Vegan diets are so healthy!

[uebermann]

[Stratego]

The parents are just sucky vegans. You get all the vitamins and minerals you need if you eat a bunch of random vegetables. Vegans actually have less problem getting vitamins and minerals than meat eaters. The common problem vegans face is not enough protein and/or using too much sodium to flavor their food.

[exploited]

I think putting these parents in jail was a step too far. They sound like your basic naive idealistic morons, and I doubt they had any sort of malicious motives. Knowing that, I imagine they will suffer for the rest of their lives for this... no prison sentence needed.

[uebermann]

[Winchester]

Supplements/fortifications are a good idea for any kind of diet especially nursing mothers. No question people who eat a vegan diet are susceptible to deficiencies in B12 (and they have to eat supplements or food fortified with B12) and to a lesser extent calcium and iron (very diet dependent). Omni's and Veggie diets are both going to need supplements in Vitamin D (unless one live in a very sunny local) and Iodine (most people get this from fortified salt).

That being said B12 is not an animal based nutrient, it's bacteria (in the soil) based. Omnivores get it from animals they consume because the animals got it from eating unwashed plants that have the B12 producing bacteria. We now live in a society where food is thoroughly washed or grown in "sterile" soil so we can't get B12 from eating root veggies.

We clearly are omni (extremely good survival mechanism) but I would argue the historical omni portion of humans diets are considerably less than our modern day diet. Chimp's meat/insect portion of their diets only account for about 2% of their calories, rest is plant based.

As far as the parents in the OP, obviously completely ignorant as are parents like these:

[Stratego]

[John Galt]

[exploited]

[John Galt]

[The Dharma Bum]

It sounfs like they were trying some kind of home remedy or something. The fact is a a lot of people don't trust the modern industrial system and seek to avoid it by following lifestyle trends etc

There's just really no way to do it, though. Because of the extreme division of labor in our society people no longer have the skills or knowledge necessary to survive independently. Often when they try the results are disastrous.

It is possible to have a perfectly healthy vegan diet, but you have to know what you are doing.