"Baby fed vegan diet hospitalized and moved from parents" was the headline for a very incomplete news story in the San Francisco Chronicle on July 11, 2016.
It failed to say what the baby as given on this "vegan diet," which can perpetuate myths about the inadequacy of a diet free of animal products.
This prompted me to write to the reporter, Amy Graff, a senior news producer at sfgate.com, whose "Mommy Files" gets 3,000,000 views a month.
Dear Amy Graff,
Please consider doing a more thorough article on the
under-nourished Italian baby who was fed a strictly vegan diet. What did that diet consist of?
I was not a vegan or vegetarian when I breast-fed my son
many years ago, but I know that he didn't have meat for a long time. Most babies have breast milk, cereal, fruit
and vegetables for the first months.
Could you report on what the baby was given rather than
defining the baby's diet as "strictly vegan"? A strictly vegan diet can be a lot healthier
than one with meat and dairy products--healthier for the baby and healthier for
animals and the environment.
I hope you, as a young mother, know the environmental and
health reasons for a vegan diet as well as the concerns vegans have for the
suffering of animals in factory farms, which treat animals as if they were
inanimate objects.
I'm afraid that a report stating that a baby is
undernourished because it's on a vegan diet can set back progress in eating in
a way that's healthy for all.
Your reader,
Tina Martin
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