disturbing article

This was something Justin came across in the NY Times:

Death by Veganism
By NINA PLANCK
The NY Times

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.)

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.

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.

Nina Planck is the author of “Real Food: What to Eat and Why.”