You may have heard about the vegan parents who were recently convicted for killing their baby with a vegan diet. Put simply, veganism is not natural. Adults may be able to get by on a vegan diet in the modern world thanks to a global market economy. Ironic, considering that many of them are probably enemies of the very thing that enables them to live their preferred lifestyle: laissez-faire capitalism. But veganism would not be viable in a more primitive non-market society, which cannot provide the food alternatives and supplements needed. The human body quite simply needs the fats and proteins and other nutrients found in meat, fish, and dairy products. This is especially true for children.
Nina Planck, author of Real Food: What to Eat and Why, writes in more detail about this (minus the economic aspect) in a New York Times article “Death by Veganism.”
We hear all the time how poor the American diet is. It makes me wonder then, and this is nothing but speculation on my part, whether the continued the rise of cases of autism, childhood asthma and the like result from poor nutrition – from the womb through the first few years of life on through early childhood.
(Disclaimer for hypersensitive politically correct types: I’m not saying that vegans ought to give up their diet. I’m just saying that those who aren’t grateful to global market economy for their lifestyle ought to be. Also and more importantly, vegan parents ought not to force their diet on their children, starting from conception onwards. It’s just not healthy for them.)
Political Science PhD
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The American Dietic Association disagrees with you and Nina Planck that a vegan diet is not suitable for pregnant women and children, including infants:
“Well-planned vegan and other types of vegetarian diets are appropriate for all stages of the life cycle, including during pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood and adolescence. Vegetarian diets offer a number of nutritional benefits, including lower levels of saturated fat, cholesterol, and animal protein as well as higher levels of carbohydrates, fiber, magnesium, potassium, folate, and antioxidants such as vitamins C and E and phytochemicals. Vegetarians have been reported to have lower body mass indices than nonvegetarians, as well as lower rates of death from ischemic heart disease; vegetarians also show lower blood cholesterol levels; lower blood pressure; and lower rates of hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and prostate and colon cancer.” from http://www.eatright.org/cps/rde/xchg/ada/hs.xsl/advocacy_933_ENU_HTML.htm
In this particular abuse case that Nina Planck sites, even the prosecutor charged that the parents shouldn’t hide behind their veganism, because the child didn’t die because of veganism, the child died because the parents didn’t feed him/her.
Lastly, it may be true that veganism isn’t ‘natural’, I think it really depends on how you define natural. Many things we do and foods we eat may not be natural. But when choosing what foods to eat, I think we should choose foods that are tasty, healthy, produced sustainably and with minimal harm to humans and animals, regardless if they are natural or grown in a lab. I think the vegan diet is the best diet on these terms. A vegan diet can consist of completely natural foods – we’d neet to eat a lot of greens and need a reliable source of B12 (which comes from bacteria), but by supplementing it’s quite easy to get everything we’d need. And I don’t think we should be against supplements. All pregnant women supplement with folic acid, most elderly people supplement with B12 and calcium, we supplement iodine is salt because naturally we don’t get enough in the foods we eat, etc.
I stand corrected…to a point. The article you link to appears to provide a more nuanced account than the passage you quoted along would indicate. The key word here is ‘well-planned’, and judging from the article it would require a great deal of study and diligence to ensure a well-planned vegan diet for pregnant women and infants. Someone with sufficient responsibility, time, education, and income might be able to do so.
On the particular court case in question, did the child die because he wasn’t fed period or because he was fed a poorly planned vegan diet?
Having a child is a serious responsibility and I’m afraid far too many parents drop the ball when it comes to their childrens’ nutritional requirements. This seems particularly easy to do with veganism.
Regarding the use of the word ‘natural’. You’re right. I probably should have found a better, less ambiguous word to use. I didn’t mean it in a normative sense, certainly. I would never say veganism is inherently wrong.
I don’t think a vegan diet is the best, however. A less restrictive vegetarian diet would probably be healthier, and certainly easier to adopt and stick to. And there’s nothing wrong with eating meat, fish, and dairy. In fact, it can be quite healthy. It just needs to be done sensibly and in moderation.
For the record, I am not against any form of vegetarianism. Nor am I against the use of nutritional supplements. I never said I was. I take vitamins every day. I am, however, unimpressed by vegetarians and vegans who morally condemn meat and dairy eaters (not that you do).
By the way, my wife is from southern India. She and her family eat a largely vegetarian diet with dairy (mostly yogurt) as well as meat and fish on occasion. I’ve been learning to make Indian dishes, often vegetarian. We do eat meat, however, mostly chicken. I also eat a variety of meats on sandwiches, and pepperoni on pizza. Aside from this, I don’t eat red meat very often.
I wasn’t able to track down the trial transcript, but from what I’ve read they were feeding the baby almost exclusively with soymilk and apple juice. In addition to not getting enough calories, the apple juice acted as a diuretic and caused dehydration. The baby died at 6 weeks old and weighed less than 4 pounds. I’ve never had children, but I think they should still be on breastmilk or infant formula at that point in their lives.
I guess I mentioned the supplements because often when people say they are in favor of eating naturally, they are also against supplements, but it seems we agree there.
I do agree with you that it can be tough to stick to a strict vegan diet – it really depends on where one lives and their social support structure. If anyone asks, I usually tell them to do as much as they think they can sustain.
Regarding vegan nutrition and if it is difficult to learn what to properly eat, I think it just takes time, but I wouldn’t say it requires too much effort. Books like ‘Becoming Vegan’, written by a nutrionist can help alot, and my favorite website is http://www.veganhealth.org I think it’s not as hard as it seems.
Lastly, it is interesting comparing the healthiness of various diets, but also very difficult since they are so varied. We can measure particular groups of people that eat meat or are vegan, and compare them, but that’s not to say if they hadn’t eaten different meats or different vegetarian foods it wouldn’t have effected their lifespan. So I think the best we can do is say that a diet can be as good as the particular cases studied, and maybe better. There haven’t been many studies on vegans, but large scale studies usually show vegetarianism in a positive light.
And there is nothing better than home-cooked Indian food. I eat it a lot, although I admit it never comes out quite as good as when my Indian friends make it.
Crown was not killed by a vegan diet, but by a neglectful diet. Attentive vegans feed their babies mother’s milk.
Had Crown been fed any non-milk diet, he would have suffered and probably died. If Crown was fed liquified hot dogs, his parents would have been tried for murder as well. It’s not that the diet was vegan or not vegan that is the issue, but that it was inadequate to raise a baby on.
I think it is clear from the evidence that he was fed a poorly planned vegan diet.
If he had been fed solely on liquified hotdogs, now that wouldn’t be a vegan diet, well or poorly planned.
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