tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9128506581675705657.post803421740999224365..comments2023-09-11T06:03:29.893-07:00Comments on Time 4 Dogs: It's Just Another Meatless Monday.....Liberty Bellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01177305529757660312noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9128506581675705657.post-54894348930501289182013-06-11T23:14:16.242-07:002013-06-11T23:14:16.242-07:00The link to "Study...Vegetarians...Smaller Br...The link to "Study...Vegetarians...Smaller Brains" is inactive so here's another, newer one: <br />http://capitalpress.blogspot.com/2011/04/do-vegetarians-have-smaller-brains.htmlLiberty Bellehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01177305529757660312noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9128506581675705657.post-68642197405981939622011-11-29T18:45:40.906-08:002011-11-29T18:45:40.906-08:00Death by Veganism By NINA PLANCK
WHEN Crown Shakur...Death by Veganism By NINA PLANCK<br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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. <br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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. <br /><br />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.)<br /><br />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. <br /><br />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.<br /><br />Nina Planck is the author of “Real Food: What to Eat and Why.”<br /><br />Correction: June 8, 2007<br />http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/21/opinion/21planck.html<br /><br />An Op-Ed article on May 21, about veganism, mischaracterized an aspect of traditional vegetarian Indian diets. Generally, these diets are lacto-vegetarian; they do not include eggs.Liberty Bellehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01177305529757660312noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9128506581675705657.post-62214050336666222702011-09-11T21:01:23.794-07:002011-09-11T21:01:23.794-07:00Curiously enough the most compelling analysis of a...Curiously enough the most compelling analysis of all this was produced by a<br />religious vegetarian. The growth of the human brain, the "great leap forward"<br />that produced /Homo sapiens/, after several million years of upright-walking,<br />chimp-brained hominids, happened when we became full-time hunters. The<br />energetic analysis is convincing The short version is that before the advent <br />of intensive grain cultivation about 10,000 years ago, the only way to obtain <br />sufficient energy density to support the growth of the human brain was to eat <br />lots of meat. Even then, the meat-eating hunter-gatherers were healthier, <br />bigger, stronger and longer-lived than the agriculturalists who succeeded them <br />(and eventually displaced them by the force of demographics). The long, complex <br />and careful analysis is at <br />http://www.beyondveg.com/billings-t/comp-anat/comp-anat-appx2.shtml . This <br />article on fatty acids is also relevant: http://www.economist.com/node/16214142 <br />.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9128506581675705657.post-84849412822319902672011-08-09T13:59:41.314-07:002011-08-09T13:59:41.314-07:00Veganism represents extreme and faulty thinking si...Veganism represents extreme and faulty thinking similar to those who blindly followed Jim Jones to their deaths. Yes, one can go several years eating vegan before the internal organs begin suffer if one is extremely careful to include the necessary amino acids qand vitamins. This can be done with supplements, but you must realize that you are still ultimately eating meat when you pop those pills.<br />To condem society for eating meat is to condem all sentient beings on this earth who eat another sentient being. It is the natural way that mother earth has balanced out the species for the survival of all species. Our duty is to keep our food supply safe and to use humane methods in processing our food as much as possible. However, our first duty as a species is to our own survival and we cannot go against our own biological needs and still survive as a species. <br />We have developed symbiotic relationships with other species for research purposes that benefit us as well as them. To not do such research again would be against our own best interests, as well as, those of other species who benefit from this research.<br />Vegans use the word "exploit" which actually means turn to practical account; that is what our nation's farmers do when raising the food we eat. We should be thankful that they do as it is not an easy job to keep billions of people fed around the world. But farmers do not exploit their animals, what they do is care for them until they serve the higher purpose of feeding humans as ordained not only by God, but by mother nature herself or just biology if you will. When a human being evolves fully that does not need all the nutrients found in meat only then can we carry out such evolution. However, for as many years as vegan diets have been tauted we still do not see any wide spread change in the developmental needs of the human body. Omnivore means you need some of both not just one or the other.<br />As cults go this one is sneaky as it plays upon our misplaced human emotions for pets which we have come to look upon as family and not animal. Remember the first thing a cult does is to control what you eat and to limit your food intake and especially your protein as that is what the brains needs to function effectively and sanely.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9128506581675705657.post-33223804247622367662011-08-09T12:27:55.207-07:002011-08-09T12:27:55.207-07:00Vegans assume that because you eat meat or own a p...Vegans assume that because you eat meat or own a pet you are an abuser. These people want to deny their biology of being an omnivore and care even less about your rights. The lion does not consider anything other than its own needs when killing a gazelle. As human beings we require the nutrients found in meat and others nutrients we don't even know about. We are seeing profound and irreparable damage to the internal organs of long term strict vegan dieters. Pregnant women and children should not eat a strict vegan diet as it will cause brain damage and severe problems later in life. Also 1 out of every five adults cannot get protein from plant material. A vegan diet is not good for most people. Moderation is the key to health, but so are the nutrients found in meat. To garner support for their views on animals vegan and animal rights zealots keep pushing the notion that livestock contribute to global warming. They lie about the EPA studies. Methane gas is only 7.9% of all green house gases. Livestock contribute only 17% of this 7.9% total contribution to green house gases. However, soy bean production, rice paddies, wetlands and tropical rainforests contribute nearly 50% of all methane production. Focusing on methane gas which is only 7.9% of all green house gases takes the focus away from fossel fuels. Soy bean production in Brazil is growing mile after mile with slash and burn farming methods. This bean has to be transported around the world and processed. The carbon footprint of the foreign soybean is far greater than all of the livestock being raised.<br />Misleading the public on health issues is of far more concern and should be considered a terrorist act. HSUS put out that the virus H1N1 came from pork which was a lie completely disputed by CDC. This was done to hurt pork farming and put people off eating meat. These lies are intended to hurt not only farming, but our national food supply. This collaboration between species evolved to ensure the survival of both species. We have spent years and millions of dollars trying to prevent the tiger from becoming extinct, whereas, once we made the buffalo part of our food chain its survival as a species became assured. This concept of sentient beings is not part of the biology of animals. They eat other animals as do we so the argument that as human beings we should not eat meat is anti human. It is also anti animal as those species will die off or starve to death.<br />(Comments coninued next post)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com