{"id":16791,"date":"2021-01-20T09:00:33","date_gmt":"2021-01-20T14:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/?p=16791"},"modified":"2021-01-14T10:07:10","modified_gmt":"2021-01-14T15:07:10","slug":"researching-possibilities-at-the-vegetarian-resource-group-odette-olivares-sanchezs-vrg-intern-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/2021\/01\/20\/researching-possibilities-at-the-vegetarian-resource-group-odette-olivares-sanchezs-vrg-intern-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"RESEARCHING POSSIBILITIES AT THE VEGETARIAN RESOURCE GROUP: Odette Olivares Sanchez\u2019s VRG Intern Experience"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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After completing my MSc thesis about Healthy and Sustainable Diets, I decided to apply for an internship position at The Vegetarian Resource Group for my required Masters internship, hoping to continue researching topics related to plant-based diets, vegetarianism, and sustainability. Although this internship was not concentrated on scientific research, I was lucky to work on two interesting research projects. The first one was related to sustainability, and the second one consisted of an evaluation of knowledge and dietary patterns of Latin American vegans. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I worked for approximately one month with Jeanne\nYacoubou, MS, the VRG Research Director, to find out about and to compare the\nglobal methane emissions of rice and meat production. I enjoyed this project\nbecause besides reviewing scientific literature, I was having an experience\nwith investigative reporting by contacting scientists to interview them about\ntheir most recent data. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During that month, I provided Jeanne with\ninformation. I learned that atmospheric methane has increased by more than 2.5\ntimes since 1750, due to livestock production, rice cultivation, fossil fuels\nusage, and the increasing global temperatures. According to a global methane\nemissions\u2019 estimate of 2017, livestock farming emissions accounted for 4 times\nthe methane emissions produced through rice cultivation. Although in the end,\nmy university did not approve this project (to use for my nutrition credit) it\nwas very exciting and interestingly challenging. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After this, I had the opportunity to work with\nReed Mangels, PhD, RD, the VRG Nutrition Advisor. Working with her was like\ngetting back in contact with the warmness I had left in Mexico when I moved to the Netherlands to\nstudy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The common topic of my projects was Latin\nAmerican vegan  foods high in calcium and\nlow or moderate in oxalate content, a substance that impedes calcium\nabsorption. First, I explored the gastronomy of Latin American countries to\nidentify (traditional vegan) foods high in calcium. Then, I evaluated calcium\ninformation for vegans available on different internet sources. I constructed a\nrubric to evaluate 100 Latin American websites, 50 websites in English geared\ntowards Latin Americans, and 30 Latin American governmental entities. Lastly, I\nsurveyed Latin Americans to find out about their knowledge and dietary\npractices regarding vegan foods high in calcium. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After I finalized evaluating websites and\ngovernmental entities geared for Latin American vegans regarding calcium on the\nvegan diet, I realized how essential VRG activism is. Few sites had accurate\ninformation on this topic. Also, results from the application of an\ninternet-based survey indicated an information gap regarding good vegan calcium\nsources, at least among most of the Latin American participants from this\nsurvey. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Working as an intern at The VRG helped me to\nexperience a high degree of independence and freedom to write blog-postings and\nto apply my knowledge on research methodology. I also experienced a different\nwriting style I had not used at the university \u2013 one more related to the arts\nthan to the academic or scientific writing style. It is funny to compare my\nfirst blog-posting draft, to my final outputs and notice how I evolved from\nhaving a very boring style, to a very enthusiastic one. I hope not too much! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am very grateful to The VRG, for allowing me to work with them and to\ndevelop research projects. Now I am more convinced about continuing the\npromotion of vegetarianism and plant-based diets to improve our lives, as well\nthe lives of other sentient beings, and our world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For information about The Vegetarian Resource Group\ninternships, see www.vrg.org\/student\/index.php<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Odette Olivares Sanchez is a Mexican\nstudent about to complete her MSc in Nutrition and Health at Wageningen\nUniversity, The Netherlands. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

See some of her projects at:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/nutrition\/foods_calcium.htm<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/nutrition\/best_latin_american_websites.htm<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/nutshell\/information_in_Spanish.htm<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The contents of this posting, our website, and our other\npublications, including Vegetarian Journal, are not intended to provide personal\nmedical advice. Medical advice should be obtained from a qualified health\nprofessional. We often depend on product and ingredient information from\ncompany statements. It is impossible to be 100% sure about a statement, info\ncan change, people have different views, and mistakes can be made. Please use\nyour best judgment about whether a product is suitable for you. To be sure, do\nfurther research or confirmation on your own.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After completing my MSc thesis about Healthy and Sustainable Diets, I decided to apply for an internship position at The Vegetarian Resource Group for my required Masters internship, hoping to continue researching topics related to plant-based diets, vegetarianism, and sustainability. Although this internship was not concentrated on scientific research, I was lucky to work on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16791"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16791\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16793,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16791\/revisions\/16793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}