Veganism is often poorly represented in the mass media, and often met with fear and even hatred by the average reader, viewer, or listener. Every now an then a truly controversial article comes out [such as the tragedy of the recent death of an infant through the ignorance of his parents, which was spun by the media and everyone involved into a validation for the argument against veganism, in my opinion] and all of us have to bear the brunt of facing a new fire in the arguments of the "opposing sides", those around us who follow a conventional diet/lifestyle and do not trust, like, or agree with veganism as it stands.
To start out:
What do you think of this article? It seems really ignorant to me, but I wanted your opinion:
Death by Veganism
My reaction: [roughly copied from a previous discussion between my family and I]
I mean, how could you think it's not possible to raise a healthy baby on a vegan diet [even with necessary vitamins, supplements, etc.]? That's what this article is saying - "vegan pregnancy was irresponsible". And also I don't agree with this part:
"Indigenous cuisines offer clues about what humans, naturally omnivorous, need to survive, reproduce and grow: traditional vegetarian diets, as in India, invariably include dairy and eggs for complete protein, essential fats and vitamins. There are no vegan societies for a simple reason: a vegan diet is not adequate in the long run."
While "indigenous cuisines" are generally considered healthier because they involve more whole foods and no modern processed foods, they're often lacking in a variety of nutrients and focus on one or two staple foods, often starches like rice or other plants like corn or millet. There is no vegan society because these diets focused on survival, and it fails to mention this or that vegan diets and vegan culture or "society" is possible now because of modern advances in technology and medicine, like the aforementioned vitamins and supplements, as well as the amount and diversity of food western cultures have access to.
I would agree to the fact that it's absolutely irresponsible, and everything this article states, to be vegan IF you don't have access to these things, because then you really won't have the proper nutrients; but this article claims that even responsible vegans are naturally lacking in necessary vitamins and nutrients because of their diet alone, which is just not true. Maybe it's true in some cases, but not in all. I was interested to learn in the common lacking nutrients in vegan diets because I hadn't heard about DHA before, but articles like this have been popping up everywhere since that baby died.
It frustrates me to no end to see any joe schmoe writer taking a stab at veganism and vegetarianism just because they don't agree with it and consistently justifying it by utilizing this one instance. I can't even believe those parents were vegan, because any intelligent person would have know better. Anyway, my anger-at-the-world level has apparently gone up in the past six months since I've become vegan. *sigh*
Beyond this, I think that it's important to have intelligent, rational discussions about events and news posting such as this, both for a learning opportunity for those young or new to veganism and for a chance to develop our level of understanding of this culturally drastic diet/lifestyle and broaden our minds to the opinions of other like-minded individuals.
For this reason, I ask that there please not be any one or two-sentence replies to this, but lengthy and well though discussion of any new media events revolving around veganism, whether positive, negative, or neutral. You can even talk about magazine articles from veg*n niche magazines like VegNews or Vegetarian times, or opinions you've read from recently published books.
So please, start the sharing!
To start out:
What do you think of this article? It seems really ignorant to me, but I wanted your opinion:
Death by Veganism
My reaction: [roughly copied from a previous discussion between my family and I]
I mean, how could you think it's not possible to raise a healthy baby on a vegan diet [even with necessary vitamins, supplements, etc.]? That's what this article is saying - "vegan pregnancy was irresponsible". And also I don't agree with this part:
"Indigenous cuisines offer clues about what humans, naturally omnivorous, need to survive, reproduce and grow: traditional vegetarian diets, as in India, invariably include dairy and eggs for complete protein, essential fats and vitamins. There are no vegan societies for a simple reason: a vegan diet is not adequate in the long run."
While "indigenous cuisines" are generally considered healthier because they involve more whole foods and no modern processed foods, they're often lacking in a variety of nutrients and focus on one or two staple foods, often starches like rice or other plants like corn or millet. There is no vegan society because these diets focused on survival, and it fails to mention this or that vegan diets and vegan culture or "society" is possible now because of modern advances in technology and medicine, like the aforementioned vitamins and supplements, as well as the amount and diversity of food western cultures have access to.
I would agree to the fact that it's absolutely irresponsible, and everything this article states, to be vegan IF you don't have access to these things, because then you really won't have the proper nutrients; but this article claims that even responsible vegans are naturally lacking in necessary vitamins and nutrients because of their diet alone, which is just not true. Maybe it's true in some cases, but not in all. I was interested to learn in the common lacking nutrients in vegan diets because I hadn't heard about DHA before, but articles like this have been popping up everywhere since that baby died.
It frustrates me to no end to see any joe schmoe writer taking a stab at veganism and vegetarianism just because they don't agree with it and consistently justifying it by utilizing this one instance. I can't even believe those parents were vegan, because any intelligent person would have know better. Anyway, my anger-at-the-world level has apparently gone up in the past six months since I've become vegan. *sigh*
Beyond this, I think that it's important to have intelligent, rational discussions about events and news posting such as this, both for a learning opportunity for those young or new to veganism and for a chance to develop our level of understanding of this culturally drastic diet/lifestyle and broaden our minds to the opinions of other like-minded individuals.
For this reason, I ask that there please not be any one or two-sentence replies to this, but lengthy and well though discussion of any new media events revolving around veganism, whether positive, negative, or neutral. You can even talk about magazine articles from veg*n niche magazines like VegNews or Vegetarian times, or opinions you've read from recently published books.
So please, start the sharing!
