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Thread: Myths about vegans: 'How are you getting your nutrients - you poor thing?'

  1. #51
    VeganDaze's Avatar
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    Default Re: Myths about vegans: 'How are you getting your nutrients - you poor thing?'

    Quote littlewinker View Post
    The skinny thing really annoys me.

    Calling someone skinny is acceptable (jealousy no doubt, men never say it) whereas people call obeses like beth ditto voluptous and womanly.
    Me too! I was always around the size I am now, before I was a vegan too. People seem to feel they have a right to comment on my appearance e.g. 'you look skinnier every time I see you' (last week's kindest comment) when they would NEVER take such a liberty with someone who was overweight.

    Why is it rude to tell someone they are looking porky today but not to tell me I look thin? I don't hate my size or care that much about the comments, but the double standards are v annoying.

    Luckily some people I know think that it is because I have a healthy diet, although I also get the usual 'where do you get protein?' pretty frequently. A nurse even asked me that recently!! I reeled off a list, while thinking 'thank goodness for knowledgeable health professionals'

  2. #52
    littlewinker
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    Default Re: Myths about vegans: 'How are you getting your nutrients - you poor thing?'

    It's usually quite easy for me to stick up for myself, cos it's normally fatties it's only easy when they'r strangers though cos I can lay into them without consequences

    I say stuff like "I'm skinny coz my brain uses all my calories" when it's my friends though. They don't seem to understand it's rude, and if I have a go back, it's ALWAYS me who they fall out with, they don't understand hey had a go at me first.

    It doesn't hurt my feelings either, but it makes you look a mug when someone says something rude to you >.<

    I think it's because the media is so intent on skinny-hating, ignorant people think that it's healthy to be chubby and anyone under a size 12 is suffering to look so good. And they try and kid themselves us slimmies don't look good.

    Aaaaaargh i could go on forever about fat jealous skinny haters and how unfair it is but no one will ever believe us because they're FAAAAAT

  3. #53
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    Default Re: Myths about vegans: 'How are you getting your nutrients - you poor thing?'

    Provided a vegan has at least 3 servings of vegetables (serving size: 1 cup raw vegetables, 1/2 cup cooked vegetables), 5 servings of whole grains (serving: 1/2 cup rice or ceral or pasta, 1 slice bread), 3 servings fruit (serving: medium piece or 1/2 cup cooked fruit or juice), 2 servings legumes (serving: 1/2 cup cooked beans, 120 grams tofu or tempeh, 1 cup soy milk) plus 1 Vitamin B12 tablet plus 15 minutes of exposure of face and arms in the Sun (for Vitamin D) one will meet all one's nutritional needs (according to Physicians for responsible medicine).

  4. #54
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    Default Re: Myths about vegans: 'How are you getting your nutrients - you poor thing?'

    Sweet Joe, thanks. Could you provide a link?
    it is wrong for a man to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble

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    Default Re: Myths about vegans: 'How are you getting your nutrients - you poor thing?'

    I found this about negative link about them, not that I know who activistcash.com is anyway:

    http://www.activistcash.com/organiza...iew.cfm/oid/23

    Obviously I appreciate your advice and don't support most of the views of that article but if it is true that Physicians for Responsible medicine are less than or equal to 5% physicians, well I hate that. We need strong true people backing us up with the truth.
    it is wrong for a man to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble

  6. #56
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    Default Re: Myths about vegans: 'How are you getting your nutrients - you poor thing?'

    Quote littlewinker View Post
    It's usually quite easy for me to stick up for myself, cos it's normally fatties it's only easy when they'r strangers though cos I can lay into them without consequences

    I say stuff like "I'm skinny coz my brain uses all my calories" when it's my friends though. They don't seem to understand it's rude, and if I have a go back, it's ALWAYS me who they fall out with, they don't understand hey had a go at me first.

    It doesn't hurt my feelings either, but it makes you look a mug when someone says something rude to you >.<

    I think it's because the media is so intent on skinny-hating, ignorant people think that it's healthy to be chubby and anyone under a size 12 is suffering to look so good. And they try and kid themselves us slimmies don't look good.

    Aaaaaargh i could go on forever about fat jealous skinny haters and how unfair it is but no one will ever believe us because they're FAAAAAT
    You think that the media is mean to just skinny girls? I think over time in general everyone has been much more rude to larger people.

    People comment on EVERYTHING whether you are fat or skinny, i'm not entirely sure who gets it worse though...Its bad if your skinny, its bad if your fat, its pretty ridiculous, these stupid, stifling, expectations about looks that everyone puts on everyone else! In general I think that most general people strive to be slender, and I think that people are probably making comments about you because they are jealous and inscure with their own weight, and I am sure you are getting extremely frusterated and irratated by that AND you have every right to be, but perhaps you shouldn't go around calling them fatties? Its just continuing the cycle, I mean you don't like people commenting on your size right?...I think the best way to make them stop is say "I really don't appreciate people commenting on my size, I am this size because that is what I am supposed to be, just as you are." As long as you are healthy it shouldn't really matter how "skinny" or how "fat" you are.

    I understand where you are coming as I get comments about my weight too, I am constantly told to "eat more" that I am "getting to skinny" and believe you and me I am by no means skinny, but I am not fat either, I have curves and a good amount of fat on my body, but I did used to be pretty overweight...perhaps that why I am sticking up for the "fatties" as you so delicately put it...just try to remember where they are coming from and why they are saying that stuff to you, it hurts just as much to be called FAT as it does TOO SKINNY.

    I hope I didn't offend you by anything I said, that wasn't my intention, I really really know where you are coming from. And I am sure you are perfect the way you are so don't let anyone get you down or tell you anything otherwise.
    "i'm rejecting my reflection, cause i hate the way it judges me."

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    Default Re: Myths about vegans: 'How are you getting your nutrients - you poor thing?'

    I don't know why people thinks it their right to make unkind and down right nasty comments on another persons appearance. We should go by the old saying my great-grandfather had " If you haven't got something nice to say don't say anything at all"

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    Default Re: Myths about vegans: 'How are you getting your nutrients - you poor thing?'

    I agree. there is no one of the planet that has the right to judge anyone.
    "i'm rejecting my reflection, cause i hate the way it judges me."

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    Default Re: Myths about vegans: 'How are you getting your nutrients - you poor thing?'

    Quote Casper View Post
    I don't know why people thinks it their right to make unkind and down right nasty comments on another persons appearance. We should go by the old saying my great-grandfather had " If you haven't got something nice to say don't say anything at all"
    I just thought of something else...that is a really good rule to go by, however I think for the most part when people mention that someone is skinny I believe they mean it as a complement, especially if they are overweight themselves...but people that are skinny and have been teased about it over and over again won't take it as such...to them its just another jab at their body.

    I.E.

    When I was about 15 and wearing shorts, my sister in law's mother told me "wow! you have such big white legs!!"

    now she is asian and in a lot of asian cultures pale skin is really beautiful and she genuinely meant it as a compliement..but oh boy was I hurt!!

    why is this tiny lady saying I have big white legs?! how rude!! it took my sister in law to a long time to explain it was a complement...but that was because I have been teased ALL my life about my pale skin and I had been teased a lot about being fat.

    So while you think they are just saying things to be mean they may mean it as a complement, and wish that someone would say "wow you look skinny!" to them...because they are overweight. What they say while being an insult to you would have been (if said to them) a complement, so technically to them they would be saying something nice...
    "i'm rejecting my reflection, cause i hate the way it judges me."

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    Default Re: Myths about vegans: 'How are you getting your nutrients - you poor thing?'

    Quote Haniska View Post
    Sweet Joe, thanks. Could you provide a link?
    http://www.pcrm.org/health/veginfo/vsk/food_groups.html


    http://www.pcrm.org/health/prevmed/strong_bones.html


    While anybody can join PCRM, all its board members are medical doctors

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    Default Re: Myths about vegans: 'How are you getting your nutrients - you poor thing?'

    Missbettie, your right I've had people/relatives say to me "My aren't you a big girl!" and I said to my Mom that's kind of rude. She said they mean tall, but that's not how I took it. So you definatley have to take those kinds of factors in to consideration. It's thinking before you speak/react, how a comment could be taken another way than you/they intended.

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    Default Re: Myths about vegans: 'How are you getting your nutrients - you poor thing?'

    exactly.
    "i'm rejecting my reflection, cause i hate the way it judges me."

  13. #63
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    Default Re: Myths about vegans: 'How are you getting your nutrients - you poor thing?'

    what really annoys me is when someone tells me I must be slim and look the way I do because I'm vegan. I was the same exact weight before I was vegan! I must have even put on some weight for a bit there out of addiction to cashews... but I'll just let them think what they want, they might stop murdering non-human animals for a while if it thinks it'll make them look better. lol.

  14. #64
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    Default Re: Myths about vegans: 'How are you getting your nutrients - you poor thing?'

    Quote Haniska View Post
    I found this about negative link about them, not that I know who activistcash.com is anyway:

    http://www.activistcash.com/organiza...iew.cfm/oid/23

    Obviously I appreciate your advice and don't support most of the views of that article but if it is true that Physicians for Responsible medicine are less than or equal to 5% physicians, well I hate that. We need strong true people backing us up with the truth.
    Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) is a great organization. Activistcash on the other hand is a hired gun, defamation propaganda mill organization hired by alcohol/firearms/tobacco/junk food companies and their lobbyists, who publish distorted information, often by telling half truths, in order to promote junk food/ tobacco/ under-aged drinking etc. A company like KFC or McDonald's (as a hypothetical example) can't publish web propaganda that implicates "Trans fats have never been proven to be harmful and we continue to use them because they don't go rancid as quickly", so instead they pay activistcash hundreds of thousands of dollars to design defaming websites to promote these lies so it can't be directly tied to them. That is this company's raison d'etre.

    Activistcash, aka "Center for Consumer Freedom" is headed by a man whose name I advise you all to remember for future reference:

    Richard ("Rick") Berman. He is not a scientist by any means and has no personal agenda but rather an ad man and tobacco lobbyist who will work for anyone with enough cash.

    The TV news organization CBS News did an excellent piece on "Dr Evil" on their legendary expose show 60 Minutes last year. If anyone has trouble watching the video at my link let me know and I will try another (sorry about the short commercial you have to watch first) :

    "Meet Dr. Evil" / aka Rick Berman

    [Here's an alternative video link if that didn't work].

  15. #65
    Prawnil
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    Default Re: Myths about vegans: 'How are you getting your nutrients - you poor thing?'

    these animal rights lunatics want to put farmers out of business, and make us all vegetarian!!

    No way?
    Does this kind of thing actually air on US television?

  16. #66
    Pilaf
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    Default Re: Myths about vegans: 'How are you getting your nutrients - you poor thing?'

    I find it odd that he failed to mention farmers also grow fruits, veggies and grains and would most assuredly NOT go out of business if we all went vegetarian.

  17. #67
    Mahk
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    Default Re: Myths about vegans: 'How are you getting your nutrients - you poor thing?'

    Quote Prawnil View Post
    these animal rights lunatics want to put farmers out of business, and make us all vegetarian!!

    No way?
    Does this kind of thing actually air on US television?
    I've never seen one of Dr Evil's ads on TV, no, but links to one of his numerous websites which defame animal activists/ food health concerns I see often. Rick Berman and his company of 28 employees make $10,000,000.00 annually from their funding from the tobacco, anti union, and food industries. I'm guessing he and his bookkeeping wife make the most.

    Another sleazy thing he does is register domain names which resemble the real ones to lure people away from their intended sites.

  18. #68
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    Default Re: Myths about vegans: 'How are you getting your nutrients - you poor thing?'

    Quote ellaminnowpea View Post

    AND I always get those people who like to point out when I'm tired (from studying all night or something unrelated to my diet) that it must be because I don't get enough iron. I"m just like seriously? Are you a dietician? Do you know what I eat? Do you know what foods even contain iron? How is eating veggies and fruit not healthy?
    This annoys me too! I mentioned to a woman at work how I was sick this past winter and she says it was probably because I don't eat meat and not getting my nutrients. Sure....someone who eats cheese on bread for dinner or processed beef sandwiches shouldn't really talk.
    Peace, love, and happiness.

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    Default Re: Myths about vegans: 'How are you getting your nutrients - you poor thing?'

    Conscious Eating, Okay, But Where (On Earth) Do You Get Your Protein?

    This may be an interesting article to read, especially for non-vegans (although I don't like this statement from that article "Vegetarians and vegans get all the nutrients our bodies need from plants, and will thus, according to the science, be more likely to maintain a healthy weight and stave off a variety of ailments, from heart disease to cancer")... simply because one will never automatically get all the nutrients one need - on any diet. A little knowledge (and supplements, if necessary) is useful, whatever people eat.

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    Default Re: Myths about vegans: 'How are you getting your nutrients - you poor thing?'

    Quote Tigerlily View Post
    Lately, when I've been telling people I've become vegan, they immediately jump and ask, "HOW ARE YOU GETTING YOUR NUTRIENTS? YOU POOR THING!" ...

    I'm sure many of you have had this type of question, what is a good, quick, answer without having to explain it all to them.
    Hello, Tigerlily, and hello to everyone else, too.

    I am occasionally asked that kind of question, though fortunately not in quite such a patronising way, possibly because of my advanced age (I've been vegan for 23 years) and all the obvious indications that I'm well nourished (perhaps too well nourished!). I find it easy to answer "How do you get your protein?" And I have a quick reply to "Do you take a B12 supplement?" ("Yes!") But I do struggle a bit when the questioner is well informed nutritionally, and asks things like "How do you know you're getting enough iron, selenium, zinc, calcium, folic acid, omega-3 fatty acids in the form of DHA and EPA ...?" I've looked into all those things at some point, and I do feel fairly confident that my diet usually supplies all of them in adequate amounts (although I do take a Veg 1 supplement, mainly because it's so cheap, and a algal DHA supplement, which unfortunately isn't) and I can remember the odd detail, like pumpkin seeds are high in zinc, and sesame seeds are high in calcium, and three (or is it four?) Brazil nuts contain the recommended daily amount of selenium, but I don't have all the answers to hand. My memory is just not good enough. And simply responding, "Well, how do you know you're getting enough of all those things?" can be a risky strategy, because the questioner might just tell you, at great length. And if you hand them a leaflet, that doesn't demonstrate that you genuinely know enough about vegan nutrition yourself to be confident that indeed you are getting enough of all those things.

    So I think I'm going to have to sit down and compile a list of brief but well-researched answers to any possible question that might crop up, and then learn them all by rote.

    I don't suppose anyone's done that already, have they?

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    Default Re: Myths about vegans: 'How are you getting your nutrients - you poor thing?'

    Quote Haniska View Post
    I found this about negative link about them, not that I know who activistcash.com is anyway:

    http://www.activistcash.com/organiza...iew.cfm/oid/23

    Obviously I appreciate your advice and don't support most of the views of that article but if it is true that Physicians for Responsible medicine are less than or equal to 5% physicians, well I hate that. We need strong true people backing us up with the truth.
    As soon as I see the word 'terrorist' in any article relating to animal-rights/vege groups, I turn off. Luckily, I don't think that works on any but the most stupid of people.

    On the discussion of being thin, I've noticed that it's the same with being pale. I've been pale since I left school due to lack of exposure to the sun (I work from home and don't get out enough). Before I went vegan I was equally pale, but now I am vegan, suddenly it's an issue to people.

  22. #72
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    Default Re: Myths about vegans: 'How are you getting your nutrients - you poor thing?'

    Quote Smallweed View Post
    So I think I'm going to have to sit down and compile a list of brief but well-researched answers to any possible question that might crop up, and then learn them all by rote.

    I don't suppose anyone's done that already, have they?
    Hello Smallweed - I don't suppose people are actually challenging you if you've been vegan for 23 years and are healthy? Perhaps they just want to know where those nutrients come from in a vegan diet.

    If they are challenging you, though, I would imagine if you compile a list they will have a lot of fun trying to think of nutrients that aren't on it! Perhaps you could just say you eat a full range of vegan foods and so you're confident that you're getting everything you need. After all most RDAs and so forth are a bit debatable anyway.

    Have you seen the Vegan Society's book "Plant-Based Nutrition and Health"? That has a lot of information and a list of peer-reviewed studies to support it though it must be a bit out of date now, unless there's a new edition.

  23. #73
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    Default Re: Myths about vegans: 'How are you getting your nutrients - you poor thing?'

    Quote harpy View Post
    I don't suppose people are actually challenging you if you've been vegan for 23 years and are healthy? Perhaps they just want to know where those nutrients come from in a vegan diet.
    I think it's a bit of both. They know that a vegan diet is healthy enough for me not to have dropped dead before now, but they still see a good vegan diet as being nutritionally inferior to a good omnivorous diet, and they think it's much easier to have a good enough diet if you eat some animal products. Especially for infants and children. And maybe that's true. I confess that I'm not confident enough to argue that point.

    Quote harpy View Post
    If they are challenging you, though, I would imagine if you compile a list they will have a lot of fun trying to think of nutrients that aren't on it!
    Possibly. But then I could have a lot of fun responding to them, if I really knew my onions. :smile:

    Quote harpy View Post
    Perhaps you could just say you eat a full range of vegan foods and so you're confident that you're getting everything you need. After all most RDAs and so forth are a bit debatable anyway.
    Yes, you may be right about RDAs, although apparently they're called DRVs (dietary reference values) now, and they're to be used as guidance, rather than seen as exact recommendations (Food Standards Agency). But saying that I eat a full range of vegan foods just won't do it, unfortunately. Because the response will be — and this is a common one — "But you're eliminating two whole food groups!" Besides, it's not just about having a suitable riposte to challengers; it's also about educating myself, bringing myself up to date so that I really am confident that I'm getting everything I need.

    Quote harpy View Post
    Have you seen the Vegan Society's book "Plant-Based Nutrition and Health"? That has a lot of information and a list of peer-reviewed studies to support it though it must be a bit out of date now, unless there's a new edition.
    Yes, I've been meaning to get that for ages. I have a much-thumbed copy of Vegan Nutrition by Gill Langley, which is very out of date now. But I've ordered The China Study, which seems to have had good reviews on this forum, and maybe that will help. Anyway, thanks for the advice. :smile:

  24. #74
    baffled harpy's Avatar
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    Default Re: Myths about vegans: 'How are you getting your nutrients - you poor thing?'

    It's funny, as far as I can remember no-one has asked me where I get nutrients from for years. It's probably only too plain that I'm getting plenty

    "Plant Based Nutrition and Health" is considerably more recent than "Vegan Nutrition" (which I also have somewhere) I think. Not sure if "The China Study" goes into as much detail about individual nutrients - will be interested to hear if it does.

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    Default Re: Myths about vegans: 'How are you getting your nutrients - you poor thing?'

    There's a book by Michael Pollen In Defence of Food which begins like this:

    "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants"

    and it seemed to sum up the basis of good nutrition to me. The rest of the book sort of unravells that sentence.
    Last edited by jonnie falafel; Nov 4th, 2008 at 03:51 PM. Reason: spelling error
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    Default Re: Myths about vegans: 'How are you getting your nutrients - you poor thing?'

    Quote jonnie falafel View Post
    There's a book by Michael Pollen
    that's a really good last name for a man who advocates a primarily plant-based diet

    amanda

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    Default Re: Myths about vegans: 'How are you getting your nutrients - you poor thing?'

    I'm determined to lose weight this year if only for the rude comments to stop. This year alone - always from my patients:

    How come you're so fat when you're a vegan?

    You can't expect me to give up smoking when you need to lose at least three stone!

    How old are you dear? (I say I'm 46) they reply,"Oh yes I thought you were at LEAST that dear".

    What I don't reply back is that unlike them I am in rude good health with no major illnesses, no vitamin and mineral deficiences (all been tested) and have very low cholesterol and blood pressure unlike them who are seeing me because they are about to conk out with uncontrolled diabetes and the like.

    Next year I'm going to be a slim fit vegan and then I can be as superior as I like
    Silent but deadly :p

  28. #78
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    Default Re: Myths about vegans: 'How are you getting your nutrients - you poor thing?'

    I think many (especially media) have to stop assuming that all overweight people eat junk and don't exercise because it's not always the case.
    "Animals are my friends... and I don't eat my friends". ~ George Bernhard Shaw.

  29. #79
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    Default Re: Myths about vegans: 'How are you getting your nutrients - you poor thing?'

    Quote Hemlock View Post
    I'm determined to lose weight this year if only for the rude comments to stop. This year alone - always from my patients:

    How come you're so fat when you're a vegan?

    You can't expect me to give up smoking when you need to lose at least three stone!

    How old are you dear? (I say I'm 46) they reply,"Oh yes I thought you were at LEAST that dear".
    how rude! i'd go nuts if i had to work with people making comments like that to me all day!
    'The word gorilla was derived from the Greek word Gorillai (a "tribe of hairy women")'

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    Default Re: Myths about vegans: 'How are you getting your nutrients - you poor thing?'

    Quote Gorilla View Post
    how rude! i'd go nuts if i had to work with people making comments like that to me all day!
    Elderly NHS patients are the worst - they are often incredibly rude and say the most awful hateful things. The young ones just attack you with knives.
    Silent but deadly :p

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    Default Re: Myths about vegans: 'How are you getting your nutrients - you poor thing?'

    ^ One of my patients said to me "I know who it is you remind me of: that dreadful woman Queenie from Black Adder". It's the addition of the word "dreadful" that smarts...

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    Default Re: Myths about vegans: 'How are you getting your nutrients - you poor thing?'

    Quote Ruby Rose View Post
    ^ One of my patients said to me "I know who it is you remind me of: that dreadful woman Queenie from Black Adder". It's the addition of the word "dreadful" that smarts...
    Heehee - bastards
    Said to me at work today by a patient - you well covered girls are so much jollier than the thin ones. The words 'feck off and die' were hovering on my lips
    Silent but deadly :p

  33. #83
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    Default Re: Myths about vegans: 'How are you getting your nutrients - you poor thing?'

    Isn't that an old stereotype.
    "Animals are my friends... and I don't eat my friends". ~ George Bernhard Shaw.

  34. #84

    Default Re: Myths about vegans: 'How are you getting your nutrients - you poor thing?'

    Growing up as a kid, I took a vitamin supplement for at least a dozen nutrients. Now, I only supplement for one.

    Yeah, I am a little overweight, have recently dropped about 10-15 lb. to fit into a size 12, as I've been overweight much of my life due to inactivity. I was leaving the cafeteria, which is all-you-can-eat and for lunch I had gotten this great salad, without any salad dressing (and obviously no cheese and other fattening toppings people tend to add to salads), with a glass of water. But, as I left the room, I heard someone say loudly, "Oh my god, I just told someone's mother that they wouldn't get fat from eating here." (this was my first week on campus) Yeah, well maybe you shouldn't judge just because I am quite tall and a bit overweight, doesn't mean I go for the greasy pizzas, even if I have trouble figuring out an exercise routine I like to run on my way to class or to the cafeteria instead of walking because my executive function is really difficult, and planning simple tasks is not very simple for me!

  35. #85

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    Default Re: Myths about vegans: 'How are you getting your nutrients - you poor thing?'

    I get this question all the time, and it frustrates me when I can't come up with a good answer quickly enough. One of my friends goes to a nutritionist because she had eating disorder issues and when I tell her that it is almost impossible not to get enough protein because most foods have protein, she says her nutritionist told her it doesn't digest the same, or something! And how am I supposed to argue with her "professional" advice, even though I know it's bs? Not to mention her nutritionist thinks veganism is a cover for eating disorders... Ugh, so annoying.

  36. #86
    Ex-admin Korn's Avatar
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    Default Re: Myths about vegans: 'How are you getting your nutrients - you poor thing?'

    Quote pineapple View Post
    One of my friends goes to a nutritionist because she had eating disorder issues and when I tell her that it is almost impossible not to get enough protein because most foods have protein, she says....
    It's actually 'easy' not to get enough protein - don't eat. I think it was Stephen Walsh who said that it's easy to get enough protein, but it's doesn't happen automatically (by eating vegan), which make sense. People with eating disorders may have trouble getting enough of pretty much everything, whether they're vegan or not. I'd say that if you eat a normal amount of food, and live on a 'varied, vegan diet', it's easy to get enough protein, but of course, if one avoids the vegan food that's got more than just a little protein in it, one may miss out even on protein.


    And how am I supposed to argue with her "professional" advice, even though I know it's bs?
    'Professionals' and experts often disagree, and if you don't know how to argue with her advice, maybe it's a good idea to avoid it? ;.) Or: follow her advice. Or: learn morde.


    Not to mention her nutritionist thinks veganism is a cover for eating disorders... Ugh, so annoying.
    Well, for a few people, that may actually be true - and saying that to her wouldn't be to argue against her viewpoints.

    Even if some people use their 'veganity' to cover their eating disorder, that doesn't make being vegan a bad thing - it's not even an argument against veganism...
    I will not eat anything that walks, swims, flies, runs, skips, hops or crawls.

  37. #87
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    Default Re: Myths about vegans: 'How are you getting your nutrients - you poor thing?'

    Pineapple, can you speak to the nutritionist directly? Ask them what is the name of the disease one gets from vitamin C deficiency and they'll quickly respond "scurvy". Then ask, "And for protein deficiency?" and theres a 99% chance they will be stumped. Why? Because Kwashiorkor is so exceedingly rare in the developed world that when the one or two oddball cases occurs per decade it so astounds doctors that they then have to look it up themselves. They'll sometimes even write papers on their miraculous find since it is so rare. Malnutrition in general, however, is of course quite common and of serious concern to all, especially for people with eating disorders and who suffer from poverty, but eating the correct caloric intake for ones age, sex, etc yet not getting enough protein specifically is exceedingly rare if one has a varied diet. The few instances of Kwashiorkor that occur in people with proper caloric intake are usually found in people who adopt long term, idiotic, single food diets such as "just rice".


  38. #88
    Vegan Pride<3 Guate_Vegan's Avatar
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    Default Re: Myths about vegans: 'How are you getting your nutrients - you poor thing?'

    I just recently went on a trip to Korea on an exchange student program for a week and came home today. I was with all new people and barely knew one girl from school.

    Everybody was really nice and respectful and never even bothered me about being vegan, I was wondering why because at the beginning I used to be bombarded by the same stupid questions you guys are complaining about... Well just yesterday on the last day of the trip a friend told me that he thought I was really intimidating at first and was pretty scared of me LOL... I think that's why people don't ask me stupid questions, maybe they see other people kinda start doing it and me cutting them off right away and being an asshole to them, but that way I don't get hurt or annoyed.

    So I may be rude but they just get annoying, especially when I know they have absolutely no interest in veganism and just wish to mock it by asking stupid questions. But if someone really wants people to stop asking dumb questions, then you have to start being mean about it (of course not when they honestly want to know to get more into it) if you want to continue being nice and actually wasting your time explaining then go ahead, most likely they have no interest in it and will just dismiss it. For example when people ask me where I get my protein I respond, "that's a stupid question, everybody knows that"..usually because they're trying to make me look like if I'm somehow malnourished, but mainly I think I answer their questions just by them seeing me, due to my accomplishments and my constant perkiness, so they have never doubted me being somehow less smart or physically fit because of my veganism. I'm also very thin, my legs look like two chopsticks haha, but every time someone points out my thinness (usually they never mention veganism but I know they're thinking it) I mention how much I love being thin, and I do..I would never want to weigh over 110lbs.

    I'm also extremely outgoing and that seems to make people look at you like you're somehow 'normal' no matter what you are or believe in.

    This is me in Korea just like three days ago

    "Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better."
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    Default Re: Myths about vegans: 'How are you getting your nutrients - you poor thing?'

    I live in North Dakota, the land of hunters, natives, and cowboys... It is difficult for me to find good veg foods beyond fruits and veggies. I have been vegetarian for years now, but only recently vegan, now when I tell people I get this look. Like they can deal with no meat if they know me, but that now I am somehow way too ridiculous. One day I will live someone more accepting I hope.

  40. #90
    baffled harpy's Avatar
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    Default Re: Myths about vegans: 'How are you getting your nutrients - you poor thing?'

    It might catch on in North Dakota eventually, PineappleKiwi - you never know! Also I think when you've been vegan for a while either you get more assertive about telling people or you stop noticing when people give you funny looks

    Fruit and vegetables (and grains and beans) are the best vegan foods really but I guess you could perhaps order "specialist" stuff on the web if you want it?

  41. #91
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    Default Re: Myths about vegans: 'How are you getting your nutrients - you poor thing?'

    I expect the general questions about how do you get protein, vitamins, etc... from people after 6 years of veganism. I just really expect more from doctors. I went to the doctor a couple of days ago because I believe I have a reaction to wheat possibly celiac's. I told her I was vegan and as we discussed my symptoms and she looked at me and said, "You know most vegans are deficient in nutrition." If I didn't feel so bad and tired I think I would have slapped her. Well maybe not but I wanted to. When she continued to quiz me about my eating I thought she was going to fall over when I told her I eat salad and veggies for breakfast. She was stunned....and kept asking me did I really as if I would lie.

    Urgh!! Just frustrated. After talking to her for an hour I realized that she may know more about general medicine but I have her beat on nutrition.

    Sheila
    "Take the path of least harm"

  42. #92
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    Default Re: Myths about vegans: 'How are you getting your nutrients - you poor thing?'

    Good, I expect she saw the error of her ways after learning from you, Sheila! I would like to know her evidence for the statement "most vegans are deficient in nutrition".

    Hope she at least came up with some ideas for dealing with your problem?

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