Other than Mike M... I don't know if there are any vegans on the forum, and he claims to be a pure fruitarian (He is in more ways than one). If you want to be some kind of vegetarian, at least go lacto-ovo. If you add some fish from time to time, you can be healthy, but vegan or fruitarian is just damn crazy. And, to put a kid on a diet like this is criminal.

Enkidu

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From http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/scotland/article4087977.ece

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From The Sunday Times

June 8, 2008
Vegan girl, 12, 'has spine of 80-year-old'

Degenerative bone condition thought to be a result of strict diet


Mark Macaskill

A girl of 12 brought up by her parents on a strict vegan diet has been admitted to hospital with a degenerative bone condition said to have left her with the spine of an 80-year-old.
Doctors are under pressure to report the couple, from Glasgow, to police and social workers amid concerns her health and welfare may have been neglected in pursuit of their beliefs.
The youngster, fed on a strict meat- and dairy-free diet from birth, is being treated at the city’s Royal Hospital for Sick Children. She is said to have a severe form of rickets and to have suffered a number of fractured bones. The condition is caused by a lack of vitamin D, which is needed to absorb calcium and is found in liver, oily fish and dairy produce.
Dr Faisal Ahmed, the consultant treating the child, said he believed the dangers of forcing children to follow a strict vegan diet needed to be highlighted. “Something like this needs publicity,” he said. However, he refused to blame the parents, who are understood to be well-known figures in Glasgow’s vegan community: “We shouldn’t name and shame \. Mum feels guilty about the whole thing and feels bad about it.”
Jonathan Sher, head of policy at Children in Scotland, said: “If the consequence of parental behaviour is physical, mental or emotional harm to a child, then the child protection system should become involved.” Bill Aitken, justice spokesman for the Scottish Conservatives, added: “If the youngster is coming to clinical harm, something must be done.”
In 2001, British vegans Hazmik and Garabet Manuelyan, from Staines, were sentenced to three years’ community rehabilitation after they admitted starving daughter Arenai, 10 months, to death. She had been fed nothing but breast milk, raw fruit, vegetables and nuts.
Veganism is becoming increasingly popular due to concerns about animal welfare. There are 250,000 adherents in the UK and the Vegan Society publishes a guide, Feeding Your Vegan Infant With Confidence. A spokesman said: “I would suggest that it is not the vegan diet itself \ but the parents.”
Professor Tom Sanders, head of nutrition and dietetics at King’s College London, warned that while most vegan parents give their children vitamin and mineral supplements, there was a core of hardliners putting their children’s health at risk.
He said: “Some of them think we’re still monkeys that can live on fruit and nuts.”
Greater Glasgow and Clyde NHS board declined to comment. A spokesman for Glasgow city council said the matter had not been referred to its social work department.

The last time I was within 2 foot of a cow it tried to bite me, so I have no sympathy for them.

Veganism is becoming increasingly popular due to concerns about animal welfare. There are 250,000 adherents in the UK and the Vegan Society publishes a guide, Feeding Your Vegan Infant With Confidence. A spokesman said: “I would suggest that it is not the vegan diet itself but the parents.”

Professor Tom Sanders, head of nutrition and dietetics at King’s College London, warned that while most vegan parents give their children vitamin and mineral supplements, there was a core of hardliners putting their children’s health at risk.


I would suggest that it is the vegan diet itself, and don't see how any sane person could argue a contrary position.

If veganism is so healthy, why does it require vitamin and mineral supplements?

If veganism is so healthy, why does it require vitamin and mineral supplements?That's my thought as well. The vegans claim that their diet is "natural" but if you ever look at vegan recipes, they require some weird ingredients that a person could never find by walking through the woods. I don't believe that imported japanese miso is a natural food for someone living in Ohio. I'd think that a truly natural human diet would consist of food stuffs that grow or roam within a couple of square miles of a person.

YES YES WE ARE INSANE.....:rolleyes:
I have been vegan more years alive then not. (and I am way old!)
Never had health issues as a result of it, nor have my children. (who have now incorporated dairy in their diets recently by choice)

Personal dietary preference is all I can say.

That's my thought as well. The vegans claim that their diet is "natural" but if you ever look at vegan recipes, they require some weird ingredients that a person could never find by walking through the woods. I don't believe that imported japanese miso is a natural food for someone living in Ohio. I'd think that a truly natural human diet would consist of food stuffs that grow or roam within a couple of square miles of a person.

It's complete nonsense, if you're an omnivore you have to live like one. The vast amount of variety required by the human body is only achievable in "natural" circumstances if the human eats a bit of everything.

I wouldn't bother risking my health just so someone else can eat MY steak. :D

http://www.foodsforlife.org.uk/people/Donald-Watson-Vegan/Donald-Watson-vegan-founder.jpg Donald Watson formed the word vegan from the begining and end of "vegetarian" and founded The Vegan Society in November 1944.

http://www.foodsforlife.org.uk/people/Donald-Watson-Vegan/Donald-Watson.html

There's lots of money made selling meat, so it behooves those who earn a profit from that to do whatever they can to smear those who have stopped buying. There's plenty of kids who eat meat who have bone disorders and parents who starve them. As vegan diets increase in popularity, it'll become easier to find people who follow them who have bad health issues and place the blame for them on the diet itself. A correlation between diet and health is not a cause and effect relationship anymore than is smoking and health.

I've tried to go vegan and felt ill each time so I stay vegetarian. Maybe I'm doing the vegan thing wrong - I don't know, but what I do know is I would never let a kid go vegan. Neither would I let them go vegetarian till they were at least 14 and only then if I felt she was responsible enough to understand her dietary needs and not fill up on veggieburgers and french fries.

Kids need to eat a balanced diet for their bones, teeth, development, etc (as this story shows) and I really don't believe that even with the most careful monitoring, a child can be vegan or vegetarian and grow up with no health problems or deficiencies. I hope the parents in the story are prosecuted for neglect, but I doubt it.

The last time I was within 2 foot of a cow it tried to bite me, so I have no sympathy for them.

Are you sure your unfriendly cow was not suffering from an

illnes like mad cow disease?
Hope you didn't eat HER meat:eek:

That's my thought as well. The vegans claim that their diet is "natural" but if you ever look at vegan recipes, they require some weird ingredients that a person could never find by walking through the woods. I don't believe that imported japanese miso is a natural food for someone living in Ohio. I'd think that a truly natural human diet would consist of food stuffs that grow or roam within a couple of square miles of a person.


Very good post.

There's a whole sick industry built around veganism and vegetarianism.

As well as all the books etc there is all the associated "alternative" stuff like homeopathy, meditation, sandals and wooly jumpers.

And to try to ward off the inevitable illnesses these sad, gullible freaks hand over a fortune to the quacks in the vitamin business!

As well as all the books etc there is all the associated "alternative" stuff like homeopathy

You don't believe in homeopathy or natural medicine? You'd better stop taking aspirin then, or penicillin, or a cup of coffee to wake you up, or pray you never have heart disease requiring digitalis. Bet you never put a dock leaf on a nettle sting as a kid, or threw a handful of sea salt in your bath to ease aches, help soothe irritated skin or help a wound heal faster.

Never gargled with warm salt water when you have a toothache/abscess/sore throat? Glass of warm peppermint when you have indigestion?

Homeopathy and natural remedies are wonderful. Conventional medicine definitely has its place, but when used for minor ailments, homeopathy takes out the need for unnecessary drugs and chemicals AND works!

homeopathy takes out the need for unnecessary drugs and chemicals AND works!Homeopathy explained by James Randi.

YouTube - James Randi explains homeopathy

I know about the concept of homeopathy - I used to work in a tincture room in a homeopathic factory, which is how/why I believe it works. I admit that unless you've tried it, it sounds wacky, and until I tried it myself, I thought it was ridiculous. Like a bottle of water could "remember" that it was once a gallon with one drop of something else in it, yeah, right! But I am a convert.

I would never use it on its own for serious illnesses, but a couple of drops of infludo on the tongue for colds or primrose skin food for tired skin really does work!

They care more about political idealism and protection of animals than abusing and crippling their child. Yes, that is insane.

Their are vegans that refuse to breast-feed their babies, because it's an animal product.

I only met one male vegan, he was a junkie with dreadlocks, and he never bathed, because he believed if his pores were clogged he couldn’t sweat the drugs out, prolonging his high. But animal products are unhealthy...

I used to work in a tincture room in a homeopathic factory, which is how/why I believe it works.

Like a bottle of water could "remember" that it was once a gallon with one drop of something else in it, yeah, right! But I am a convert.


Your argument lacks logic.

Your argument lacks logic.

How so, stalker troll?

How so, stalker troll?

First point:
I used to work in a tincture room in a homeopathic factory, which is how/why I believe it works

It is illogical to believe that something "works" because you worked in a place where it was produced.

Second point:
Like a bottle of water could "remember" that it was once a gallon with one drop of something else in it, yeah, right! But I am a convert

There is no logical connection between the first sentence and the following sentence.

Your argument lacks logic.

First point:


It is illogical to believe that something "works" because you worked in a place where it was produced.

Second point:


There is no logical connection between the first sentence and the following sentence.

Your argument lacks logic.

Reading comprehension. It's not just for clever people anymore.

If I may quote myself:
I admit that unless you've tried it, it sounds wacky, and until I tried it myself, I thought it was ridiculous. Like a bottle of water could "remember" that it was once a gallon with one drop of something else in it, yeah, right!

See, I thought (past tense) the concept was ridiculous. After I had tried the medicine and products, I no longer thought it was ridiculous. I realised it worked. Now, did you understand that, or would you like it dumbing down some more?