Hoo-boy was this a week for the bullshitz.
The bulls must be completely free of shit right now because it seems it has all been dumped this week.
Actually some of the BS that I’m about to address was from last week, but whatever.
Remember the fiasco that was the BBC programme ‘Clean Eating’s Dirty Secrets,’ in which veganism was, in a very transparent agenda, smooshed together with eating disorders, clean-eating and just general food faddiness in order to make it look a little crazy?
I ranted wrote about that utter shitfest here.
Guess what? The BBC has done it again.
This time, ‘clean eating’ was the subject of the BBC documentary programme ‘Horizon’ (a long-running British television series that covers science and philosophy).
I belong to a Facebook group called London Vegans. A few weeks ago someone from the BBC posted, asking for people to talk to them about their eating habits for a new show they were making about ‘clean eating.’
Myself and others chased them off, saying that if it was anything like the last shitshow, to forget it.
I believe it was for this very programme they were looking for content – and knowing what I know now – we were utterly justified in giving them short shrift.
I heard that this programme was on last week, but didn’t have any interest in watching it.
A (non-vegan) friend told me it was quite interesting and that she’d liked the doctor who wrote the book about China.
Hang on a minute, I thought. Dr T Colin Campbell? They interviewed him? Maybe the BBC had done a complete 180 on their previous anti-vegan agenda and bothered their arses to talk to actual experienced doctors in the plant-based field? Miracles can happen, can’t they?
Then a couple of days ago, this article appeared on Dr Campbell’s website.
Then today, Dr Caldwell Essylstyn released this one.
Dr Campbell and Dr Esselstyn are both extremely disappointed at how their segments were used, and at the fact that important information and interviews were seemingly purposely omitted.
Alarmingly, they realised it was because the guy who made the programme (Dr Giles Yeo) was promoting the goals of a pharmaceutical company, and therefore had a definite agenda to make plant-based diets appear to not be as optimal for health as we know they are.
I strongly advocate advising those people you know that are interested in being vegan, to NEVER get their information from the television. And in this day and age they really don’t need to. Reputable books and websites suffice.
These sources of health advice are independent, and their only agenda is to make you well and wise:
Books: The China Study (Dr T Colin Campbell); How Not To Die (Dr Michael Greger; Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease (Dr Caldwell Esselstyn); The Starch Solution (Dr John McDougall)
Documentaries: Forks Over Knives; Food Choices; Cowspiracy; Plant Pure Nation
Websites: forksoverknives.com; nutritionstudies.org; nutritionfacts.org
Veganism and plant-based nutrition are the subjects I usually stick to giving professional advice on. But if I could give any other advice, and if anyone would listen, it would be this: THROW AWAY YOUR TELEVISION SETS.
I did this a few years back and it was the best thing I ever did.
Thankfully there is plenty of good, independent alternative media out there to inform and enlighten us.
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The OTHER piece of BS that had me fuming was in HuffPost UK. It said vegan women had a higher risk of having premature babies.
The whole premise of this was that women who are low in vitamin B12 risk delivering prematurely.
What they don’t say is that vitamin B12 deficiency ISN’T JUST A VEGAN THING – plenty of omnis are B12 deficient. And no vegan ever need be deficient in B12 as there are these handy things available everywhere called supplements. I don’t know this for sure but I would be happy to wager that fewer vegans are deficient in B12 than omnis, as vegans learn from the beginning that they have to supplement. Omnis always just assume they’re getting plenty when this isn’t always the case.
FFS.
If you think you know someone who may have been influenced by this piece (as you can bet it will have been widely shared and quoted by omnis happy to believe bad things about veganism), then Julianna Hever’s response post is here. Make sure to share this with them.
Please media, no more bullcrap this week, I can’t take it.