Raising a little vegan requires more planning and nutritional know-how to insure that the child gets enough calcium, vitamin D, iron, vitamin B-12, and some of the other B-vitamins. Yes, children can grow normally on a diet of grains, legumes, and greens, yet it's a bit risky. A wise parent should seek periodic advice from a nutritionist experienced in vegan diets and practice these precautions: Protein is not a problem, children can get all the proteins they need from plant foods only; especially whole grains, soy products, legumes, and nuts. Calcium may present a challenge, since traditional plant sources of calcium are not big favorites with children. (Good luck getting your child to eat kale and collards.) But many foods today are fortified with calcium, including calcium-fortified soy milk and orange juice, so a vegan child can get enough calcium without relying on supplements. Fortified foods, such as cereals and soy beverages, can also be a dietary source of vitamin B-1...
I have referred to the daily killing of thousands and thousands of animals as a holocaust. It is interesting to see it in print. I am a vegetarian and nearly Vegan. It is a choice I made even as a child, and as many people point out, people become vegetarian or vegan for various reasons. Seeing all the death of so many innocent animals is painful; I don't know how anyone can kill animals on purpose - no matter the reasons. What I've learned is that nobody wants to be lectured about their choices - to eat dead animals or to be vegetarian - but what I wonder is if it is possible that at the very least, people who do eat animals could consider what the animal goes through from the time they are born, captured, maintained, and slaughtered before it became someone's dinner. It's about consciousness...just knowing what animals go through in their very short lives and the supreme sacrifices they are forced to make. I wonder about it. Can humans just for one moment think about the process of an animal's birth until it's death...what it must be thinking, fearing, experiencing. I do and so do some others...and it's just a question I often ask because I never hear anybody comment about it.
ReplyDeleteDespite my crazy veganism, I'm going to have to express dissent to this entry.
ReplyDeleteWe really can't call it a holocaust and I think it is highly improbable that children will ask the questions posed in this post.
Eating meat is a cultural staple of human beings. Horrible as it is, it is slightly different than that of the atrocities committed in the holocaust; the victims from the Nazis were not eaten--they were selected from pure hatred.
No one is eating meat because the hate animals unless they're just being snarky...
And there is an argument for eating meat; this is true of those who have medical conditions where they cannot receive proper nutrition through a plant based diet. There is no argument, however, for the suffering that is inflicted upon them.
Were it not for the ingestion of meat of our primitive ancestors, we would not have had the influx of protein that has allowed our brain to be able to process the abstract concept of compassion.
Despite my crazy veganism, I'm going to have to express dissent to this entry.
ReplyDeleteWe really can't call it a holocaust and I think it is highly improbable that children will ask the questions posed in this post.
Eating meat is a cultural staple of human beings. Horrible as it is, it is slightly different than that of the atrocities committed in the holocaust; the victims from the Nazis were not eaten--they were selected from pure hatred.
No one is eating meat because the hate animals unless they're just being snarky...
And there is an argument for eating meat; this is true of those who have medical conditions where they cannot receive proper nutrition through a plant based diet. There is no argument, however, for the suffering that is inflicted upon them.
Were it not for the ingestion of meat of our primitive ancestors, we would not have had the influx of protein that has allowed our brain to be able to process the abstract concept of compassion.
Which medical conditions were you thinking of exactly?
ReplyDeleteThe word "Holocaust" means a fiery destruction, especially involving loss of life. It is not exclusive to the Nazi attempt to exterminate the Jews and it did not originate with that. It was APPLIED to it, but no one group owns the term. In my childhood, no one I knew of called the genocide of the Jews by the Nazis a "holocaust" at all, until there was a movie about it that was named that, shown as a TV mini-series in 1978. Almost any big destructive fire might be called a "holocaust" up to then. We lived in the age of dire warnings about the potential "nuclear holocaust" and heard THAT phrase a lot.
The word first appeared in 14th century English and was applied to the burnt sacrifice of ANIMALS. So the ORIGINAL usage was concerning the death of ANIMALS before it was applied to people.
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/holocaust
And I do not buy the theory that our human brains developed their power only from meat. Protein comes from many sources, our teeth and relative intestine length more closely resemble fructivore creatures than carnivores, and the Jain religion of India has been strictly followed by entire families and societies of humans for at least hundreds of years and the ethic known as "ahimsa" is based on compassion for all living things and in the Jains, is the basis for a strict vegan type lifestyle. They, among others, have proven the fallacy of the claim that we must eat meat or for that matter, any animal-based substance as food. Animals are not food any more than humans are, just because cannibals wish to kill and eat humans. They have feelings as real as those of humans, and while their slaughter is not what people today call "THE Holocaust", it certainly is A holocaust.