Friday, October 13, 2017

Jane E. Brody's Weirdly-written "Good Vegan, Bad Vegan"

Jane E. Brody's "Good Vegan, Bad Vegan," published in the New York Times on October 2, 2017, is strangely written, almost like a bait and switch.




She begins with "I have no argument with people who adopt a vegetarian or vegan diet for health, religious, environmental or ethical reasons. "  (How big of her.)

"But I object vehemently to proselytizers who distort science ..."

I object vehemently to these people and their distortions too, and she gives an example that screams out, "Peer review???"  

It's from the Netflix documentary "What the Health" and it says that eating an egg a day is as bad as smoking five cigarettes.

But the rest of her article or column  is just so obvious or contradictory, and when she does cite studies of eating and health, they support a plant-based diet. 

Also, when she says, "The protein in plants is not complete and must be balanced by consuming complementary sources, like beans and grains."  Aren't beans and grains plants?  I always think of them as part of a plant-based diet, and it doesn't seem so difficult to me to include them!  I trust she isn't talking about how you have to have beans and rice together to create a complete protein.  That's been disproved. 

She also says she doesn't endorse inhumane treatment of farm animals (etc.), but acknowledges that it goes on because regulators don't force commercial operations to improve the situations; meanwhile she eats meat "in reasonable amounts."

She ends with the suggestion that meat-eaters add one or more new plant-based recipes each week.  "I bet you'll be pleasantly surprised at how much more delicious and varied your meals will be."

So...it's almost as if she should have begun her column/article with an "Although..."  "Although I hate distortions in proselytizing by vegans, I see evidence that a plant-based diet..."

She's holding on to meat, of course, and makes that clear.


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