This morning my boss put up an interesting article that was comletely anti-vegan. My response...GO VEGANS! He does it to get some of us who love tofu (including him) all up in a tizzy. The article was entitled, Death by Veganism, published in the New York Times 2007. Well, if that didn't catch my attention! Nina Planck who is the author of "Real Food: What to Eat and Why" goes on to say some pretty annoying things. She starts her debate by reporting the case of a 6 week old baby, weighing 3.5 lbs, who died in Atlanta because of her vegan parents. They were charged with murder, involuntary manslaughter and cruelty. The reason: The baby was feed mostly soy milk and apple juice.
While that may have been a problem it's the rest of the article that gets me. She goes on to talk about what most meat eaters talk about.... PROTEIN! " 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." This was interesting to me in the light that this lady used to be a vegan. It seems like she would know about nuts, legumes and dark leafy greens and that after studies and much evidence that she would be worried about the safety issues with flesh foods, etc.
I am convinced that animal products add a dangerous element to our overall health. If a cow is sent to the slaughter with eye cancer (true story) and if chickens are raised for food in just two months than what keeps those harmful substances from entering our grocery stores? Nothing.
She also mentioned the need for Omega-3 found in fatty fish. Planck said this is absent from even breast milk. So it looks like we better be eating our flaxseed!
After reporting on all of this I must say that I don't believe that this is a salvation issue, but what I do believe is that we have a lot of knowledge that needs to be shared on these topics. Yes, Jesus ate plenty of meat in his day but I think that we have an ample amount of food options available to us today. I'm truly thankful for our health message and I know that Bible backs it up 100%. In heaven we will be eating from the trees and plants so I will keep enjoying my plants here too.
By the way, this week I planted a garden. In it you can find tomatoes, green beans, zucchini, and cucumbers. It will be fun to see how everything grows.