So in countries where nutritionally varied food is not widely available, people are so reliant on cereal sources that they become afflicted by deficits in many nutrients. Doesn't have any easy solution.<p>But the paper also raises multiple times the point that vegetarian diets tend to be too reliant on cereals, such as here:<p>"<i>Because the bioavailability of zinc from meat is four times greater than that from cereals [113], it is clear that the displacement of animal-based foods by cereal-grain- and plant-based diets is not only responsible for impaired zinc metabolism in developing countries, but also in western populations adopting vegetarian diets [114, 115].</i>"<p>It's so much easier to have a vaguely balanced nutrition when you add a bit of meat. It's also perfectly possible to have it as a vegetarian, but it really requires that you know what you're doing and that you make sure you get necessary nutrients. This can be challenging if you only use "traditional" food, but it's made easier by products like Vega powder (which I've been having recently, pretty good!), which specifically try to compensate frequent shortcomings of a vegan diet, or I suppose HN favorites like Soylent and Mealsquares. I'm not sure the last two are really appropriate as vegetarian complements, though.
Except...<p>The Importance of Dietary Carbohydrate in Human Evolution<p><a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/682587" rel="nofollow">http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/682587</a>
I know that multivitamin pills have bad rap in various circles. But the bioavailability of many simple vitamins is very high when given in tablet form.<p>So what I'd really like to know is what happens with<p><pre><code> cereal / vegetarian / vegan diet
</code></pre>
plus<p><pre><code> cheap, easily available multivitamin
and mineral supplement pills
</code></pre>
Maybe that's most of what's needed? The article does mention supplements, but only piecemeal.<p>Of course, people still need protein. You won't get that from a cheap vitamin pill, and it's tricky to do right with a vegan diet. Fortunately I live in the USA and beef is relatively cheap. "Beef. It's what's for dinner".<p>BTW I have vague recall of Northern vs Southern diets in the US Civil War. The claim was that this played an important part in the health and strength of the soldiers. The Union soldiers had more beef and wheat in their diets. The Confederate soldiers had more pork and corn. The Union won.
There is a set of tools here that allow for a hyper-efficient lifestyle based on a new kind of wheat bread superfood:<p><a href="http://breadflower.com/" rel="nofollow">http://breadflower.com/</a>