Room For Debate on VEGANISM. New York Times April 2012

[Veganism]

Intro: Is Veganism Good For Everyone?

The Debators.

A Choice With Definite Risks. Nina Planck is the author of the Real Food series and The Farmer's Market Cookbook.

Plant-Strong Is The Way. Rip Esselstyn, a former professional athlete and a firefighter, is the author of "The Engine 2 Diet."

It’s About Food Quality. Erika Nicole Kendall writes about wellness, weight loss, healthy eating and body image issues at A Black Girl's Guide to Weight Loss.

We Are Not Grizzly Bears. Brian Patton is author of The Sexy Vegan Cookbook and is executive chef for Vegin' Out, a vegan food delivery service in Los Angeles.

Meat Is Brain Food. Drew Ramsey is an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Columbia University and is co-author of "The Happiness Diet."

The Jury Is Still Out. Rhys Southan was vegan for nine years before quitting for health reasons. He critiques the arguments for veganism on his blog Let Them Eat Meat.

[Carolyn Bailey]

This is the link to each person's contribution to this debate, this link takes you to the essay from Nina Planck, the author of the Real Food series and The Farmer's Market Cookbook.

http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/04/17/is-veganism-good-fo...

Nina Planck has no nutritional training, and apparently very little knowledge on the topic. Ginny Messina responded brilliantly to this essay here: http://www.theveganrd.com/2012/04/the-new-york-times-nina-planck-an....

Ginny is a dietician specialising in vegan nutrition, and thoroughly debunked the uninformed statements Nina Planck made, in part, by stating:

Last week brought more shoddy coverage of vegan diets from The New York Times. This time, it was a debate about the safety of veganism. And it didn’t occur to the Times to solicit opinions from anyone with actual expertise in vegan nutrition.

At the center of the discussion was food writer and farmer’s market expert Nina Planck, who excels at making sweeping, unsupported observations about nutrition. She is woefully uninformed and spectacularly unconcerned about her lack of knowledge and credentials.

and

There’s nothing new here. Nina Planck doesn’t like vegan diets and she doesn’t know nutrition science. That’s always a dangerous combination. The Nina Plancks of the world can’t be stopped from writing what they like, but it’s deplorable that the New York Times would provide them with a platform.

 

Another interesting rebuttal of Nina Planck's article is here:

http://drmcdougall.com/response_to_ny_times.htm

 

The comments on this article are very interesting as well.

 

 

[Mo Orr]

Meat is brain food - the happiness diet. Happiness for who? Is veganism good for everyone? It's sure good for the 56 billion other animals who are unnecessarily killed each year.