Tory MP and Dietician involved in fiery 'Veganuary'​ row: 'We've got to be careful!'

Tory MP and Dietician involved in fiery 'Veganuary'​ row: 'We've got to be careful!'

A Tory MP and a dietician had a debate over veganuary

GBNews
Gabrielle Wilde

By Gabrielle Wilde


Published: 01/01/2024

- 17:05

Veganuary is annual event that promotes and educates about people about veganism by encouraging them to follow a vegan lifestyle for the month of January

A Dietician and a Tory MP were involved in a fiery discussion over 'Veganuary'.

Speaking on GB News former Conservative MP Neil Parish explained that he think being vegan is too hard because you can't "get the right vitamins."


He said: "I think we've got to be careful and we need a balanced diet.

I would argue, if you drink cow's milk, you've got B12, iodine and magnesium. When you have your coffee with cow's milk instead of oat milk, you have much more protein and iron.

"You can't get all the right vitamins for a vegan diet so I would say that the better thing to do it eat less meet in January.

MP Neil Parish, Andrea Rymer, Pip Tominson and Cameron Walker

The debate got a bit firey

GBNews

"But the idea of cutting them out I think is absolutely wrong. I also think from a farming perspective,we have a temperate climate, we grow a lot of grass.

"A lot of this grass is permanent pasture. So we keep that you know the carbon in the soil. So I would suggest that this this sort of simplistic argument from a vegan."

Andrea debated: " I think with with any diet nutritional planning is key. Vegan diets can support all ages and all life stages.

"What Neil was saying about dairy and about meat, we can get that from a vegan diet. We can get all the amino acids that we need from a vegan diet.

People queuing at a vegan food stand

He glaimed you couldn't get the same vitamins from veganism

Getty

"The key is to have a varied diet, so including all different plant proteins.

"Obviously with milk and dairy we can if we switch from dairy to fortified plant based alternatives, we're getting all those nutrients we need, we're getting calcium."

"Veganism is a minority at the moment. So we do need to look at our food based dietary guidelines and our nutritional guidance in the UK.

"We should follow other countries like Denmark and Canada that have a lot more vegan inclusive and you know do prioritise plant proteins within their food based dietary guidelines."

Neil responded: "When you eat a lot of vegan food, if you're putting supplements in, it's not occurring naturally.

"And I think you'll find the dairy is a whole milk and a whole food and it really does provide you with what you need along with with meat."

MP Neil Parish, Andrea Rymer, Pip Tominson and Cameron Walker

Many people will be taking part in veganuary

GBNews

"If you look at the farming side of it as well, it is, is is balanced both from food and from an environment and farming and grazing good permanent pasture that holds a much carbon in the soil as as growing trees do it up to 20 years.

"So you know we we need to take everything in the round if you want to have a vegan diet and please do but think about the consequences also I think this idea of switching from a totally one diet to another."

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