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- GeekMommy, on 07/05/2008, -26/+537Um, way to forget the important word "improper" there...
"Improper vegan diet results in father's child abuse conviction" - headline
""Vegan children who are fed properly grow," said Deputy County Attorney Frankie Grimsman.
And in fact, when the children were placed in foster homes, they immediately began to gain weight - while still maintaining vegan diets." - quotes from article.
Digg headline makes it look like it was just normal vegan diet. :( - brstilson, on 07/05/2008, -15/+246"Parker claimed that he could not find a doctor of his own religious faith or dietary beliefs that he trusted. Instead, he consulted with a naturopath who lived in Washington state and who could not actually see or examine the children."
This is why this "natural medicine" movement is so dangerous. These people are know-nothing idiots that make their money telling people what they want to hear. Someone doesn't want to take their cancer or AIDS medication? They don't have to! Just take this root! This lady took it one time and her cancer disappeared!
The vegan diet is extremely tricky. Many vegans need vitamin supplement pills just to stay healthy. Meat, fish, and eggs are incredibly efficient foods that contain several essential vitamins, protein, and minerals. When you cut them out, you have to replace them with several other foods. Vegan diets are extremely high maintenance. You really have to be in touch with what you're eating, making sure you're getting enough iron, protein, fats, oils, minerals, etc.
Sounds like this guy doomed his kids from the start. From what it sounds like, veganism had nothing to do with it, he just didn't feed his kids ENOUGH food. And although I think this guy overall is an idiot, he did say one thing, "What about the people who feed their kids McDonald's and they develop teenage diabetes?" I think that is a very good ***** point. All these kids are running around with the health problems of the elderly and everyone seems to ignore it. Fat people have become this new protected minority. Their condition, even though in the vast majority of cases is self-inflicted, is viewed as not being their fault. All of the sudden, everybody has a thyroid problem. You can't make fun of fat people anymore, oh no, that would be insensitive and bigoted! As a recovering fat person myself, I know more than anything that the only, ONLY reason most people are fat is because they A) Eat WAY too ***** much and B) Exercise WAY too ***** little. That's it. Ever watch those morbidly obese people on TLC say "I really don't eat a lot of food," but when it's all added up, it turns out they eat 8,000+ calories a day? I used to be a total fast food junkie, and ballooned up to 277 lbs. After cutting a lot of fast food out (I still eat it once in a while) and a regular exercise regimen, I've lost over 20 lbs in 3 months.
Anyone that tells you they are happy being fat is either delusional or a liar. Being just 20 pounds lighter makes me feel like a new person. Being able to bend over to tie my shoes without any difficulty is an amazing feeling, and the more weight I lose the better I feel. I used to be tired just about every day, walking around with zero energy. Now, it's very rare that I'm tired during the day. I realized that soda absolutely destroyed my energy levels, so I quit drinking it. Just doing that will help a lot of people get healthier. It's meant to be an occasional treat, not a staple you drink 5-6 times a day. At any rate, health-rant over. - scottja35, on 07/05/2008, -11/+163The dad's defense: "Don't have a cow, man!"
- inactive, on 07/06/2008, -4/+87Cause digg has gotten ***** retarded since it steered away from tech news and concentrates on who can create the most sensationalist articles.
- einrobstein, on 07/05/2008, -11/+92Enemas are unnecessary for anyone, especially infants who are already being starved by their ***** nutjob parents.
I really hope they start a system where parents have to be licensed before they can conceive. - einrobstein, on 07/05/2008, -5/+86You're completely right. Why are people digging her down?
- Asheis, on 07/05/2008, -29/+84yeah, way to demonize veganism. While I'm no vegan, I think he could have actually done a good thing for his children by feeding them a proper vegan diet. Parents do this all the time with great results.
- mrminty, on 07/06/2008, -9/+63Don't forget the 100k articles a day about how smart everyone is for smoking pot.
Christ, I've been a member of digg for 3 years, and I've seen this place go from an excellent source for tech news to having the same intelligence as a comments section on youtube.
Now it's time to digg me down for mentioning weed in a negative light. - hdar3415, on 07/05/2008, -27/+77If Digg allowed a few more words in the headline then I would have included "improper". But I thought it was at least caught in the description, "extreme vegetarian diet".
- DrewBlood, on 07/06/2008, -1/+47Considering most non-vegans probably consider vegan to equate with "extreme vegetarian diet" anyway, I don't think it really came across well.
Just throwing in my 2 cents that this vegan is appalled by this sort of parenting. Glad the judge came down on them. - zeptobyte, on 07/06/2008, -0/+39If the submitter had replaced "vegan" with "improper" this wouldn't be popular.
- Anevilweasel, on 07/06/2008, -5/+41As much as I understand the ire and uproar over these children being malnourished. The truth though is many children are fed inappropriate diets that are killing them...just a little more slowly. The epidemic of juvenile diabetes is proof of this. Fat children everywhere are stuffed with fast food and an overabundance of packaged foods that are killing them.
I'm not a health nut that says people shouldn't eat anything in a box. I'm not a vegitarian. Healthful eating is something people can do without going to any extreme if they so choose.
I simply wonder why these parents are charged but others who are contributing to their childrens obesity and diabetes are not... - thomleidner, on 07/06/2008, -21/+55animals are delicious
period - inactive, on 07/05/2008, -2/+32They should also have to have a job and not watch NASCAR.
- xerox, on 07/06/2008, -1/+29But lots of people WOULD do it for religion.
- MasteRR, on 07/06/2008, -9/+35Marking as inaccurate. Digg title is misleading. Should be "Dad convicted for feeding kids "improper" vegan diet. If you do it right they grow up healthy, this guy did did it wrong.
YOU ARE DOING IT WRONG! - FurtThePirate, on 07/06/2008, -0/+25Now that was a good read.
- gnomead, on 07/06/2008, -19/+42A child is too small to know whether it's vegan or not. Being vegan is an ideological decision made by an adult. It shouldn't be something that is inherited from one's parents. Calling a child a vegan is like calling it a communist child or an existentialist child. Regardless of a vegan's ideology, meat and dairy products have many essential nutrients that are necessary for a growing child. Several precautions have to be taken to make sure they get nutrients like vitamin B12, vitamin D, calcium, iodine, etc. which is normally excluded in a vegan diet. It's a shame that animal rights take precedence over that of a human child. IMO a child shouldn't have to be vegan.
- whodat807, on 07/06/2008, -4/+27What a misleading title. It should read "Dad convicted for starving kids"... it's not as if he gave them all the vegan food they could want and he got arrested anyways.
- IMADV8, on 07/06/2008, -7/+29^ That is downright refreshing. I was beginning to think I was the only one here who didn't worship pot.
EDIT: I dugg you up before posting this, and you were at +4. After posting, you were at +2, with no down diggs. What the crap. - AriaStar, on 07/06/2008, -1/+22I was once 400 pounds, and hated it. I'm now 120. fwiw, I'm 5'7" and a girl. http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj285/ariaandco ...
You're right that people who are fat and claim to be happy are delusional. I still remember the lies I told myself to try to be happy knowing I was at a higher risk of diabetes and all. I was probably healthier than normal-weight people, I thought, because all mu vitamins and nutrients came from food. Let's just ignore the extra weight it also brings.
I believe that, if feeding a child too little is a crime because it can kill them, then over-feeding a child should also be a crime because the diabetes and heart problems will kill them. - hartley, on 07/06/2008, -1/+22Didn't this happen on House?
- Bkaufman, on 07/06/2008, -3/+24Great points sir. I would use the +100 Digg option if it existed (only MrBabyMan seems to have access to that).
- esskayexx, on 07/06/2008, -6/+26@gnomead:
And if and when my son decides that being vegan isn't for him, I'll support him in his decision--he's not old enough to know the difference at the moment. Having been indoctrinated by my parents into a church at a young age, and later on realizing the stupidity of it all, once I could think for myself, I understand and agree with your position. That doesn't mean I'll go out of my way to prepare food for him that is hideously disgusting to me and my wife that has questionable or negligible nutritional benefit over our present diet.
@arobicha:
Just like anything else, there's a lot of really crappy tasting food products out there that give veg(etari)anism a bad name. Lightlife bacon and soy meats come to mind immediately. Soymilk cooks pretty well and substitutes for milk in recipes well. I'd never drink a glass of it. Before going vegan, I'd have an occasional glass with pumpkin pie, or with cookies, but I really don't miss it. As for the burgers and hot dogs, well, this is fodder for another discussion, but Americans have food hang-ups. Burgers you can probably understand -- they're only about 20-30% meat. The rest is bun/tomato/lettuce/onion/pickle/ketchup/mustard/special sauce. So craving the fresh varied taste of an overglorified sandwich is reasonable. I too am baffled by hot dogs though. I love to barbecue (got that from my non-vegetarian days) and as a result, having a few dogs on the grill just 'feels' good. Still waiting for a really really good vegan dog though.
Subjectivity is an interesting thing though... a lot of these vegan and vegetarian products are in their infancy and haven't had the hundreds of years of trial and error to perfect them. - TiggerNits, on 07/06/2008, -7/+25I think the people watching BET pose more of a threat to the safety of children.
- Mewchu11, on 07/06/2008, -1/+19Maybe they just thought it was lupus
- DutchGuilder, on 07/06/2008, -5/+23"His wife, Kimu Parker, 38, did not fare as well. In August 2007 she was sentenced to 30 years in prison after a jury found her guilty of three counts of intentional child abuse."
30 years?! WTF? With a better diet and some HGH the kids will grow up normal, but without a mother. Retarded. - yargthepirate, on 07/06/2008, -5/+23Some people don't deserve the ability to breed. For future reference, when your 3 year old only weighs slightly more than some newborns, there's a problem.
- wolferz, on 07/06/2008, -1/+18children who are fat or even obese do NOT usually die or collapse into seizures. They are at a higher RISK of developing long term health problems but they rarely (if ever) just drop dead.
Malnourished children are a completely different story and it is VERY easy to see when a child is malnourished to the point these children were... there is no excuse for not realizing something was wrong.
I agree that parents who actively contribute to their children health problems, intentional or not, should be stopped. However, it is rather easy to see why they are not. - esskayexx, on 07/06/2008, -11/+28Vegan ≠ Malnourished
- DocHoliday22, on 07/06/2008, -5/+22The guy stated "What about those parents that feed their kids McDonalds every day", interesting point. I've never seen a parent getting convicted of child abuse for this, maybe there should be a law on this where parents have to seek medical advice in keeping their kids fit and healthy with regular checkups. Obviously the logistics of carrying this out would be immense but there was a debate of this in the UK, and I am now starting to favor this.
Bottom line - most parents are just ignorant of health and nutrition and how addictive and contagious unhealthy eating can be, and by the time they realise and are prepared to do something, their kids are in their teens and want to be independent so listening to mum and dad at this point is pretty much useless. - Malenfont, on 07/06/2008, -6/+23"He described a daily regimen with the children that included prayer..."
I think I can see the problem.
***Religion: The only mainstream mental illness.*** - gnomead, on 07/06/2008, -12/+28esskayexx - It's commendable that you've taken a keen interest in your child's nutrition and are making sure he's getting all the necessary nutrients in his diet. You're obviously being a good parent. However, I strongly disagree with the notion that a child should inherit its parents' ideological choice to be vegan. I don't believe in indoctrination of any form.
- esskayexx, on 07/06/2008, -8/+23Cool, way to make a blanket judgement. No. They're not. And most vegans that have been that way for any reasonable length of time don't care what YOU eat.
- NavS, on 07/06/2008, -11/+26The title should read: Dad convicted for feeding kids improper vegan diet.
Anyway, the kid should decide when they are older if they want that lifestyle. Until then you have to feed them correctly. - Crawlers, on 07/06/2008, -1/+16Sure, so you wouldn't have 10 characters left when including the only word needed: "improper" ...
- chubbybunny, on 07/06/2008, -13/+28For most people, vegan *is* improper.
- ericmerrill, on 07/06/2008, -4/+19Dugg for your brilliant, brilliant use of sarcasm!
- pkulak, on 07/06/2008, -4/+19Nice title, sheesh. He was arrested for starving his children nearly to death, not for a vegan diet. One has nothing to do with the other. It's usually the other way around in my experience. Most vegans are overweight because they don't know how to get their calories from beans and vegetables instead of pasta, white rice, bread, candy, etc.
- Tunafishjoe, on 07/06/2008, -2/+17Legitimate question...
Can parents now get sent away for 30 years for feeding their kids TOO much?
What about a kid that's 5 but the weight of a 9 year old? - dashboardradio, on 07/06/2008, -4/+19A child inherits everything from its parents. A child isn't old enough to decide which religion they prefer, so the parents automatically impose theirs on the baby. This happens with every child. How is that any different from having a baby being a vegan, vegetarian, or eating "normally"? All that matters is that the child gets the right nutrition, as esskayexx has wonderfully pointed out. If anything, I would think that children raised vegan would be healthier in general (this is my assumption, and I'm not saying always) because the parents themselves have to pay attention to how to get the right nutrients. I'd rather see a parent giving their child soy products over a happy meal any day.
- FelixDeluxe, on 07/06/2008, -2/+17Very true.
The other key fact is that he's a moron. - esskayexx, on 07/06/2008, -2/+16People seem to forget the 'gatherer' part of hunter/gatherer. Every hunt was not a slam dunk. There were indeed times that tribesmen came back empty-handed and had to settle for freshly picked fruits and vegetables.
- esskayexx, on 07/06/2008, -7/+21Vegan ≠ Incorrect. It may not be the diet the majority of Americans eat, but it is a fallacy to label it 'incorrect'.
- esskayexx, on 07/06/2008, -17/+30Firstly, all the nutrients that -very- young children need are available in breast milk, which is, last time I checked, vegan.
Second, many vegan products (soymilk, for instance) include vitamin D (just like your cow's milk), B12, and calcium.
Vitamin D also shows up in mushrooms. B12 in special bacterial cultures.
Alarmist stories like this with bad headlines paint a bad picture for child-rearing on a vegan diet, but you don't hear about the thousands of perfectly healthy babies and kids (like my son) raised on one. - schmitey, on 07/06/2008, -1/+14GeorgeStone2: If the girl lost 280 (and she looks good BTW!) she has every right to put up a flippin' flashing billboard. Its a life changing, moral boosting experience. So give some encouragement for a change!
- wiseman666, on 07/06/2008, -7/+20Sometimes, I feel like people should be forced to take parenting classes and get a mother/father license before they have a baby. Growing cells need nutrients!
- sonofblacula, on 07/06/2008, -3/+16Or, Xerox, you could bother to read an actual science book or do some sort of actual research instead of loitering in the "New Age" section of your book store and strapping on kinoki footpads every night. Carl Sagan would slap the living ***** out of you if he weren't such a nice guy (or dead...). Luckily I'm neither, and I'm already warming up my pimp hand. Cretin.
- BetterOffEd, on 07/06/2008, -17/+29I've yet to meet a vegan (and admittedly, I've only met about 10 in my life) that lived "healthy" by the diet alone. They all had to take protein supplements, lots of soy milk, etc. just to get the nourishment they needed.
Vegetarianism is one thing. Being vegan is quite another. Probably shouldn't be pushed on children... -
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