Earlier this month, a vegan couple in Atlanta their baby were sentenced to life in prison after their baby, nourished mainly on soy milk and apple juice, starved to death. "This particular calamity," writes Nina Planck, author of Real Food: What to Eat and Why, "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.
Death by Veganism [New York Times]
Image: Tammy Green
