Thu, Jul-11-24, 08:46
|
 |
|
|
Plan: Muscle Centric
Stats: 238/152/160
BF:
Progress: 110%
Location: UK
|
|
Vegans snap up diet supplements as health concerns grow
Quote:
Vegans snap up diet supplements as health concerns grow
Customers ‘more aware’ that lifestyle can cause problems, says retailer, amid warnings that plant-based diets can cause deficiencies
Vegans are racing to buy diet supplements amid growing concerns that the lifestyle can cause health problems, a senior retailer has said.
Alex Gourley, the chairman of Holland & Barrett, said people on vegan diets were starting to be “much more aware of the supplements” they needed to take when only eating plant-based food.
Mr Gourley said customers were still coming in to buy vegan products, with Holland & Barrett having last year launched a new range of food with over 70 plant-based items, including cheese and chocolate alternatives.
However, he said: “These people are much more aware of the other things you have to do to have a more holistic view of your intake of food.”
Mr Gourley said this did not mean that his staff were giving medical advice on what people should be taking, but would make suggestions if customers wanted to know how they could improve their health.
He said: “We’re not there to do anything other than answer questions and give the right advice to people who are interested in understanding what more they could be doing if they want to take better care of themselves.”
It comes after a leading academic earlier this year warned that some plant-based diets risked causing nutritional deficiencies including anaemia, especially in the young and elderly.
Alice Stanton of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland said that previous studies had underestimated how much easier it was for people to take in proteins and micronutrients from meat than plant-based food.
Researchers suggested that unprocessed red meat delivers most of the vitamin B12 intake in human diets.
Ms Stanton said: “There are a number of very influential groups that have published reports which indicate animal-source foods and particularly red meat cause human health problems, heart attacks, strokes and cancers.”
She said they have “had a huge influence on policymakers on heading towards an almost completely plant-based diet”.
Researchers have separately cautioned that the nutritional values for plant-based alternatives vary drastically depending on the product.
A study, published in the journal Nutrition Reviews, found that some plant-based cheeses had twice the saturated fat of normal cheese.
Holland & Barrett said it has been boosted by higher demand for vitamins and supplements over the past year. Sales were up 11pc in 2023, although its losses before tax widened to hit £65.3m from £59.6m after it invested more cash into refreshing stores and improving its website.
Part of the sales uptick was driven by a rise in people wanting to take better care of their health after the pandemic, Mr Gourley said.
He said: “We’re seeing a huge increase in the interest of physical movers of all ages, and these are people who are not just interested in upping their protein if they’re going to the gym, but in their joints, bones and muscles.
“They want to protect their ability to keep on doing physical activity, whether it be sports or walking or running. That was happening before the pandemic but it has really accelerated since then.”
|
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/busines...-concerns-grow/ |
Threaded Mode