Vegan couple jailed for giving 18-month-old restrictive diet

[Evil Midnight Bomber]

No, that's called shitty parenting, not so much of a belief system as much as a state of stupidity and ineptitude.

These parents have been practicing a belief system that was at least, if not more, as harmful as flat earth. Malnutrition was only part of the problem. The child had also never been vaccinated nor registered as being born, or given her any pediatric checkups.

“According to their ideological belief that the daughter was a citizen of the world, her parents did not even report the birth to any authority, have her checked at a pediatric center, or even weigh or measure her growth. Nor has the girl been vaccinated or examined by a doctor,” a court statement said.

[Deathknightish]

Love how the English article left out the most hilarious stuff about them.

They refused to let the state know that she was born because "they don't want Sweden to take loans in her name".
When asked if they give her suppliments, they answered "she gets sunshine, laughter and hugs instead"
They refuse to give the child stuff like cheese, because it transforms into morphine in her stomach, and makes her addicted.
They want to be like "the bees that fly around and pollinate"

[IIamaKing]

Please tell me they were not breastfeeding because of veganism.

[unbound]

doubt the diet had much to do with when the parents seem to have been a bunch of stoners.
feeding the child was probably not something that entered their minds very often.

Actually, the diet was a fairly big part of it.

What people don't understand about a vegan diet is that you can't actually live on it by purely natural means alone. The diet is missing some important vitamins and amino acids...for a vegan diet to succeed, you have to rely on either fully artificial supplementation (sometimes added to certain vegan foods) or supplementation that actually has its origin from animal products (e.g. vitamin B12).

Furthermore, like any extreme diet, for it to be successful, you have to do more work than you would with a general diet. In the case of a purely meat eater diet, you need to make sure that you eat some internal organs that are either uncooked to only very lightly cooked (such as a liver) to get Vitamin C. In the case of a vegan diet, you need to have a pretty good variety of vegan foods to make sure you get the essential vitamins, minerals, and amino acids your body needs (and you will still be missing some without some kind of supplementation as mentioned).

In the case of growing children, the vegan diet is the absolutely worst mainstream diet you can use for them. Unless you are going to put in *huge* amounts of effort to ensure the right variety of foods and supplements are used, you will screw them up.

[cparle87]

/facepalm I fucking hate some people.

I remember there was an episode of house almost 15 years ago with this exact thing. Vegan couple got jailed cause their baby was failing to thrive. Thankfully it turned out the baby had a condition unrelated to diet that was the cause and they were released.

[Techno-Druid]

These parents have been practicing a belief system that was at least, if not more, as harmful as flat earth. Malnutrition was only part of the problem. The child had also never been vaccinated nor registered as being born, or given her any pediatric checkups.

I agree that these people are delusional, I wouldn't consider that to be representative of veganism however, which is essentially just a diet that doesn't include animal products.

[Alex86el]

that is one unlucky 12960‬-hour-old baby.

let's hope the 777600-minute-old child will grow up fine.

now that i think of it, she probably will be fine,
since it's a female and any stunted growth wont affect her quality of life whatsoever.

the parents should not be allowed to have a baby unless they ...change, i guess.

[BargainBoy]

Actually, the diet was a fairly big part of it.

What people don't understand about a vegan diet is that you can't actually live on it by purely natural means alone. The diet is missing some important vitamins and amino acids...for a vegan diet to succeed, you have to rely on either fully artificial supplementation (sometimes added to certain vegan foods) or supplementation that actually has its origin from animal products (e.g. vitamin B12).

Furthermore, like any extreme diet, for it to be successful, you have to do more work than you would with a general diet. In the case of a purely meat eater diet, you need to make sure that you eat some internal organs that are either uncooked to only very lightly cooked (such as a liver) to get Vitamin C. In the case of a vegan diet, you need to have a pretty good variety of vegan foods to make sure you get the essential vitamins, minerals, and amino acids your body needs (and you will still be missing some without some kind of supplementation as mentioned).

In the case of growing children, the vegan diet is the absolutely worst mainstream diet you can use for them. Unless you are going to put in *huge* amounts of effort to ensure the right variety of foods and supplements are used, you will screw them up.

I think you nailed it. It takes a lot of effort to sustain and it's difficult to make sure small kids develop fully because of it.

Here's some reading that backs it up: https://www.alexfergus.com/blog/8-pr...ruin-your-body

[Evil Midnight Bomber]

I agree that these people are delusional, I wouldn't consider that to be representative of veganism however, which is essentially just a diet that doesn't include animal products.

I didn't say it was representative of vegans as a whole. I said that these peoples beliefs are at least as bad, if not worse, than flat earthers. At least believing that the earth is flat isn't going to kill a kid.

[Masser]

Fox News is Fake News.

- - - Updated - - -

Yeah, no. I rather be healthy than a vegan.

I highly doubt that you're healthy.

[Techno-Druid]

I didn't say it was representative of vegans as a whole. I said that these peoples beliefs are at least as bad, if not worse, than flat earthers. At least believing that the earth is flat isn't going to kill a kid.

Oh yeah, definitely agree there.

[Self Inflicted Wounds]

Our ancestors would not have evolved into modern humans without cooked meat.

Also, Gorillas do sometimes eat meat. They also sometimes eat straight up wood. When on veggies/fruits only, they need to eat ~60 pounds of food a day. But they often eat insects as well... which are animals.

Chimps, Baboons, Mandrills also eat meat, and prefer it because meat allows you to eat less often. I believe all three form hunting parties for other animals. Beyond that they normally have fruits and nuts and things in their territory. Primates that eat a smaller amount of meat end up spending more of their awake time traveling and seeking food.

[Evil Midnight Bomber]

Our ancestors would not have evolved into modern humans without cooked meat.

The irony that the only reason they even have the mental faculties to make a moral choice about eating meat is because, for countless generations, their ancestors ate meat is lost on most vegans.

[Celista]

The irony that the only reason they even have the mental faculties to make a moral choice about eating meat is because, for countless generations, their ancestors ate meat is lost on most vegans.

I think it's ok for us to evolve beyond meat-eating if we so choose. We don't need to keep doing things just because our ancestors did it. In any case, this is a moot discussion because when the next plague/famine hits you know people are going to be eating whatever the fuck they can get their hands on. Cats, dogs, gerbils, whatever.

[Self Inflicted Wounds]

The irony that the only reason they even have the mental faculties to make a moral choice about eating meat is because, for countless generations, their ancestors ate meat is lost on most vegans.

I think it's ok for us to evolve beyond meat-eating if we so choose. We don't need to keep doing things just because our ancestors did it. In any case, this is a moot discussion because when the next plague/famine hits you know people are going to be eating whatever the fuck they can get their hands on. Cats, dogs, gerbils, whatever.

I pointed this out, not because I think veganism is bad, but because the scoffing is vexing. Eat what you wanna eat, but besides some amount of ethics, I don't think eating meat is worse etc... my point being that our bodies have evolved because of, and specifically to eat meat.

Someone compared humans to Gorillas and Elephants, but we are nothing like Elephants, and we evolved away from Gorillas millions of years ago. And the point was moot anyway, because Gorillas will eat meat...

But by any means, eat whatever you want, but don't run around acting like its purely better than meat.

[Phuongvi]

Liek all vegan, they found their source for nutrituion on a Certificate vegan website lol

[Unholyground]

Is "just fine" really what you want out of life? I wouldn't take to raising a family with such low standards.

Everyone is forgotten in a couple hundred years so enjoy yourself.

[Ahovv]

My son is on a vegan diet and has been for the past 4 years.
People always seem to flip out when you hear a child dying or getting sick because of incompetent parents yet it doesn't really happen all that often.

Child obesity is much more of an issue and a lot more common yet the noise around it is fairly minimal.

The noise isn't minimal, people just respond to those comments with "oh so you're fat-shaming"

[Loeve]

typical brainwashed vegans

I dont care that some people willingly go on a vegan diet themselves, but forcing it on other people is just cruel.

[Bodakane]

So much misinformation on here and even in the OP news article about what veganism is.

I can't for the life of me understand how so many people can have so much hate towards something and they don't actually know what it is or is actually about.