65 years old: Claus Leitzmann ‘Our Dinner begins at home with a huge serving of salad. The fear that salad in the evening leads to flatulence and fermentation processes in the night is unfounded in my opinion.’ - Prof. Dr. Claus Leitzmann in Drogistenstern 3/98 ‘A vegetarian is confronted daily with the fact that his behaviour differs from that of his fellow men. That is why his attitude towards health is different from that of the average person. For the general public it ought to be important to understand that nutrition is a health factor and that a specific change of the eating habits towards a whole-food nutrition could have a positive influence on health.’ - Prof. Dr. Claus Leitzmann in Drogistenstern 3/98 One of the best known supporters of a vegetarian/vegan lifestyle in German speaking Europe, Prof. Dr. Claus Leitzmann, retired on his 65th birthday from the Justus-Liebig-Universität of Giessen. Many of the EVU News readers will remember to have heard Claus Leitzmann as a competent speaker at the Congresses of the European Vegetarian Union. Besides his family several hundred friends and colleagues had come together in the Auditorium Maximum on February 6th to celebrate an event in honour of Claus Leitzmann, who is widely known as an expert in nutrition. His 4 children, about 20 colleagues and friends from his academic field painted a picture of an interesting life where things in general went completely differently than had been planned. After many years of study and teaching in Germany, America, Thailand he finally settled down in Giessen where he taught 'Nutrition in Developing Countries' at the Institut für Ernährungswissenschaften’ (Institute for the science of nutrition) whose executive director he was for the past 7 years. He did a lot of research on vegetarianism, whole-food diet and nutritional ecology to name only a few and published more then 400 scientific papers. Together with co-authors Claus Leitzmann edited numerous books, among which the most important might be the 'Dictionary of Nutrition' in German, English, French, Italian, Spanish, (Leitzmann, Öhrig, Dauer, Ulmer Verlag Stuttgart, 1988) Claus Leitzmann received several awards, such as a prize for 'The Prevention of Cancer' and one for 'Preventive Nutrition'. After the celebration an excellent vegetarian (nearly all raw) buffet was offered to the guests who had arrived from several countries to honour a man who has supported like few others a healthy and natural way of eating. Sigrid De Leo

Statement for Veganism by Claus Leitzmann “Vegans are people that eat exclu-sively plant food. They refuse the consumption of meat, eggs, milk and derived products for different reasons (religious, health, ethical). A proper choice and preparation of the plant-food is designed to meet the requirement of our nutrition. The lack of Iron, Vitamin B12, Calcium and Proteins which are often discussed and can be observed in a wrong application are rather seldom, for Vegans are nutritionally very conscious and have a knowledge about nutrition which is above average. As Vegans optimise also other patterns of behaviour (little or no nicotine, alcohol and other drugs, enough physical ac-tivity) they put into practice a concept of lifestyle which is recommended by many experts. Studies on Vegans, which have been done worldwide, and also by us, show clearly, that Vegans on the average are healthier than the general population. Body-weight, blood-pressure, blood fats and cholesterol, kidney function as well as general health status are more often normal. Beside these positive aspects vegan nutrition causes at the same time the environment to be less polluted, (liquid- manure and methane from animal factories) the so-called developing countries to become more independent (no importation of fodder) and animals to be kept under ‘natural conditions’. It means that the breeding, keeping, transportation and ex-perimentation on animals will diminish or could partially be given up. If all people lived a vegan lifestyle, human health, environment and society would be in a far better condition. It is essential to make use of this potential.” (Translated: SDL) For contact: Prof. Dr. Claus Leitzmann, Justus Liebig Universität, Wilhelmstr. 20 D-35392 Giessen, Germany, Tel: +49 641 99 39049, e-mail: claus.leitzmann@ernaehrung.uni-giessen.de Germany - from the Global Directory © European Vegetarian Union - http://www.ivu.org/evu