[Vicky.]

Originally Posted by y.winter

Going to the gym and lifting some weights doesn't mean you're helping your body, you could quite easily harm yourself - it's all about doing it right. Same goes with diet and nutrition.
For me, it comes to show how badly educated people are when it comes to plant based food. When fruits and vegetables almost go under the same group in the (allegedly) food pyramid they teach you in school, when in reality it has so much layers and they differ from each other in so many aspects. When I'm getting asked "of you're vegan? So what do you have to eat?" I love to joke and answer "lettuce", because I find it funny that once you take dairy products and meat from the equation, people don't know where to begin with - and it's ridiculous, because there's so much to begin with and the variety is enormous without even touching the fake meat and like-milk category. Just replacing your meat meals with veggie burgers and other supermarket-bought frozen vegan meals and your yogurt with soy based one -doesn't mean you're doing it right. But people think they are, when it's actually mostly junk food with zero nutritional values.
In regards to the child thing - eating animals is not more of a default diet than a vegan diet is, it's rather your own personal opinion/social convention (not necessarily a right one). There's nothing unbalanced and non beneficial in vegan diet (in fact it has more than many other diets). People don't know how to deal with it because of bad/lack of education - this is where it falls.
And as for the cat lady - yeah, I have come across a lot of weird people, vegans and non vegans, so the way I see it, it's nothing but ad hominem.

Well yes, more education about this in schools and in general tbh would definitely help. As I said, my opinion on the whole thing may well be biased due to the people I know who are veggie/vegan and how I have actually watched them become pale and ridiculously thin after ditching meat, heard them going on about suffering severe anemia and so on. But yes, they probably just don't balance stuff properly or understand that its so much more than just replacing chicken with processed crap from the supermarket :S

I am not saying eating animals should be the default diet for kids. But if the kid wants to eat meat to the point where she actually cries when kids around her are eating meat that she is not allowed...do you not think this is quite cruel? Obviously some kids chose not to which is fine (aslong as the parents are educated in how to keep the diet as balanced as possible...mind some parents could do with a crash course in this in general) but having the choice totally taken from them...I just think is awful tbh

[user104658]

Originally Posted by Vicky.

But if the kid wants to eat meat to the point where she actually cries when kids around her are eating meat that she is not allowed...do you not think this is quite cruel? Obviously some kids chose not to which is fine (aslong as the parents are educated in how to keep the diet as balanced as possible...mind some parents could do with a crash course in this in general) but having the choice totally taken from them...I just think is awful tbh

If she's actually at the point of crying for certain types of food then it's highly likely that the kid is craving, and has a deficiency. It's not just cruel, it's abuse that's going to cause long-term health problems .

[y.winter]

Originally Posted by Vicky.

Well yes, more education about this in schools and in general tbh would definitely help. As I said, my opinion on the whole thing may well be biased due to the people I know who are veggie/vegan and how I have actually watched them become pale and ridiculously thin after ditching meat, heard them going on about suffering severe anemia and so on. But yes, they probably just don't balance stuff properly or understand that its so much more than just replacing chicken with processed crap from the supermarket :S

I am not saying eating animals should be the default diet for kids. But if the kid wants to eat meat to the point where she actually cries when kids around her are eating meat that she is not allowed...do you not think this is quite cruel? Obviously some kids chose not to which is fine (aslong as the parents are educated in how to keep the diet as balanced as possible...mind some parents could do with a crash course in this in general) but having the choice totally taken from them...I just think is awful tbh

I really don't know about those parents personally, so I don't think I can have a proper answer in this case. Kids tend to cry and throw a tantrum about many things ("mommy buy me!" "Mommy I want!" etc), some are justified and some are not, and parental guidance takes part somewhere in-between. It can be a right demand, but it can also be peer pressure for example - kids don't always know what's good for them and it's up to their parents to show them the way (as long as it's not neglecting them). This is my non experienced take on parenthood anyway haha. I don't know the couple or the child but I believe that if something is disturbingly wrong, you can only raise a flag and let the kindergartner/authorities to deal with it.