Kids Nearly Starved to Death by Improper Vegan Diet

Three young children in Scottsdale, Arizona nearly died because their misguided parents were feeding them what they supposedly thought was a healthy vegan diet. When Blair Parker called 911 because his youngest daughter seemed to be having a seizure, doctors discovered that all three emaciated children were much smaller than they should be. The 3-year-old weighed only 13 pounds, the 11-year-old was the size of a 5-year-old and the 9-year-old was the size of a 3-year-old.

Both parents were arrested and criminally charged. The mother may see as much as 30 years in prison after a jury found her guilty of 3 counts of intentional child abuse. The parents say that their diet stems from Blair’s college studies in nutrition.

From Azcentral.com:

He described a daily regimen with the children that included prayer, study, chores, exercise and rigid adherence to diet, right down to what liquids they could drink and when.

“My children might have been short and light in weight, but I never considered they were unhealthy,” he told the jury.

Parker claimed that he could not find a doctor of his own religious faith or dietary beliefs that he trusted. Instead, he consulted with a naturopath who lived in Washington state and who could not actually see or examine the children.

Parker still claims that the children suffered from “malabsorption,” an inability to absorb vital nutrients.

The prosecutor said that Parker obsessed about the children’s bowel movements and gave them enemas that further impeded absorbing any nutrients of the food they ate.

“Vegan children who are fed properly grow,” said Deputy County Attorney Frankie Grimsman.

And in fact, when the children were placed in foster homes, they immediately began to gain weight - while still maintaining vegan diets.

This is why it’s so important to be educated about nutrition, period, but especially when you want to be vegan. You can’t just eat salad all day every day and hope for the best, and when children are involved, it’s all the more important. A lot of people don’t have a great understanding of what it means to be vegan, and how to get all of the nutrients you need.

Clearly, these children nearly lost their lives and the parents intentionally kept their condition from the public by homeschooling them and rarely taking them outside the home. 30 years does seem like a bit much, though – this isn’t too different from ignorant people feeding babies sugar water in bottles instead of breast milk or formula, which, crazy as it sounds, does happen. Clearly, we need better nutrition education in this country!

I hope somebody is feeding those kids big, juicy sandwiches right now.

Link [Azcentral.com]
Photo credit: Flickr user moria

Vegan Bodybuilding: Now They Can Beat You Up

Great, now the vegans are getting pumped up! Hide your leather shoes!

In all seriousness, veganism is awesome for the planet, so what’s not to love (aside from the crazy-eyed ones that plan terrorist attacks over vegan potluck dinners, of course)? I used to be vegan, myself, though after about two years constant dreams of cheese (I kid you not – I dreamed about cheese dip) led me astray.

Anyway, don’t count on every vegan that crosses your path being scrawny. Some vegans are now showing the world that you can be a big, muscle-bound bodybuilder without the aid of meat and dairy. Justin Palermo has tips for vegans who want to get ripped and still stick to their vegan diet:

Vegetarianism, more specifically a Vegan lifestyle has gotten more mainstream attention in recent years and I am writing this article in an effort to show how it is possible to adhere to a Vegan lifestyle and still make great gains as a bodybuilder.

This article is the first of many installments that I will be writing over the course of the year. In this first part I will highlight workouts that will help Vegan bodybuilders build muscle.

Other vegan bodybuilding articles can be found on BuzzFeed. You can also get more info at VeganBodybuilding.com and VeganBodybuilding.org.

Link [BuzzFeed] + [Bodybuilding.com]
Photo credit: Flickr user roonb

Woody Harrelson Will Live on a Remote Island and Fast for 40 Days

More Woody Harrelson news! This guy is quickly becoming my favorite eco-celeb because he’s genuine and kind of kooky, which makes writing about him more fun. Woody is known for being extremely dedicated to environmentalism, animal rights and the vegan lifestyle. In the past, he’s done some fairly eccentric things, like the 38 day green juice fast and flying his vegan shoes and belt to Cannes after forgetting them at home. Now, he’s planning the most extreme display of weird Woodyism yet.

From Now Magazine via Ecorazzi:

Woody Harrelson plans to live on a remote island and eat nothing for 40 days - to see how the experience affects his brain.

The actor, 46, will go ahead with the experiment as soon as he gets a break in his work schedule.

‘I’ve always wanted to do it,’ he says.

‘I know it’s going to be really hard. But can you imagine it? Eating nothing for 40 days? Swimming and surfing every day in a remote place? Where does the mind go?’

Yoga-loving Woody loves isolated places.

I can only imagine what would happen to my brain after 40 days. Hell, after five days I would be hallucinating. I’d start salivating, Homer Simpson style, over visions of plates of hot food and mugs of coffee. Good luck, Woody!

Link [Ecorazzi] + [Now Magazine]
Photo credit: Flickr user gohsuket

FBI on the Trail of Dangerous Vegan Potluck Dinner Attendees

Dayum! So apparently we’re not the only ones who think militant vegans can get a little crazazy – the FBI is on their trail, too. Those wily wilesters are looking for a few good moles who aren’t afraid of stepping into those infamous dens of dissent – vegan potluck dinners.

College student Paul Carroll was called into a meeting at a coffee house with the campus police sergeant and a female FBI special agent. Carroll had previously been charged with a misdemeanor for spray-painting the inside of a campus elevator, and knew the police officer from when he turned himself in. What they had to say once he got there wasn’t exactly what he was expecting.

From City Pages:

“She told me that I had the perfect ‘look,’” recalls Carroll. “And that I had the perfect personality—they kept saying I was friendly and personable—for what they were looking for.”

What they were looking for, Carroll says, was an informant—someone to show up at “vegan potlucks” throughout the Twin Cities and rub shoulders with RNC protestors, schmoozing his way into their inner circles, then reporting back to the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, a partnership between multiple federal agencies and state and local law enforcement. The effort’s primary mission, according to the Minneapolis division’s website, is to “investigate terrorist acts carried out by groups or organizations which fall within the definition of terrorist groups as set forth in the current United States Attorney General Guidelines.”

Carroll would be compensated for his efforts, but only if his involvement yielded an arrest. No exact dollar figure was offered.

“I’ll pass,” said Carroll.

Those vegans. You gotta watch out for them, seriously, what with their non-leather accessories, tofu and almond milk. They are some dangerous mofos who won’t hesitate to cut you if you dare to pledge your support for meat eating in their presence. As we speak, they’re covering their tracks so the FBI doesn’t find their secret vegan activist hideaways complete with seed bombs, trays of dairy-free bakery treats and posters of famous vegans Alicia Silverstone and Woody Harrelson. They are armed with PETA brochures and planning a terrorist infiltration of the Republican National Convention complete with dangerous ‘Go Vegan’ stickers and peacemongering propaganda.

Link [City Pages] via [BoingBoing]
Photo credit: Flickr user Joi

Holy Oprah! Talk Show Host Goes Vegan

Wow. Just wow. OPRAH, worshipped by millions of American women (and some men, too), has joined Team Vegan. This is huge, y’all. Could veganism get a better spokesmodel? Could anything get a better spokesmodel? I mean, she features a product on her ‘favorite things’ show and packs of rabid Oprah fans raid stores devouring every trace of it.

Ecorazzi’s got the scoop:

After the first day of being vegan she wrote: “So this first day wasn’t hard at all. For breakfast, I had steel-cut oatmeal with fresh blueberries, strawberries, chopped walnuts and a splash of soy milk and some agave nectar. For lunch, chunky mushroom soup with wild rice and pecans. As a snack, a handful of roasted almonds. And for dinner, a baked potato drizzled with olive oil, salt and pepper with a salad of shredded lettuce, cranberries, pine nuts and tiny orange slices with a vinegar and oil dressing.” Delicious!

Now granted as of right now Oprah plans on only doing this for 21 days as part of a cleanse, but I only planned on being vegan for a week and that was 7 years ago. And good news — so far it looks like Oprah has been pretty impressed. She revealed: “Wow, wow, wow! I never imagined meatless meals could be so satisfying. I had been focused on what I had to give up—sugar, gluten, alcohol, meat, chicken, fish, eggs, cheese. “What’s left?” I thought. Apparently a lot. I can honestly say every meal was a surprise and a delight, beginning with breakfast—strawberry rhubarb wheat-free crepes”

Damn, is this fantastic for animals everywhere. We can only hope that her crazed fans follow suit and at least give it a try. If nothing else, this elevates veganism into the public consciousness in a positive light.

We’ll just have to see if it holds, and undoubtedly vegans worldwide will be watching as well. Woe to Oprah if she tries to pull any veganwashing. Have you ever met a militant vegan? They’re fucking nuts!

Link [Ecorazzi]
Photo credit: Flickr user Willowtree2005

The Vegan Stripper: Casa Diablo Gentlemens Club Combines Hot Naked Ladies with Animal Free Eatin’

Talk about a mash up made in heaven- The Casa Diablo Gentlemens Club in Portland, Oregon combines veganism with strippers. I was a vegetarian for six years in my early twenties and could never see myself giving up milk, butter, and cheese, but if anything could convince me to make the jump it’d be a hot naked vegan girl dancing in my face.

Naturally, some vegans are pissed that their movement is being used to sell sex (but then again, a lot of vegans are pissed about one thing or another all the time, so what can you do…).

Here’s a bit from the story in the New York Times, it’s hidden behind a registration wall, but you can head over to BugMeNot and grab some logins (I used ‘pleasestopthis0′ for a login and ‘blahblah’ as a pw, try those first).

TWO things that you can find a lot of in Portland, Ore., are vegans and strip clubs. Johnny Diablo decided to open a business to combine both. At his Casa Diablo Gentlemen’s Club, soy protein replaces beef in the tacos and chimichangas; the dancers wear pleather, not leather. Many are vegans or vegetarians themselves.

But Portland is also home to a lot of young feminists, and some are not happy with Mr. Diablo’s venture. Since he opened the strip club last month, their complaints have been “all over the Internet,” he said. “One of them came in here once. I could tell she had an attitude right when she came in. She was all hostile.”

Mr. Diablo isn’t concerned with the “feminazis,” as he calls them. As a vegan himself, he says he hasn’t worn or eaten animal products in 24 years and is worried about cruelty to animals. “My sole purpose in this universe is to save every possible creature from pain and suffering,” he said.

Casa Diablo is just the latest example of selling veganism with a “Girls Gone Wild” aesthetic to draw the ire of vegans who complain that such tactics may get people to pay attention to animal cruelty, but for the wrong reasons. In Los Angeles, some frown at the scantily clad Vegan Vixens — a kind of animal-loving Pussycat Dolls — who perform songs like “Real Men Don’t Hunt” at fund-raisers for animal welfare groups.

Link [New York Times] via [Boing Boing]