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Wednesday, October 5, 2011

The Occupation Will Not Be Televised

The 99% are mad as hell, and aren't able to make it anymore.

They've started with "Occupy Wall Street", and there are now groups forming to "Occupy" in other places all over the country. As of 10/05/11 (today) there are over fifty active occupy protest locations and more are forming as you read this post. Due to a media blackout that has not escaped the notice of many people who have been attempting to get information and updates, it would not surprise me at all if you're reading this and only have a vague concept of the whole "Occupy" movement.

That's okay. You're not alone.

I've had to do some direct research in order to gather the information I'm presenting in this. I think the only reason I'm more aware of this movement than quite a few of my friends and associates are, is that by being an active blogger, I have to make a daily effort to observe the pulse of information posted up-to-the-minute in the general blogosphere. Unfortunately, early on in the Wall Street protest, most traditional media sources (newspapers, television) didn't make the story a priority. So, it shouldn't come as much of a shock after the last ten years or so of the internet breaking stories ahead of the professional journalism resources we're supposed to know and trust, the score stands at:

Internet: 1
News Networks: 0

No big surprise there.

So what are these people so fucking pissed off about? The same things that everyone is pissed off about. A Tumblr blog called "We Are The 99 Percent" gives a lot of insight. This is their introduction on the blog:

"Who are we? Well, who are you? If you’re reading this, there’s a 99 percent chance that you’re one of us.

You’re someone who doesn’t know whether there’s going to be enough money to make this month’s rent. You’re someone who gets sick and toughs it out because you’ll never afford the hospital bills. You’re someone who’s trying to move a mountain of debt that never seems to get any smaller no matter how hard you try. You do all the things you’re supposed to do. You buy store brands. You get a second job. You take classes to improve your skills. But it’s not enough. It’s never enough. The anxiety, the frustration, the powerlessness is still there, hovering like a storm crow. Every month you make it is a victory, but a Pyrrhic one — once you’re over the hump, all you can do is think about the next one and how much harder it’s all going to be.

They say it’s because you’re lazy. They say it’s because you make poor choices. They say it’s because you’re spoiled. If you’d only apply yourself a little more, worked a little harder, planned a little better, things would go well for you. Why do you need more help? Haven’t they helped you enough? They say you have no one to blame but yourself. They say it’s all your fault.

They are the 1 percent. They are the banks, the mortgage industry, the insurance industry. They are the important ones. They need help and get bailed out and are praised as job creators. We need help and get nothing and are called entitled. We live in a society made for them, not for us. It’s their world, not ours. If we’re lucky, they’ll let us work in it so long as we don’t question the extent of their charity."

The 99% vs. 1% phenomena they are referring to can be best described with a visual aid, like this one:

Photobucket

Here's the scary part. Look at the small print. This graph was created from information gathered and compiled in 2008. It's almost four years later and by most people's estimations, much worse than it was back then.

I'm going to share in text a few examples of the image-protest that's being added to every day, just to shed a little light on the occupy movement and its members. I highly suggest to any who read this post to GO to that blog and scan through a few pages for yourself. I'm sharing what I could copy and paste in text, but the images are of people holding handwritten notes in front of them, detailing where economic corruption, recession, outsourcing, poor health care, and poor wages have gotten them. THOSE images are far more telling than the bits of text that I could add in this blog.

One thing I couldn't help but notice was a surprisingly large amount of these stories wherein the people telling them have literally turned to things like prostitution, squatting (staying in condemned buildings until caught), living in extended stay hotel rooms with a number of other people, and learning new languages so they can try to find a job abroad. There are young people who are writing about their adult parents who've died at a young age due to conditions that are treatable, but insurance companies found ways to get out of paying for the treatments while the family was still paying for the insurance. Most have no health insurance, can't afford out of pocket care, and a great number of these people are working whatever part-time jobs they can find despite untreated illnesses, some of which are life-threatening.

"This is the last bill i, at 21, can afford. On the front is a water charge for $42.43, i have $47 to my name. I make $7.25 an hour. Minimum wage is $8.00. But lucky for me, i make 10 cents commission per sale which makes my wage legal.
----------------------
"I graduated high school 2 years early, at age 16, in the top 10 of my class, so i could go to college and start working as soon as possible.
I received a scholarship through Florida Bright Futures, for 75% of my tuition…but had $100 per credit hour taken away from me after my first semester, simply because they lacked funding.
Now at only 18 years old, i have a degree, and 2 years experience in my field. I work 40 hrs a week, yet i barely make enough money to cover my bills.
I was always taught that hard work pays off. I want to know when.
I am the 99%. "
----------------------
"My Grandpa was in the Korean War and Viet Nam. He now is a cancer survivor and is surviving by couch-hopping with his 5 children, none of which can let him stay for good because they all are in extreme debt and cant afford it. He is going blind in his left eye, and is too proud of the life foundation he has WORKED SO HARD TO BUILD to get on foodstamps.
WE ARE THE 99%"
---------------------------
"I am 30 years old.
I have been working since I was 16. I have finished at the top of every school I have attended.
I am in over $200K in medical debt from the wreck that killed my wife.
I am homeless after my apartment building burned.
I am trained to spy, hunt, and kill. I am 60% disabled from wars in 3 OTHER COUNTRIES.
I have not found a job in 3 years.
I fear for my daughter’s future.
Everyone I know is homeless, jobless, barely living surviving, and in insurmountable debt.
THIS IS NOT WHAT I FOUGHT AND SACRIFICED FOR!!!
I swore an oath to defend with my life, my Constitution and my Country from ALL ENEMIES foreign & DOMESTIC.
I am 99%, I am pissed off, and I AM COMING FOR THE REST! "
----------------------
I have $65,000.00 in student loan debt because i was told it’s the only way to get a job. I graduated with a 3.87 GPA. And this is what i make, $180 a week.
Next month, I’ll be homeless despite my best efforts, even while my boss drives a 2010 BMW.
Luckily, I AM THE 99%"
-----------------------
"I am 22. My husband and I have lived apart for 3 years. When we were 19, he joined the Navy so we wouldn’t end up on the street. He was stationed out west, and I am stuck in the east. The military does not pay for your family to move if it is your first duty station after joining, and we cannot afford to move me, our animals, or our belongings.
We never wanted this. We are the 99%"
-----------------------
"I am the mother of five children. I lost my job 2 years ago as the manager of a hair salon when the bad economy forced it to close. My husband left me and after a year long battle with the bank trying to get a loan modification, Citimortgage is foreclosing on my home. I live in fear everyday. No one will rent to an unemployed, single parent who survives solely on child support. I am the 99 percent. For pity’s sake, someone help us. "
-----------------------
"I:
* have more than six years of post-high school education
* live in one of the 10 most expensive U.S. cities
* teach your children for less than $20K/year"
------------------------
"I am a college professor, teaching our future generations. But like more than 50% of all college professors, I’m an Adjunct ‘contractor’. This means I can be fired for any reason; this means I receive no paid vacation; this means I receive no health insurance; this means I receive no sick days; this means I receive no retirement; this means I receive no unemployment; this means I pay double Social Security taxes!
And I am paid little better than minimum wage. "
-----------------------
"How can I repay my debts and save for the future when all of my wages from my $9-an-hour food service job go towards disgustingly high rent, outrageously inflated taxes, and out-of-pocket medical expenses? No insurance. No help from anyone. No future unless I sacrifice my dignity in the present. Should I go back to school and take out more debt on the off-chance that things will get better? I can’t even move back home because I don’t have one anymore. I am the 99% and I’m enraged. "
--------------------------
"I lost my job in the downturn. I got sick a month or so later Just as I was about to find a job. I still had a month of insurance left, but my doctor misdiagnosed an infection of stomach worms. He got his degree from the antilles, but felt confident enough to tell my family I was having a mental break down and “nothing could possibly be wrong with me.”
I was denied medicaid, disability, all the “hand outs”. I stayed sick for two years without medical treatment. I could have been cured in a third world country for about $30. We only found out what was causing it when I started bleeding out my anus, and i threw up a pile of worms. Then they believed me. "
------------------------
"
I’m 43 years old. I did everything right. I went to college, got my degree, and paid off my student loans. I always pay my bills on time. I have a pretty nice apartment, I have a professional job & I have health insurance. In that, I’m much more fortunate than a lot of people here. For that, I’m grateful. But even that doesn’t mean much for my future, because:
  • I earn less than I did 10 years ago. In the meantime, rents, gas prices & food costs have DOUBLED.
  • I’m not a spendthrift, but I now owe about $16K in credit card debt. Why? I had to use the cards to pay for car repairs, building supplies for a home I no longer live in, and even to PAY MY INCOME TAXES!
  • I recently had a diagnostic test. It cost $2K+. ALL OF THAT was applied to my $2,500 health insurance deductible.
  • I borrowed money from my retirement fund so my brother and sister-in-law (and their 3 kids) wouldn’t lose their home over a property tax lien.
  • I have NO SAVINGS…
  • … and every time I start paying down my credit card debt, some emergency comes up, and because I have no savings, the credit card takes the hit.
I have NO IDEA how I’m ever going to get ahead, or even tread water. I want to take care of my mother—she deserves it!—but I can barely take care of myself. If I had kids, I’d be SCREWED!I have to believe things will get better before I’m so ground down by the relentless treadmill of “doing the right thing” that I can’t function anymore.
I am the 99%. And I’m PISSED OFF!"

-----------------------------------
"My aunt has resigned herself to die at the hands of lung cancer because she knows that her family would not be able to pay her medical bills. I won’t be able to see her again before she dies because my job will fire me if I ask for days off. I live on a couch at my friend’s because she is a SAINT. I made $100 last week. 24% of people in my town are unemployed, so I am lucky. I’m lucky I didn’t go to college, because I have no student debt. I think I may be dying, but I’m not going to the doctor either. I can’t afford treatment for what I believe I have. I am dying for the 1%. We all are, in one way or another. I am the 99%."
----------------------------------

This inequality and suffering is why Occupy Wall Street is protesting. More people are barely surviving from month to month than ever before, most of them somehow making too much to qualify for any of the "safety net" programs that conservative politicians are trying to cut. Here's a newsflash for you. THERE IS NO WELFARE. I don't know why people are still tossing around that term, but in most states (if not all, by now) there are very VERY few programs that are available to help needy families or individuals with anything. The only programs that are usually available to help your average, unemployed, poverty-stricken families or individuals are Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Programs (SNAP/Food Stamps), WIC (Women, Infants, and Children), and Medicaid for pregnant women, children, and the disabled (IF the disabled can prove need, which is dicey at best).

SNAP gives you a set amount of money (based on income and number of household members) on a debit-card that you can spend on food-only items every month, and it is notorious for losing application paperwork, being cancelled without any notice, and generally being hard to get approved for. To get them, you need to fill out an application, go through a telephone interview, and if you make it that far and someone bothers to call you for that interview, you have to bring proof of income and expenses. Any expense other than rent/mortgage, child/dependent care, and utility bills will not count. If your benefits get cancelled due to a clerical error (which are suspiciously frequent), you'll have to go through more bullshit to get an audience with a caseworker than you would to get an audience with the Wizard of Oz.

WIC gives you vouchers for (while pregnant) three gallons of milk, one dozen eggs, 16oz of cheese, 18 oz of peanut butter, 36oz dry cereal, 1lb dry beans, and 1 loaf of whole wheat bread each month. After the baby is born, WIC gives you some formula vouchers at that point unless you claim you're going to breastfeed, in which case they give you what you had before, plus one more gallon of milk, an extra dozen eggs, and six cans of tuna. From what I understand, eventually you can get some baby food vouchers, but not a lot.

Medicaid covers a pregnant mother up til three months after the baby is born, and then, provided the baby is healthy, the baby should be covered (if the parents income still qualifies) up to eighteen years, renewable every year. The baby/child's coverage can also be terminated at any time, without warning, usually because the child developed some sort of condition that Medicaid refuses to cover. Medicaid is for primarily well babies. If you need Medicaid because you're disabled, sometimes the red tape can hang you up for years, by which point you may already be dead.

Where I live, the only kind of "welfare" is Family Assistance, which requires the applicant to attend seminars on job hunting and basic skills that most working adults already possess. To continue to get FA, you have to attend these seminars for approximately 40 hours per week, which means that you need to obtain child care if you have children. Payoff? For a family of two parents and one child, the approximate payout for FA is $83.00 per week. That's two adults and one child (for whom child care must be provided while the adults are completing the weekly FA requirements), and that $83.00 is for the WHOLE FAMILY.

If you wonder why I know this about state aid in so much detail, it's because I am a mother of one who was trying to feed myself and my spouse on what WIC and Community Food Banks would give us while I was pregnant. I worked until my seventh month, my spouse worked two jobs and that's only because he couldn't find a third. We applied for SNAP benefits for almost six months with exactly what they asked for in the application and kept getting denied for "lack of documentation with application". We didn't get help with food assistance until two months after our daughter was born. We had to get off WIC because the local office demanded that I get my child's pediatrician to give my baby her "six-month" immunizations at three months old, so they could do all of the office's paperwork at once. When I refused (because it's illegal and unsafe to give advanced immunizations early), they discontinued my benefits. Thank God I was so hell-bent on breastfeeding my baby, or I would have had no way to feed her in those early months.

We rented an apartment unit in a building that was TECHNICALLY supposed to be condemned. It had no insulation, and we had to take showers at our families' houses because ours didn't work. I was going to go back to work, but we couldn't afford childcare. It was cheaper for me to stay home with the baby, cook our food, and juggle the bills and payment arrangements. We worked side jobs (housecleaning, babysitting, etc), and did nothing but send out applications and resumes for my spouse while he was working a full and part-time job.

WE are some of the lucky ones. We're doing better now, but my spouse has to commute across the state border to go to his job. In order to make enough to hold down the bills, he has to work a lot of sixteen hour days. It's still cheaper for me to stay home and care for our child. She's still got Medicaid because she's healthy, but her father and I have no healthcare and both of us have health problems. We're holding on for our tax refund so that we can afford a deposit on a better place to live that will cost us less to heat and cool. I am over $14k in student debt so my credit is shot, whereas my spouse just doesn't have "sufficient" credit. I made good grades in school, we live frugally, and do nothing but care for our daughter. We are one broken down car, health emergency, or lost job away from complete disaster.

We are also, part of the 99%.

Class warfare is ON, motherfuckers.

Interesting and Illegal Edibles

Forbidden Fruit.
Infographic by Culinary Schools.org

Monday, October 3, 2011

3 "Healthy Eating" Trends That Are Usually Anything But

I'm not skinny. I'm not morbidly obese, either. I think I'm a fairly average weight for an American woman in her 30's, but no one's ever really happy with their weight. Sometimes I think I'd like to be able to fit into a ridiculously tiny dress that wouldn't really look good on most people, just as much as the next 30+ year old woman would, but I'm not so obsessed with being thin that I'm going to do some drastic shit that's going to endanger my health. If you have a problem with the size of my ass, then that's entirely YOUR problem. Personally, I have a few things I prioritize a bit higher than what you or anyone else might think of my "bountifulness".

That's me, though. I know that it bothers a lot of people to gain a size or two. Although I can understand the desire to lose weight, I really think that desire becomes more of a psychosis when it leads someone to not only curb their intake of food, but to convince themselves that a dramatic lifestyle change is "healthy". What's more, people in this state of mind will not only go to ridiculous lengths to adhere to this supposedly healthy diet, they'll also become so devoted to it that they believe its their only hope to live a healthy life.

These diet fads are cultism at it's mind-fucking finest. The ideas and philosophies are pitched at people who are at a loss, who feel socially-excluded and vulnerable due to their perceived flaws. The core principles at the heart of these diets have a ring of truth to them, and they make the people who follow them feel a twinge of superiority because they think they've learned some special secret to a better life. They take pride in making whatever sacrifice they're making because it (in their minds) puts them a cut above everyone else. If that's not a recipe for a cult, I don't know what is.

The lifestyle changes adopted to adhere to the diet exclude you FURTHER from the rest of society by way of eliminating the social element to eating. People LIKE to eat together. One of the basic ways that we stay connected or even get to know one another is usually through sharing a meal and conversation together. When you decide to follow a very counter-culture diet that drastically limits what you can and can't eat, it narrows what restaurants you can eat at and whose house you can eat at. If you're vegan, you'll end up reaching out to find other vegans to fill the void you're experiencing from a lack of communal meal options, and to validate your reasons for excluding these opportunities from your life.

3: Low-Fat Diet

This is actually a fairly harmless, albeit fairly ineffective diet. In the short term, reducing fat intake keeps your overall cholesterol levels in check, and makes it easier to maintain your weight. It's not GOOD for your heart to eat nothing but high-fat foods, but its not going to kill you to get a little crazy with the cheez-whiz every now and then. The problem being, as much as the idea of cancer and heart disease prevention is linked in the collective mind of most people and medical professionals, a massive eight year study was done on the effectiveness of a low-fat diet against those diseases and came up with.. well, nothing. The group that ate anything it damn well pleased ended up having the same rate of heart disease and cancer occurrence as the group on a strict low fat, high fiber diet. When I say low-fat, I mean these people were not allowed to have cream cheese on bagels, butter on toast, or even oil in salad dressings. At the end of the study, the occurrences of diabetes, cancer, heart disease, and obesity were so similar between both groups, that differences in results between the two were deemed "statistically insignificant".

I'm not suggesting that anyone go chow down on a tub of bacon-flavored lard in celebration of this study, but it probably wouldn't hurt anything to go ahead and have that ice cream after dinner. Apparently, cancer doesn't give a shit about your "rocky road" dependency.

Dietary Cult Risk Rating : 1/10 - Sticking to a low-fat diet doesn't come with a lot of pomp and self-righteousness. It just makes you turn down most offered food in favor of sitting alone every morning, eating dry toast and black decaf. Sounds like ... prison?


2: Low-Carb Diet

Low-carb diets, like the Atkins Diet, help people lose weight by initiating ketosis in the body. Ketosis occurs when the body is at a deficit for carbohydrates (energy), and has to resort to burning up what resources are stored in the body's fat supply to provide itself enough energy to maintain function. That MIGHT sound good, because in a way you're kick-starting a natural mechanism in the body that will UTILIZE all that fat that your body has packed away over the years. Besides, low-carb diets encourage snacking on things like peanuts, pork rinds, and beef jerky. A freakin' bacon-wrapped, cheese-smothered, smoked  New York strip steak is actually low-carb diet friendly. WHAT THE FUCK? YES!!! YES!!! THERE IS A GOD AND HIS NAME BE ATKINS!! How can that be bad?

Well, for one thing, don't try this if you're diabetic. It could send you into diabetic ketoacidosis, which could lead to coma or death.

Ketosis is a process that's NOT easy on the body. It's a process that costs the body a great expenditure of energy in an effort to get additional energy out of stored fat, but also protein. In case you aren't aware, muscles and other organs are largely comprised of the same proteins ketosis will break down. By denying yourself carbs and starchy, carb-filled foods, you're forcing your body to rip itself up to support itself. That's like fixing holes in your roof by patching it with the siding on your house, and then when that siding won't cover the hole without extra support, you knock some of the bricks out of the side of your house to put on top of it. FUCKING BRILLIANT!

From Buzzle.com

Some of the symptoms of ketosis are:

The presence of a sickly sweet smelling, fruity breath. This peculiar smell is due to the presence of acetone bodies. This bad breath may be offensive to some people, but is a classic sign of ketosis

Tiredness and fatigue is often seen in the initial stages of ketosis

Headache

Excessive thirst

Weakness and dizziness

Nausea and stomach aches, accompanied by abdominal pain

Problems with sleeping

Regarding low-carb diets, in general, The American Heart Association states: "Individuals who follow these diets are therefore at risk for compromised vitamin and mineral intake, as well as potential cardiac, renal [kidney], bone, and liver abnormalities overall." Low carb diets like the Atkins diet may also hasten the onset of type II diabetes.

Dietary Cult-Risk Rating:  6/10 - Many people will believe your diet is a bad idea, what with the whole "low-fat diet" belief still making the rounds. However, while you're busy thinking you're a badass as you shed that first large amount of water weight, not only will you be doing damage to your OWN body, you'll probably be trying to convert all of your friends to this awesome meat-gnawing, potato-eschewing diet. You're likely to draw a lot of unwitting saps into the fold. Despite the TONS of websites warning people away from low-carb diets, most people don't bother to learn about their own basic body functions, let alone worry about them failing as a result of trying to lose weight.

1 - Vegetarian/Vegan Diet

Oh, hippies, how weary I am of you, in all your many incarnations..

I can understand the desire to abstain from eating things that have faces. I really can. However, there's a really big difference between maintaining a meatless diet for personal reasons, and deluding yourself into thinking that your personal reasons equal out to meat-eating being unhealthy for human beings. We are OMNIVORES. Get the fuck over it. On the bright side for vegetarians, being an omnivore means you can actually survive without meat, though I personally don't see it as much more than survival if there's no bacon involved.

Vegetarianism isn't so bad, despite a notable lack of cured pork products. A lot of vegetarians eat dairy, cheese, or maybe eggs, but draw the line at actual meat. These are the kind you see that clearly aren't eating any healthier than anyone else at the restaurant, but make a big fucking deal about ordering the vegetarian plate. I may, in fact, be a tad bitter from some of my experiences with vegetarians. I'm sure there are plenty of vegetarians who aren't, by nature, a giant pain in the ass to all of their omnivorous friends and family. I have surely just had a (long) run of bad luck with vegetarians who:

- Like to make a point about your eating meat and how much it grosses them out

- Constantly go into personal crises about what sellouts they are for eating dairy products

- Embarrass everyone who will still go to a restaurant with them by talking about how much better they could have made this "at home" with soy and tree nut products INSTEAD of dirty cow products.

- Make comparisons about what you're eating to demonstrate why they wouldn't eat it
  - "To me, it's no different than taking a piece of dog shit and handing it to me on a plate. That's how
      dirty and nasty that burger you're eating right now looks to me" - actual quote

- Come over to your house and talk about how much it stinks because you've "cooked dead things"

- Maintain this diet for "health reasons" yet remain the sickliest, fattest OR most underweight, most unhealthy people you know.

- Refuse to accept "western medicine", relying instead on "traditional eastern healing" methods that involve ingredients they can't pronounce, don't really research so that they can use them properly, and that come from countries that wouldn't use that outdated shit anymore if you PAID them, because they, instead, rely on "western medicine".

-Always need someone to talk them out of the bathroom, drive them to the doctor, or otherwise handle business for them when their malnutritious lifestyle ends up biting them in the ass.

..and that's just vegetarians.. you know, the ones that actually eat non-meat animal products. Vegans are like vegetarians, but about ten times worse with an extra helping of self-righteousness and delusion.

On a vegan diet, no animal products or by products are allowed. This means no cheese, no dairy, no eggs, no standard gelatin (which is made from beef), or anything else that comes from animals or fish. This is a great idea in theory if you love animals, and I do... but not enough to refrain from eating some of them. There are several nutrients that the human body needs that are not easily found in a standard vegan diet, and I venture to say are usually obtained in insufficient amounts by way of vegan cuisine. Here's a few of them, from The Independent, a British news publication :

Nutrients that everyone needs

B12

Because this vitamin is mainly found in meat, dairy products and eggs, vegans must get it from other sources such as supplements, fortified breakfast cereals and Marmite. Deficiency can lead to irreversible nervous system damage.

Vitamin D

Our skins make vitamin D when exposed to the sun's ultraviolet rays. But with desk-bound jobs, long winters and unpredictable weather, it is not always possible to get enough. Vitamin D is crucial for bone growth in children, and deficiency can result in rickets. Oily fish is one of the best dietary sources, but vegans can obtain it from fortified breakfast cereals and margarine. People living in Scotland may need to take greater care over vitamin D, as may people from cultures that require them to cover up.

Calcium

Found in dairy products, this is essential for strong bones. It is often lacking in a vegan diet unless taken as supplement.

Iron

Without sufficient iron, vegans and vegetarians can become anaemic. Deficiency can also delay growth in toddlers. Iron is commonly found in meat, but vegetarians can source iron from pulses and leafy green vegetables.

Calories

Although childhood obesity is an issue today, not enough calories can mean children don't grow properly. This can be a problem in high-fibre diets.

Protein

High-biological-value protein is found in meat, fish, eggs and dairy products. Low-biological-value protein is found in nuts, pulses and wholegrains. Separately, the latter don't contain all the essential amino acids, but do when combined correctly. Knowledge of which foods to mix together is therefore crucial.

I'll venture to say it because it's TRUE. In an average person's day, with a schedule that probably includes a job, or school, or kids, or all three.. how much time does said average person have to make sure you balance out each and every meal to ensure that you have at least sufficient amounts of necessary nutrients present in your food? Most people DO NOT have the time or even the inclination to do that (even if, ideally, they should), which is why most processed food is supplemented, or "enriched", with nutrients.

Most vegetarians and vegans won't eat anything processed or with "additives" if they can help it, so they don't even get that minute amount of supplements found in basic every day foods. Sure, the argument is that vegans take nutritional supplements to make up for whatever they're not getting in their diet, which is a great idea in theory, but not all supplements are created equal and they don't necessarily absorb properly in pill or powder form.What's worse is that vegans and vegetarians do, in fact, bring their kids along for the ride.

This story, also from The Independent, details a vegan mother realizing the damage her eating habits had done to her children.

"One morning over breakfast, Holly Paige looked at her daughter and realised things weren't right. Lizzie should have been flourishing. Instead, her cheeks were pinched, she was small for her age, and although she had skinny arms and legs, her belly was big and swollen. When Lizzie smiled, Paige suddenly noticed her upper front teeth were pitted with holes.
"I was absolutely horrified," recalls Paige."

In 2007, a vegan couple from Atlanta were given life sentences over the death of their six week old infant son, whose diet to that point had consisted of apple juice and soy milk. Of course, these people being vegans, full of themselves, and so certain that they knew better than EVERYONE ELSE, delivered the child at home without all that bothersome western medicine getting in the way. Why they didn't so much as bother to breastfeed the baby or even feed it formula is beyond me. At six weeks old, he died weighing 3 1/2 pounds. The parents claimed that they didn't think anything was wrong with him until a few minutes before he died.

Even in the cases of breastfeeding vegetarian mothers, those babies are known to experience massive developmental delays as reported by the Centers for Disease Control. Another case in 2003 involved a vegan couple from Queens, NY, whose 15 month old weighed ten pounds and had no teeth due to malnutrition. This baby was not breastfed or given formula, was delivered at home, was NOT given immunizations, and was also suffering from rickets and an inability to sit up or talk.

From azcentral.com

On April 23, 2005, Blair Parker called 911 because his 3-year-old daughter seemed to be having a seizure.

Doctors in the emergency room found that the girl was emaciated - she weighed just 13 pounds - and they asked to examine Parker's other two children.
His 11-year-old daughter was the size of a 5-year-old, and his 9-year-old son was the size of a 3-year-old. All of the children had been fed a diet that Parker and his wife misguidedly believed was a proper vegan diet, meaning that they eschewed all meat and fish and even dairy products

Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2008/07/04/20080704parker0704.html#ixzz1ZhOICqiI

From TimesOnline UK:

A 12-YEAR-OLD girl in Scotland brought up by her parents on a strict vegan diet has been admitted to hospital with a degenerative bone condition said to have left her with the spine of an 80-year-old woman.

Doctors are under pressure to report the couple to police and social workers amid concerns that her health and welfare may have been neglected in pursuit of their dietary beliefs.

The girl, who has been fed on a strict meat and dairy-free diet from birth, is said to have a severe form of rickets and to have suffered a number of fractured bones.
Read more:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/scotland/article4087734.ece

Dietary Cult-Risk Rating - 9/10 - I'd give it a full 10 for indoctrination at birth, but it seems that the kids aren't living long enough for that to count.