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August 13, 1997
"A vegan diet is the ideal diet, whether pregnant or not."
NEXT WEEK:
Diet & Yeast Infections
If you have a question or concern about healthy dietary
choices, send it to us in an e-mail message, and
we'll forward it to Dr. Attwood.
Pregnancy and Meat
I was recently at a
conference in KS and I was (once again) attacked for my
"radical" food beliefs. I am a vegan and was
forced to go out and buy my own food at a local food
store and inform the food service personnel how to
prepare dairy-free vegetarian food. I was at first
singled out as the "young man with the strange
diet". Several members of the study group I dined
with said they "didn't eat *red* meat" or
"only ate fish". As the week went by I found
them eating meat three times a day and wanting to eat my
brown rice which was much more attractive than the white
rice and mashed potatoes they were served as the
starches.
My question is this. One of the facilitators of the workshop a well educated and eloquent woman finally spoke out to me on a matter of fact manner that "vegetarian diets are fine but a pregnant woman MUST eat meat to have a healthy child." This was difficult for me to accept as fact and I wanted to get an expert opinion on the subject. Are mother's putting their children at risk by not living as carnivores during pregnancy and lactation? I didn't even envy their meals as they ate chicken almost every day. Some didn't eat ham or bacon. My diet was much more varied and lower in fats and the byproducts of meat preservation than theirs, yet it is not easy being a dietary minority especially in the Midwest. Please rescue me with some good research re this question.
A vegan diet is the
ideal diet, whether pregnant or not. We've learned from
the China Study that pregnancies proceeded perfectly
normal, with healthy offspring, on vegan diets. For over
35 years I have observed normal babies after a totally
vegan pregnancy on the part of the mother. This includes
my granddaughter, who has never been exposed to animal
products, either in ureto or during her first two years.
Interestingly, she has beautiful skin, has grown
normally, and the usual colds and ear infections have
been absent. I also know teens and young adults who are
in excellent health after a lifetime without animal
products. Your conference speakers mean well, but are
unaware of the facts. Two-thirds of the world are vegan
and they thrive on it.
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