Okay, not exactly. Actually, it was the fault of the mothers and their doctors for not advising them that complete abstinence from meat requires additional vitamin B12 intake. This, from Yahoo News:
I’m pitting this because, really, how stupid can you be? Veganism isn’t brand-spanking new, where the nutrition information isn’t available! IMO, if you’re going to make a life choice for yourself and others, you should be aware of EVERYTHING that will affect you and those others. If you don’t know, find out! If the woman really had no clue, surely her doctor would have known! IANAD, nor a mother, but aren’t you supposed to take extra supplements when you’re pregnant anyway? Something? I mean, mistakes happen, but this just seems stupid!
Correct me if I’m wrong, educate me; I’ll feel better knowing that this is something that can easily slip through the cracks, instead of just being plain DUMB, because that is how it sounds. I mean, a woman who has made the decision to be a vegan would want to find out as much as possible about what consequences this could have on her unborn, and then infant, child, yes?
Okay, maybe this isn’t a great rant, maybe there is a lot more to this than meets the eye, but on first glance, it made me angry that a baby is suffering over something both a mother and a doctor happened to overlook.
Babies obviously weren’t meant to be vegans, hence the boobie thingees on women.
I don’t mind if adults want to slowly starve themselves in some bizarre nature-worship ritual (Have you ever seen a healthy-looking vegan?) But forcing their fucked views on kids, who then growup to be even more scatter-brained than their parents, thats just sad.
Bah. Pale, sickly, and bone-thin do not equal healthy in my book. ‘Ova-Lactarian’ or some other goofy diet I can sort of understand, but living off of nuts and berries? That’s just plain fucking stupid.
When I was vegan, my doc said that I was the healthiest he’s ever seen me.
Why should someone else choosing not to eat meat or dairy bother you? I don’t do it for ethical reasons, I do it because I lose weight better when I don’t eat these things, which is why I usually refer to myself as a strict vegetarian and not a vegan. But I’ll break down every so often and have pizza (with cheese).
But I’m not sure why my choosing not to eat certain things should bother you?
Not to be too crude, but I used to be good friends with a lady vegan who had one hell of a rack, and would not be considered “bone-thin” by anyone. And a real vegan can get by on a lot more than “nuts and berries.”
However, let’s agree that cheeseless pizza is just plain stupid.
For the most part, I’ll agree. But there’s something to be said for a cheeseless tomato and garlic with a really spicy marinara. There’s a pizza place in the Village that serves this, and it’s excellent.
Calvin Klein models aren’t necessarily vegans. Methinks you need to hang around with more vegans and fewer heroin addicts.
Anyhoo, to the OP (how ya doin’, Heloise?)… the problem arises from humanity’s propensity for “buzz words” and sound bites. Some people hear “eating meat is bad!” and so they stop eating meat… without altering their diet in any way to compensate for the loss of nutrition.
Anyway… the solution, obviously, is to either get some vitamin supplements, don’t breast-feed (can’t you buy cartons of donated breast-milk or something?), or… eat meat.
Does it keep me up at night? Nope. Is ‘veganism’ one of the dumbest things I have ever heard of? Yep.
What of the wheat? Does nobody care that BILLION of stalks of wheat are heartlessly butchered EACH and EVERY year!? What about the plight of the noble bean? Doomed to a life as tofu? Why does nobody speak out for them, the least among us? Instead, brazen and cruel groups of people have dedicated their lived to eating nothing but them!!!
If vegans were truely and honestly concerned about not killing any of Mother Nature’s precious little angels, they would live on a water diet. For a while, at least.
My grandmother has some rather, ah, interesting notions about nutrition. One year, she served a vegetarian meal for Thanksgiving. A turkey-shaped tofu loaf does not quite capture the spirit of the holiday.
Grandmother suggested that I take Aaron off regular Similac and start feeding him soy milk. Not infant soy formula, regular soy milk from the dairy case. Just to humor her, I asked Aaron’s doctor. She had a great laugh that day, because 1) Aaron hadn’t started solid foods yet, and 2) soy milk is so lacking in appropriate infant nutrition that for me to feed it to him would be utterly irresponsible. Soy milk has additives, like flavoring, that may be dangerous to the baby, as well.
The reason Grandmother thought this would be a good idea is because she read the nutrition label on the side of the formula can and was shocked to find that there is so much fat in it. Bad for his little cardiovascular system, y’see. I had to educate her on the issue of nutrition and infant development in that Aaron needs the fat because his nervous system is still developing, and fat is one of the building blocks of that system. She was also horrified to learn that Aaron will get whole milk until he’s 2 or so, for the same reason.
The thing of it is, we know so much about nutrition, and good, reliable information is available. In fact, Dr. Spock advocates vegetarianism in his book, but he advises that parents should do their homework before putting their kids on this diet.
Brutus, the key difference between a stalk of wheat and any animal you care to pick is that the animal is capable of suffering (having a central nervous system and all) whereas the stalk of wheat is not. And animals, generally speaking, do suffer a great deal while they’re being mass produced for human consumption.
As you appear unaware of this most basic of differences between plant and animal, I suspect that in an intelligence contest you’d come a distant third to both of them.
I actually knew a family who raised their children as vegans. They were mentally deficient and looked to be fairly well on their way to malnutrition. They’ve since been moved from the house but have behavioural problems. It’s probable that the vegan diet was to blame.
Does this mean that veganism is unhealthy? Not necessarily. I think that the extreme cases of vegan/vegetarianism (thinness, vitamin deficiencies) are just more noticable than those of more omnivorous habits (heart disease, obesity). It also seems like vegan would be a much easier diet to screw up on.
And lastly, most peoples vegan rage tends to come from tose vegans who feel the need to molest people with their opinions and try to get everybody to give up meat. As long as someone doesn’t scream at me for eating meat, doesn’t matter what they eat.