As a vegan, why do I feel like it's expected that I've mastered multiple books like this one? Of course, if more omnivores read these, there might be fewer omnivores out there...
Each day when I sit down to find something on the internet to write about, I usually start with a Google News search for “vegan.” It hasn’t really given me anything useful for a long time, since the internet is pretty much full and all, but it makes me nostalgic for the era where I’d set things up to get news alerts via email, and days would pass before a news item arrived containing the word vegan. And then it’d be about someone in Las Vegas.
But today, oh today, I am vindicated!
Well, if by vindicated you mean “really irritated.”
And this isn’t just a rant fuelled by the fact that VP was denied entry into Google News (apparently “it would amuse the crap out of me” isn’t sufficient justification. Huh.)
ANYway.
NewsMAX!! (capitalization and exclamation points added by me on a whim, but doesn’t it sound even more awesome?) has put out their 10 Best Diet Tips for Vegans, and I defy you to read most of them with “humans” instead of “vegans” in there and tell me if it doesn’t still sound sensible.
Well, except for the one about exposure to sunlight for 15 to 20 minutes a day for vitamin D production. It’s added to soymilk just like it’s added to cow’s milk, at least up here, and sunlight is a non-option for a surprisingly large portion of the population: if you live above the 34th parallel, you’re going to be deficient for at least some of the year if you rely on sunlight alone according to the National Institutes of Heath, who, I might add, I won’t take seriously until they rename to HealthMAX!!
OK, this is all sounding a little bitter, and the truth is, if this article was written as a series of “hey, if you’re worried about X, you can get plenty of it through Y” tips I’d be, like, thanksMAX! Instead, I’m left with the impression that veganism is hard to manage, which is crap. Where do omnivores get their monounsaturated fatty acids? Do they somehow not have to “include the adequate intake of fiber, proteins, carbohydrates, and vitamins by choosing a wide selection of foods” and “include different combinations of foods and recipes to ensure that the diet doesn’t become boring and nutrient deficient”?
Basically, I’m more than a little tired of this double standard where vegans need nutrition degrees and omnivores can eat whatever they want without even knowing what a carbohydrate is, other than “evil.” Why do meat-eaters get a pass when it comes to required nutrition knowledge?