garner's book
The Animal Rights Debate: Abolition or Regulation?, concludes that "if the aim of
ethics
is to choose the right, or best, course of action in specific
circumstances 'all things considered', it is arguable that adherence to
such an absolutist agenda is simplistic and open to serious
self-contradictions. Or, as Farlie puts it, with characteristic
panache: 'to conclude that veganism is the "only ethical response" is to take a big leap into a very muddy pond'."
He cites as examples the adverse effects on animal wildlife derived
from the agricultural practices necessary to sustain most vegan diets
and the ethical contradiction of favoring the welfare of domesticated
animals but not that of wild animals; the imbalance between the
resources that are used to promote the welfare of animals as opposed to
those destined to alleviate the suffering of the approximately one
billion human beings who undergo malnutrition, abuse, and exploitation;
the focus on attitudes and conditions in western developed countries,
leaving out the rights and interests of societies whose economy, culture
and, in some cases, survival rely on a symbiotic relationship with
animals.
David Pearce, a
transhumanist philosopher, has argued that humanity has a "hedonistic imperative" to not merely avoid
cruelty to animals or abolish the ownership of non-human animals, but also to redesign the global ecosystem such that
wild animal suffering ceases to exist. In the pursuit of abolishing suffering itself, Pearce promotes
predation elimination among animals and the "cross-species global analogue of the
welfare state".
Fertility regulation could maintain herbivore populations at
sustainable levels, "a more civilised and compassionate policy option
than famine, predation, and disease".
The increasing number of vegans and vegetarians in the transhumanism
movement has been attributed in part to Pearce's influence.
A growing
political philosophy that incorporates veganism as part of its
revolutionary praxis is
veganarchism, which seeks "total abolition" or "total liberation" for all animals, including humans. Veganarchists identify the
state as unnecessary and harmful to animals, both human and non-human, and advocate for the adoption of a vegan lifestyle within a
stateless society. The term was popularized in 1995 with Brian A. Dominick's pamphlet
Animal Liberation and Social Revolution, described as "a vegan perspective on anarchism or an anarchist perspective on veganism".
Direct action is a common practice among veganarchists (and anarchists generally) with groups like the
Animal Liberation Front (ALF) and
Revolutionary Cells – Animal Liberation Brigade (RCALB) often engaging in such activities, sometimes criminally, to further their goals.
Some extreme sects of vegans also embrace the philosophy of
anti-natalism, as they see the two as complementary in terms of "harm reduction" to animals and the environment.
Environmental veganism
Paul Watson, founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
Environmental vegans focus on
conservation, rejecting the use of animal products on the premise that fishing, hunting, trapping and farming, particularly
factory farming, are environmentally unsustainable. In 2010,
Paul Watson of the
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society called pigs and chicken "major aquatic predators", because livestock eat 40 percent of the fish that are caught. Since 2002,
all Sea Shepherd ships have been vegan for environmental reasons. This
specific form of veganism focuses its way of living on how to have a
sustainable way of life without consuming animals.
According to a 2006 United Nations
Food and Agriculture Organization report,
Livestock's Long Shadow, 222 million
tonnes of meat were produced globally in 1999. The report posits that around 26 percent of the planet's terrestrial surface is devoted to livestock grazing.
In the United States ten billion land animals are killed every year for
human consumption, and in 2005 48 billion birds were killed globally.
The UN report also concluded that livestock farming (mostly of cows, chickens and pigs) affects the air, land, soil, water,
biodiversity and
climate change.
Livestock consumed 1,174 million tonnes of food in 2002—including 7.6
million tonnes of fishmeal and 670 million tonnes of cereals, one-third
of the global cereal harvest—and in 2001 consumed 45 million tonnes of
roots and vegetables and 17 million tonnes of pulses. As of 2006, the livestock industry accounted for nine percent of anthropogenic
carbon dioxide emissions, 37 percent of
methane, 65 percent of
nitrous oxide, and 68 percent of
ammonia. Livestock waste emitted 30 million tonnes of ammonia a year, which is involved in the production of
acid rain. A 2017 study published in the journal
Carbon Balance and Management found animal agriculture's global methane emissions are 11% higher than previous estimates based on data from the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. A June 2018 study published in
Science asserted that the adoption of plant-based diets in the United States alone could cut
greenhouse gas emissions by 61% to 73%, and the global adoption of a vegan diet would reduce the use of agricultural land by 75%.
A vegan diet is
probably the single biggest way to reduce your impact on planet Earth,
not just greenhouse gases, but global acidification, eutrophication,
land use and water use. It is far bigger than cutting down on your
flights or buying an electric car.
—Joseph Poore, Reducing food’s environmental impacts through producers and consumer; University of Oxford, UK, 2018.
A 2010 UN report,
Assessing the Environmental Impacts of Consumption and Production, argued that animal products "in general require more resources and cause higher emissions than plant-based alternatives".
It proposed a move away from animal products to reduce environmental damage. A 2007 Cornell University study concluded that vegetarian diets use the least land
per capita, but require higher quality land than is needed to feed animals. A 2015 study published in
Science of the Total Environment determined that
significant biodiversity loss can be attributed to the growing demand for meat, which is a significant driver of
deforestation and habitat destruction, with species-rich habitats being converted to agriculture for livestock production. A 2017 study by the
World Wildlife Fund
found that 60% of biodiversity loss can be attributed to the vast scale
of feed crop cultivation needed to rear tens of billions of farm
animals, which puts an enormous strain on natural resources resulting in
an extensive loss of lands and species. Livestock make up 60% of the
biomass
of all mammals on earth, followed by humans (36%) and wild mammals
(4%). As for birds, 70% are domesticated, such as poultry, whereas only
30% are wild. In November 2017, 15,364 world scientists signed a
warning to humanity calling for, among other things, "promoting dietary shifts towards mostly plant-based foods". According to a July 2018 study in
Science, meat consumption is set to increase as the result of
human population growth and rising affluence, which will increase greenhouse gas emissions and further reduce biodiversity.
A 2018 report published in
PNAS
asserted that farmers in the United States could sustain more than
twice as many people than they do currently if they abandoned rearing
farm animals for human consumption and instead focused on growing
plants.
Feminist veganism
Pioneers
One of the leading activists and scholars of feminist animal rights is
Carol J. Adams. Her premier work,
The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory
(1990), sparked what was to become a movement in animal rights as she
noted the relationship between feminism and meat consumption. Since the
release of
The Sexual Politics of Meat, Adams has published
several other works including essays, books, and keynote addresses. In
one of her speeches, "Why feminist-vegan now?"—adapted
from her original address at the "Minding Animals" conference in
Newcastle, Australia (2009)—Adams states that "the idea that there was a
connection between feminism and vegetarianism came to [her] in October
1974", illustrating that the concept of feminist veganism has been
around for nearly half a century. Other authors have also paralleled
Adams' ideas while expanding on them. Angella Duvnjak states in "Joining
the Dots: Some Reflections on Feminist-Vegan Political Practice and
Choice" that she was met with opposition to the connection of feminist
and veganism ideals, although the connection seemed more than obvious to
her and other scholars (2011).
Other scholars elaborate on the connections between feminism, such as
Carrie Hamilton who makes the connection to sex workers and animal
reproductive rights.
Many other scholars of feminist vegan philosophy continue to add to the
arguments that Adams, Duvnjak, and Hamilton have brought forth.
Animal and human abuse parallels
Some of the main concepts of feminist veganism is that is the
connection between the violence and oppression of animals. For example,
Marjorie Spiegal compares the consumption or servitude of animals for
human gain to slavery.
Animals are purchased from a breeder, used for personal gain—either for
further breeding or manual labor—and then discarded, most frequently as
food. This capitalist use of animals for personal gain has held strong,
despite the work of animal rights activists and ecofriendly feminists.
Similar notions that suggest animals—like fish, for example—feel
less pain are brought forth today as a justification for animal cruelty.
The feminist side of the argument, however, suggests that there is no
rationalization for treating animal lives with lesser reverence than
human lives, even if the theory that animals are less capable of pain is
verifiable.
Another connection between feminism and veganism is the parallel
of violence against women or other minority members and the violence
against animals. Animal rights activists closely relates animal cruelty
to feminist issues. This connection is even further mirrored as animals
that are used for breeding practices are compared to human trafficking
victims and migrant sex workers.
Hamilton points out that violent "rapists sometimes exhibit behavior
that seems to be patterned on the mutilation of animals" suggesting
there is a trend between the violence towards rape victims and animal
cruelty previously exhibited by the rapist.
The violence connection is not limited to sexual acts, however.
It is a common fact the prevalence of violence against animals are more
defined in those with psychopathic disorders. This mirroring of violence
against animals and violence against weaker animals lead the pioneers
of feminist veganism to suggest that there is a correspondence between
violence against humans and animals, supporting feminist veganism.
Capitalism and feminist veganism
Another way that feminist veganism relates to feminist thoughts is through the
capitalist means of the production itself.
Carol J. Adams
mentions Barbara Noske talking about "meat eating as the ultimate
capitalist product, because it takes so much to make the product, it
uses up so many resources".
The capitalization of resources for meat production is argued to be
better used for production of other food products that have a less
detrimental impact on the environment.
Religious veganism
Symbols
Multiple symbols have been developed to represent veganism. Several are used on
consumer packaging, including the
Vegan Society trademark and
Vegan Action logo, to indicate products without animal-derived ingredients.
Various symbols may also be used by members of the vegan community to
represent their identity and in the course of animal rights activism, such as a vegan flag.
The One Pillar Pagoda is a historic Mahayana Buddhist temple in Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam.
Bái Đính Temple is a complex of Mahayana Buddhist temples on Bai Dinh Mountain.
Statue of Avalokiteśvara, lacquered and gilded wood at the Bút Tháp Temple, dating from the Restored Lê era with inscription "autumn of the year Bính Thân" (1656).
Hải Đức Buddha, the 30 ft tall statue built in 1964 at Long Sơn Pagoda in Nha Trang.
Ceramic pagoda with lotus, bodhi leaf, dancer decoration, Hanoi (Lý dynasty, 11th-13th century).
Terracotta Bodhi leaves with dragon motif (Lý-Trần dynasties, 11th-14th century)..jpg)
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