NYTimes feels the wrath of Vegans in their letters (response to op-ed Monday)

[NewYorkerfromMass]

Hi everyone.
Not sure if this was posted anywhere else but the rather contentious thread from Monday seemed a bit too full to bury this there.

Wendesday the Times published the letters in response to the op-ed Monday which accused Veganism of not being nutritious enough for babies. I am not a vegan, and have my doubts, but I will report that the Vegans defended their position well in the letters and one can only guess that the flood of repsonse was both overwhelming and overwhelmingly pro-vegan since they lead the letters section, they published 6, and all but 5 were pro vegan. One specific question I had concerned the charge that a vegan's breast milk was deficient in DHA (omega-3's). This was addressed in the very first letter:

I am a nutritionist who testified as an expert witness for the prosecution in the criminal trial of the parents of Crown Shakur. As the lead prosecutor in this case told the jury, this poor infant was not killed by a vegan diet. He was starved to death by parents who did not give him breast milk, soy-based infant formula or enough food of any kind.

Well-planned vegan diets are healthful for pregnant mothers and their infants, as well as for older children, according to a large body of scientific research. Contrary to Ms. Planck’s assertions, there are healthy plant-based sources of docosahexaenoic acid, or DHA; calcium can be absorbed about as readily from soy milk as from cow’s milk; and soy does not inhibit growth.

Studies have found that vegan children are within the normal ranges for weight and height, and I personally know vegan mothers and vegan children who are healthier than many of their omnivorous peers.

Amy Joy Lanou

Washington, May 21, 2007

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/23/opinion/l23vegan.html?pagewanted=print

In closing I must also report that, through a bizzare coincidence, that the NYTimes No.1 most emailed story is now: How to cook a Great Burger ! (the Vegan op-ed is No. 4).

http://www.nytimes.com/gst/mostemailed.html

[bunkerbuster1]

1. What I was tempted to post in reply to the original op-ed thread

but didn't because I thought it'd get lost as well, is that I was really surprised to read such a simplistic, seemingly unresearched op-ed in the New York Times.

Honestly, I expect such stuff in lower-tier papers; but having spent a couple decades reading the Times, I usually know their vetting process to be capable of sorting the wheat from the chaff, and that piece was definitely chaff.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

2. I think the concerns are legitimate

Clearly, you cannot pursue a vegan diet and not be well informed about it, unless you were raised as such.
In fact, the same holds true for a lot of diets, especially the "fad" and celebrity diets which seem to crop up every 6 months or so. As stated in one of the letters, it is this food “fashion” which is really the deadly aspect of it. Not being informed about dietary choices is where most Americans go wrong- especially with regard to obesity and cholesterol. A vegan diet gone wrong is just one amongst many types of diets gone wrong, where the dieter did not pursue it properly.

[bunkerbuster1]

4. The concerns are legitimate

but I seriously question the assertion in the original op-ed piece that states a child can't thrive on a vegan diet.

BTW, I'm neither vegan nor vegetarian, myself.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

5. And that assertion was

refuted very well (I think) by the letter writers.

[Sapere aude]

3. I'm a vegetarian not a vegan. I have been a vegetarian for over 10 years and through observing

myself over that time I find that I haven't had any negative side effects. My cholesterol and blood pressure are normal and I am 61 years old. No diabetes or heart trouble and no cancer as of yet.