Death by Veganism

[Guest guest]

Veganism was never at issue with the courts or this case. Veganism didn't kill

the child. What killed the child was inadequate nutrition. A child of that age

is neither carnivorous nor vegan.. he is milk fed. This child wasn't. This child

was not only deprived breast milk ; but not given an adequate substitute at all.

And in addition was given APPLE JUICE!!!! SIX WEEKS OLD AND CONSUMING APPLE

JUICE! Not only does this wreak havoc upon the digestive system but it will lead

to diarrhea, something no child needs but certainly not one who isn't receiving

enough to sustain him in the first place!

 

Not to argue the matter of diet, but breast milk is 5% protein. This sustains

children from birth through preschool when their muscles and bones are growing

at a pace that they never will again. All fruits and veggies are 4.5-5.5%

protein. If that can sustain a developing child, it certainly can sustain anyone

else. And beans?? 28% protein.

 

I'm not vegan but I do know math and nutrition.

 

Michelle

 

 

[Guest guest]

i'm brand-new, but as a vegan who is studying to be a naturopath, who has

had vegan pregnancies and has incredibly healthy vegan children, i would

like to respond to this.

 

this article made me so angry, i was shaking when i finished it. i really

hesitate to comment on it because i don't want to sound zealous or

defensive. but i checked out her book and the lady is clearly advancing her

own agenda. but what else would you expect from something so inflammatory

and hateful.

 

i like what the prosecutor said - that child did not die from a vegan diet.

he died of starvation, pure and simple. they were only feeding the kid

every six hours or so. regardless of WHAT they were feeding him, they

weren't feeding him enough. most vegans are very responsible and up to date

about health information...it's often because of health that vegans became

vegan. no vegan, or anyone else, in his or her right mind would think that

a baby could survive on that kind of diet. many other children have died

from such starvation diets, only instead of soymilk and apple juice it was

things like skim milk and bananas, but you don't see headlines like,

" meat-eating parents starve child, " do you?

 

this article gets many things wrong. for one thing, many plant foods do

indeed provide complete proteins and all of the essential amino acids and

non-essential ones, too. sea greens, for example, have a complete protein

comparable to that of animals. quinoa and hempseeds are complete proteins.

 

this:

Too often, vegans turn to soy, which actually inhibits growth and reduces

absorption of protein and minerals.

is true in part. way too many vegans replace animal products with soy and

grains. both can indeed cause health problems when not used in moderation,

when modified, and when used inappropriately. what she is referring to re:

absorption is a handful of studies done in 2005 that indicated that soy was

a major issue. i've looked at those studies first-hand. almost all of them

were conducted on women taking supplements of isolated soy protein. ISP is

nothing like a whole soy product, and most people taking a supplement are

receiving way higher doses of soy isoflavones than a normal person would who

was eating normal, whole, complete soy. such results should be expected of

anyone who is overzealous or obsessed with a particular food or food

product. such results would arise from any food taken in such high doses -

too much dairy leaches calcium, too many carrots can create

photosensitivity, etc. such results have never been duplicated in studies

conducted on moderate intake of whole soy products such as edamame, tempeh,

etc. but some people have just run with that, since it seemed to prove

their original agenda, and many, many people have come along for the ride,

based mainly on internet scare tactics.

 

i would like to see her references on lower levels of DHA in breastmilk,

since i've seen dozens of studies saying just the opposite. my bet is that,

again, she's spreading her own agenda. certain people and organizations are

notorious for spreading the message that a woman should only breastfeed if

she has a *perfect* diet, by their standards. the message is that, while

they pay lip-service to breastmilk being ideal, " many " women cannot do it,

or should not because of a lacking diet, and should instead make their own

raw-liver-based formula, based on their recipe. this is a direct

contradiction of every health organization in existence, all of which state

that pretty much the only circumstances under which a mother who can

breastfeed should consider not doing so is HIV/AIDS infection. even smoking

mothers are encouraged to breastfeed (although they should of course stop

smoking!).

 

You cannot create and nourish a robust baby merely on foods from plants.

my son has never had an animal food in his life. he's always been at a

perfect weight and height and development. nobody in their right mind could

look at either of my kids and describe them as anything but robust and

thriving. when we had our blood levels tested in february, he had

higher-than-necessary levels in EVERYTHING. sure, you can screw up on a veg

diet. you can screw up by giving your kids nothing but hot dogs, cola and

cheetos too, as i saw way too often as a lactation educator for WIC. the

point is that the diet has to be *well-planned* - whether it includes meat

and dairy or not.

 

babies are built from protein, calcium, cholesterol and fish oil. Children

fed only plants will not get the precious things they need to live and grow.

my son gets more than enough protein, high-quality protein. calcium, too -

we don't struggle one whit to get calcium, and plant calcium is actually

more easily absorbed and utilized by the body, whereas animal protein tends

to leach calcium from the body. and fish oil - i'm assuming she's referring

to DHA requirements. here's a little secret. you know how fish get to be

so high in DHA? they eat ALGAE. and so do we. we just cut out the

middleman. it's just as high-quality as that from fish, but without the

concern of heavy metals, overfishing, global warming, and other nastiness.

running nutrients through an animal first rather than eating them firsthand

is like drinking water from a sewage treatment plant.

 

i actually agree that soy formula is not that great. it *is* the equivalent

of giving your child 3-4 borth control pill a day. it's ISP, which i

mentioned before. it's gross. but dairy has issues too - the same high

levels of cancer-causing hormones, even in " organic " cows, plus pesticides,

genetic engineering, etc. there are drawbacks to both, and the only

positive is that your kid will survive if you choose to not breastfeed or

cannot. commercially-prepared formula is the *only* viable, tested option to

breastmilk that contains all the necessary nutrients, including DHA now. of

course, there's a whole lot of stuff in breastmilk that cannot be

duplicated. and OF COURSE beastmilk should really be the ONLY thing

considered a viable infant food, barring extraordinary circumstances.

 

unfortunately, i am a mama who had such extraordinary ciircumstances. i am

an organic, vegan, whole-foods, homebirthin', natural-healin',

lactation-educatin' mama who cannot breastfeed. choosing a formula was

tremendously difficult. my daughter gets a lot of donated breastmilk, but

she still needs formula, especially when we don't have a running car to go

pick up the breastmilk, like now. she is on an organic non-GMO soy-based

formula. i thought long and hard about this and ultimately how i made this

decision was not based on animal issues, but based on the simple fact that i

am lactose-intolerant, and so is my son. when my son was born, and it

bacame painfully obvious that we could not breastfeed, we used the basic

enfamil dairy formula. it was a disaster. so we switched to soy and all of

his problems disappeared. i know within hours if someone gives him

something with dairy. my daughter was so sick after our failed

breastfeeding attempt, i didn't even want to risk trying a dairy formula,

remembering what happened with my son. so we just went right to soy. i

know it's what no lactivist wants to hear (i'm a lactivist, despite my

troubles, and i hate saying it), but both have my children have survived and

thrived on soy formula. breast is best and unless i was absolutely forced

to, i would not even consider a formula. unfortunately, i was forced to.

 

this is just another example of ignorant, uneducated, mainstream bias

against veganism.

 

and now i will step off my soapbox. i'm new to the list, and i promise

that i won't be so zealous in the future.

 

chandelle

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Death by Veganism

 

From The NYT Op-Ed Page

By NINA PLANCK

 

WHEN Crown Shakur died of starvation, he was 6 weeks old

and weighed

3.5 pounds. His vegan parents, who fed him mainly soy

milk and apple

juice, were convicted in Atlanta recently of murder,

involuntary

manslaughter and cruelty.

 

This particular calamity — at least the third such

conviction of vegan

parents in four years — may be largely due to

ignorance. But it should

prompt frank discussion about nutrition.

 

I was once a vegan. But well before I became pregnant, I

concluded

that a vegan pregnancy was irresponsible. You cannot

create and

nourish a robust baby merely on foods from plants.

 

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.

 

Protein deficiency is one danger of a vegan diet for

babies.

Nutritionists used to speak of proteins as " first

class " (from meat,

fish, eggs and milk) and " second class " (from

plants), but today this

is considered denigrating to vegetarians.

 

The fact remains, though, that humans prefer animal

proteins and fats

to cereals and tubers, because they contain all the

essential amino

acids needed for life in the right ratio. This is not

true of plant

proteins, which are inferior in quantity and quality

— even soy.

 

A vegan diet may lack vitamin B12, found only in animal

foods; usable

vitamins A and D, found in meat, fish, eggs and butter;

and necessary

minerals like calcium and zinc. When babies are deprived

of all these

nutrients, they will suffer from retarded growth, rickets

and nerve

damage.

 

Responsible vegan parents know that breast milk is ideal.

It contains

many necessary components, including cholesterol (which

babies use to

make nerve cells) and countless immune and growth

factors. When

breastfeeding isn't possible, soy milk and fruit juice,

even in

seemingly sufficient quantities, are not safe substitutes

for a

quality infant formula.

 

Yet even a breast-fed baby is at risk. Studies show that

vegan breast

milk lacks enough docosahexaenoic acid, or DHA, the

omega-3 fat found

in fatty fish. It is difficult to overstate the

importance of DHA,

vital as it is for eye and brain development.

 

A vegan diet is equally dangerous for weaned babies and

toddlers, who

need plenty of protein and calcium. Too often, vegans

turn to soy,

which actually inhibits growth and reduces absorption of

protein and

minerals. That's why health officials in Britain, Canada

and other

countries express caution about soy for babies. (Not

here, though —

perhaps because our farm policy is so soy-friendly.)

 

Historically, diet honored tradition: we ate the foods

that our

mothers, and their mothers, ate. Now, your neighbor or

sibling may be

a meat-eater or vegetarian, may ferment his foods or eat

them raw.

This fragmentation of the American menu reflects admirable

diversity

and tolerance, but food is more important than fashion.

Though it's

not politically correct to say so, all diets are not

created equal.

 

An adult who was well-nourished in utero and in infancy

may choose to

get by on a vegan diet, but babies are built from

protein, calcium,

cholesterol and fish oil. Children fed only plants will

not get the

precious things they need to live and grow.

 

Nina Planck is the author of " Real Food: What to Eat

and Why. "

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/21/opinion/21planck.html?th & emc=th