doctor's visit

[Guest guest]

>There are a couple of reasons why this upset me, 1) She just assumes

>that by ruling out meat products that my daughter is somehow going to

>be defficient in vitamins and 2) She didn't even bother to test

>anything.

>

>I don't want to give her a vitamin, because I think it's unnessecary

>in a varied nutritious diet. We eat a bigger variety of foods now

>than we ever did when we were ominvouros, and my daughter is probably

>getting far more vitamins now than she was before. If there is a

>defficency, and she ~needs~ more vitamins in her diet, I'd preffer to

>try and up the amount of certain kinds of food before I opt for a

>blanket answer. The children who need the vitamins are those poor

>children who live on hot dogs, white bread & pizza. >>

 

 

I agree with that!

It always frustrates me, and I find it to be a great irony as well as a good

example of the average person's knowledge of nutrition, that people seem to

think that vegetarians/vegans need to take multivitamins. Especially when

it comes to children. I know that this is not always the case, but usually

veg.'s are much more informed about nutrition and pay close attention to

what they eat (not necessarily because they think their diet is defficient,

but because they want to avoid certain foods, and eat only healthy foods, I

find).

It seems to me that dr.'s, etc. should be much more concerned about looking

at the diets of everyone else, because chances are much greater that they

don't have a clue about nutrition or healthy food! Just because they

include animal products in their diet (which aren't even healthy anyway!),

doesn't mean they are eating a generally healthy, whole, nutritious diet.

It doesn't even mean that they eat fruit or vegetables at all!

It seems to me that when someone tells their dr. they are veg. that should

be a sign that they have do indeed have a clue (although this is not always

true, so a few diet-related questions may be warranted...). They probably

don't even ask the rest of them about their diets at all... Heck, most

dr.'s haven't even taken a nutrition class at all, so we probably do know

more than they do! They probably get their nutrition info from the little

" four food groups, " etc. pamplets they hand out in their offices-- which are

ever so graciously published by the American Beef Assoc. (or whatever it's

called). What a wonderful marketing ploy! Put their own ads right into the

schools and dr.'s offices!

This reminds me...I went out with a guy in high school that was chronically

and mysteriouly ill (physically and mentally, if you ask me!), and he lived

on coke, reese's peanut butter cups, and McDonald's hamburgers. When I once

mentioned something about raising my (our) future kids (what was I

thinking!) vegetarian, he said, " No way! " Based on his state of health, any

child of his would require meat to live and be healthy, he wouldn't want

them to be sick like himself. I wish I had the guts back then to say,

" HELLO! "

 

Just rambling on in sympathetic frustration!

Jennifer