I am engaged to a girl who was vegan even before our relationship started. I didn't think it was a problem because I like her a lot, I was very much in love, and at the beginning of our relationship, I wasn't thinking about family, moving in together, children, etc. After the proposal, I started thinking about the family and kids scenario, and I began to panic and feel disappointed with her. Her dogmatism is so deeply rooted inside her that she was hospitalized for two weeks due to a health problem brought on by her diet, and she refused to eat meat, telling the doctors that she would rather die.

Eventually, I brought up what would happen in this case, and after some arguments between us, she concluded that she would let the kids eat everything and wouldn't brainwash them. However, while she is pregnant, she will continue to be vegan just like now, and she won't cook meat; instead, I will have to do it, or we will have to find it another way. I don't think this (meaning two people cooking at the same time) is feasible, and I’ve started thinking that we won't be able to live together this way. Not to mention, I don't know if she will change her mind at that moment and do something else.

She is crying and telling me that I tricked her, that I've now regretted it and want to dump her, and that I am terrible for what I'm doing. What should I do? What do you advise? Will we last being married together? What solutions are there?

"Eating animals is murder!"

- Murder (n): The unlawful killing of a **human being** with "malice aforethought," meaning it is intentional, willful, or shows extreme indifference to **human** life.

"Eating animals destroys the environment!"

-Sent from my iPhone in my Tempur-Pedic bed in my upper middle class gated suburbia home with a Tesla on the driveway.

"You shouldn't kill living things!"

-Local man born yesterday discovers plants are also, in fact, living things. Can be avoided by starving yourself.

"Eating animals is unethical!"

-Right, eating food is unethical but unregulated Capitalism isn't. That makes sense.

"Eating vegan is cheaper!"

-Fast food says otherwise.

"Eating vegan is healthier!"

-All of human history says otherwise dating back to prehistoric times. There are no wall paintings of people hunting plants.

"Meat isn't necessary!"

-Well your tooth enamel being the strongest part of the human body, stomach acidity comparable to battery acid, and knife like canines say otherwise.

"Vegans save animals!"

-Isn't PETA world renowned for killing animals? On a good day?

"It's morally superior!"

-So is preventing overpopulation.

"They should be free!"

-They can't survive in the wild. They're domesticated, their only job is to do what we make them, including being eaten.

"It's inhumane!"

-So is making people starve.

If vegans were really that concerned about making the world a better place, they'd spend less time aggravating people online and more time fighting consumer capitalism and living off the grid in mud huts with no electricity.

Feeding a pet a vegan diet might sound compassionate on the surface, but it can raise serious concerns about animal health, nutrition, and ethics. While humans can choose plant-based diets and carefully balance their nutrition, pets—especially certain species—have very different biological needs that make veganism far more complicated and potentially harmful.

Biological Needs Matter

Dogs and cats are not nutritionally identical to humans. Cats, in particular, are obligate carnivores, meaning their bodies are biologically designed to rely on nutrients found almost exclusively in animal tissue. They require compounds like taurine, arachidonic acid, vitamin A (in its active form), and vitamin B12—all of which are naturally abundant in meat but either absent or poorly absorbed from plant sources.

Dogs are more flexible—they are considered omnivores—but that doesn’t mean they thrive on just any plant-based diet. Even for dogs, getting the right balance of amino acids, fatty acids, vitamins, and minerals from plants alone requires careful formulation and supplementation.

Risk of Nutritional Deficiencies

When pets are fed improperly balanced vegan diets, they can develop serious health problems. For example:

Taurine deficiency in cats can lead to heart disease (dilated cardiomyopathy), vision loss, and even death.

Protein deficiencies can result in muscle wasting, weakness, and poor immune function.

Vitamin and mineral imbalances can affect everything from bone health to neurological function.

While some commercial vegan pet foods attempt to supplement these nutrients synthetically, not all products are created equal, and errors in formulation or feeding can have severe consequences.

Digestive and Practical Challenges

Animals’ digestive systems are adapted to process certain types of food. Cats have short digestive tracts suited for meat digestion, not for breaking down high-fiber plant matter. Forcing a plant-based diet may lead to gastrointestinal issues like bloating, diarrhea, or poor nutrient absorption.

Additionally, maintaining a properly balanced vegan diet for a pet often requires strict monitoring, veterinary guidance, and sometimes expensive specialty foods—making it impractical for many pet owners.

Ethical Considerations

There’s also an ethical tension involved. Many people choose veganism to reduce harm to animals, but imposing a restrictive diet on a pet that cannot choose for itself raises questions. Is it fair to prioritize one set of ethical values if it compromises the health and well-being of the animal in your care?

Veterinary Perspectives

Most veterinarians and animal nutrition experts caution against feeding vegan diets to pets without professional supervision. Organizations like the American Veterinary Medical Association and other veterinary bodies emphasize that pets should receive diets that meet established nutritional standards, regardless of whether those diets include animal products.

The Bottom Line

While the intention behind feeding pets a vegan diet may come from a place of compassion, it can conflict with the biological and nutritional realities of animals—especially cats. Without careful planning, expert input, and high-quality supplementation, vegan diets for pets can lead to serious health risks.

If you’re considering changing your pet’s diet, the safest approach is to consult with a veterinarian or a board-certified animal nutritionist. Your pet depends entirely on you for its well-being, and ensuring it gets the nutrition it needs should always come first.

Looks like those million of fake vegans don't help appropriate businesses projection

When a Vegan Diet Becomes Dangerous: The Real Risks of Poor Planning

Veganism, when well planned, can support good health. But like any restrictive eating pattern, it can become dangerous if essential nutrients are ignored for too long. The real issue is not simply avoiding animal products. The danger comes from nutritional deficiencies, extreme dieting, and misinformation.

One of the biggest risks in a poorly planned vegan diet is vitamin B12 deficiency. B12 is critical for nerve function, red blood cell production, and brain health. Because reliable natural sources of B12 are almost entirely found in animal-derived foods, vegans generally need fortified foods or supplements. Without enough B12, a person can develop anemia, nerve damage, memory problems, weakness, and in severe untreated cases, permanent neurological injury.

Another serious concern is iron deficiency. Plant foods do contain iron, but the form found in plants is less easily absorbed than the iron in meat. If a vegan diet is low in legumes, fortified cereals, seeds, and leafy greens, or if overall calorie intake is too low, iron-deficiency anemia can develop. This may cause fatigue, dizziness, shortness of breath, headaches, and reduced immunity.

Protein intake can also become a problem when vegan eating is reduced to ultra-processed foods, fruit, or small salads. The body needs adequate protein for muscles, immune function, hormones, and tissue repair. A vegan diet can absolutely provide enough protein, but not if it is built carelessly or with extreme food restriction.

Other nutrients that may become too low include omega-3 fats, zinc, calcium, vitamin D, and iodine. Over time, deficiencies in these nutrients can affect bone strength, thyroid function, cardiovascular health, and immune performance. Children, pregnant people, older adults, and people with existing medical conditions may face greater risks if the diet is not carefully managed.

The danger becomes even greater when veganism is combined with eating disorders, severe calorie restriction, or online nutrition myths. Some people adopt highly limited versions of vegan eating that cut out fats, beans, grains, or supplements. In those cases, the problem is no longer just veganism. It is malnutrition.

A well-planned vegan diet does not automatically put someone in danger. But a badly planned one can lead to serious health consequences. The lesson is simple: dietary choices need to be based on evidence, not ideology alone. Anyone following a vegan diet should make sure they get enough B12, protein, iron, calcium, vitamin D, iodine, zinc, and omega-3 fats, and should consider regular medical checkups and bloodwork.

Veganism is not inherently deadly. Neglecting basic nutrition is.

I have an online friend that is vegan and is one of the "good vegans" she never talks about veganism and is a chill person!

However this kinda makes me feel bad for making fun of vegans even though all of my jokes and rants are only about the activists and not most vegans!

I'm scared that if I reveal I'm on here then she'll feel betrayed, and her mental health is already horrible!

I don't know if I should quit making fun of activists or continue but make it clear I'm only against vegan activists and not most vegans...

What do I do!?

The idea of veganism is fine, whether it be because you like animals or want to be healthy, it's your decision and I respect it. But all that I ask is that you return the favor and respect me for my choices to eat the way humans were designed

It's a known fact that the vegan community is one of the most toxic communities in the world, they bully anyone who doesn't agree with anyone. And that's honestly not how you get someone to make a major life decision like changing their entire diet, bullying ain't going to make them do that. If anything it will make them less likely to do it.

I'm also against vegans forcing their children to be vegan. Kids need protein to grow properly, and other things. If they don't then they are going to be short and really skinny and an easy target for middle and high schoolers. Not to mention how they will get bullied for only packing weird lunches. Vegans are also more likely to suffer from anxiety and depression, which no child should go through. It's especially maddening when you realize we are in the golden age of laziness and can just take a picture of a manufacturing company and ask AI to see how they kill the animals, some do it quickly and humanely.

Not to mention many things could go wrong. When your child grows up they will probably get curious and try meat and maybe resent their parents for hiding it from them, and then they could realize it's the main cause of their short height, skinniness, and the root of all the bullying they had to go through. Causing them to not only stop being vegan but also probably resent and hate their parents.

If you truly want a child to be vegan this is what you do. Step 1. Feed them a proper, balanced diet when they are growing. Step 2. When they stop growing and are old enough, sit down and talk with them calmly. Step3. Tell them why you have chosen to be vegan and why you think they should be vegan as well and actually give them the choice.

Children are known to want to follow their parents, and if you give them the choice they will be more likely to be vegan, and actually be doing it because they want to and not because their parents want to.

And not everyone can handle eating only plants, everyone's digestive system is different.

The final thing I'll say is that veganism isn't actually helping the environment, but destroying it.

The food web is a more complex version of the food chain, and it's extremely fragile, one little change will cause a ripple effect that could have catastrophic consequences. Humans are at the top, the apex predators. If all humans decided to be vegan, that's 8 billion apex predators can't hunt their food, and herbivores would skyrocket in population. And because humans now eat plants and there are a ton of plant eaters now, the plants would go all the way down. Causing the herbivores to die and then the carnivores. And everything is dead. Not to mention that plants have fewer calories, meaning we would eat a ton of them.

If vegans want to help the planet this is what they need to do, research the manufacturer company before buying anything, if they kill animals quickly and humanely then you can buy it, if they are cruel don't buy it, leading to all the bad companies to go bye-bye and the good ones to stay, the food web stays in place and everyone is healthy.

I'm doing carnivore diet and one other friend doing vegan, and he said he has high energy and feels better when he eats plant based, I know he will get sick eventually because of nutrition deficiency but why is plant based make people feel good initially?

THE VEGANS ARE BULLYING ME WITH AI IN THAT POST I TRIED TO REVENGE THEM ON, PLEASE TELL ME WHAT TO DO

I personally don’t eat cow. But I eat all the other animals. I do it for religious purpose. Does that make me less of a meat eater?

I had explosive diarrhea constantly throughout the day.

This is a report of articles found online regarding cases where parents raising their children vegan has led to severe malnutrition, permanent disability, or death. It is meant to commemorate the poor children who were forced into suffering because of veganism, and also to caution people thinking of raising their child vegan about the dangers of doing so. (See the last link for a published journal paper on how a vegan diet that meets the nutritional needs of a child requires professional help and careful planning, and according to Europe, is not advised.)

I am hoping that the mods will consider pinning this post to the group to illustrate that the seriousness of this lifestyle choice can have dire consequences on those that are unable to consent to being nutritional experiments at the whims of their legal guardians.

If anyone else knows of any cases or other interesting information regarding the effects of veganism on children, please post in the comment section and I will add the synopses and links to this post. Also, if you find any better links or developments on any of the information contained here, please let me know and I will adjust as necessary.

I hope people find this helpful and that perhaps it will inspire parents to consider the possibly disastrous effects of the decision to force a restrictive diet on their children: one that often leads to health issues in adults, and is far more grave in the case of children going through critical developmental phases.

Thanks. Let us not forget the poor victims of forced veganism who have suffered and died because their parents prioritized the lives of other animals above the lives of their own children.

1. Vegan mom gets life in prison for starvation death of 18-month-old son who weighed 17 pounds.

She and her husband also had two other children who were both forced into plant-based diets and malnourished. The original father of a fourth malnourished child was granted to his father.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/vegan-mom-gets-life-starvation-death-18-month-old-son-rcna45498

2. Vegan Australian parents who left baby girl malnourished avoid jail.

The girl was 19 months old but looked like a three month old and was completely unable to speak or feed herself, had severe mobility issues, and was found with blue lips, cold hands and feet, low blood sugar, and little muscle tone.

The unvaccinated girl had no teeth and was raised on oats, potatoes, rice, tofu, bread, peanut butter, and rice milk, with raisins or fruit for snacks.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-49430857

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/toddler-fed-vegan-diet-so-malnourished-she-had-no-teeth-court-told-20190509-p51lrp.html

3. Vegan couple sentences to life over baby's death.

The six week old baby boy was fed mostly soy milk and apple juice and weighed only 3.5 lbs.

https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna18574603

4. Parents convicted over vegetable milk diet.

In Belgium. Baby Lucas was seven months old and weighed only 9.5 lbs. The couple's homeopathic "doctor" advised the couple to call an ambulance, but it was too late.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-40274493

5. Parents who forced extreme vegan diet on toddler and buried his body in garden jailed.

The three-year old child died from a respiratory illness and had multiple fractures, severe malnutrition and dental decay, anemia, and rickets. The parents kept the boy's body in their bed for eight days before they buried him in a shallow grave. The parents tried to treat the respiratory illness with garlic and ginger.

https://news.sky.com/story/parents-who-forced-extreme-vegan-diet-on-toddler-and-buried-his-body-in-garden-jailed-13271946

6. Baby fed raw vegan diet died from malnutrition.

Parents kept their daughter on a raw vegan diet consisting primarily of tomato juice and water, and died of bronchopneumonia caused by malnutrition.

Their two older children were taken away and saved.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2001/sep/15/taniabranigan

7. Parents Accused of Starving Infant to Death

The six month old girl was emaciated and had never learned to sit, stand, or lift her head on her own. In the weeks before her death, she struggled to even keep her eyes open. She weighed about the same as a newborn. Her diet consisted mostly of wheatgrass, coconut water, and almond milk.

The parents are also facing four counts of child neglect from surviving children that are living with a relative under state supervision.

https://abcnews.go.com/Health/Diet/story?id=1228918

8. Parents of toddler whose vegan diet led to death sentenced to 30 months.

The girl's diet was severely lacking in protein and vitamins D and B12. At the age of two years, she was unable to crawl and had gained less than one kilo (2.2 lbs) since her last doctor's appointment. She had a complete absence of vitamin D, megaloblastic anemia, rickets, and protein deficienct. Her bones were so soft from malnutrition that she was found to have fractures at the time of death, a consequence of the fact that her bones were not strong enough to support her weight.

The parents had two other children and were pregnant with a fourth.

https://ottawasun.com/2015/04/10/parents-of-toddler-whose-vegan-diet-led-to-death-sentenced-to-30-months

9. Swedish parents jailed for almost starving vegan toddler to death.

The 18-month old girl was hours from dying when she was found unresponsive and rushed to the hospital. Her diet was primarily breast milk, brown rice, and potatoes. Hospital workers said that it was the worst case they had ever seen at the hospital.

Her birth had never even been registered: the parents believed that their daughter was "a citizen of the world" and never reported the birth, brought the baby to a pediatrician, or vaccinated her.

The girl was recovering well in the care of a foster parent. The parents were only jailed for three months and custody of the girl was intended to be returned to them while they lived with her at a supervised residential care facility monitored by social services.

https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/europe/vegan-baby-starve-parents-sweden-gothenburg-a8927991.html

10. Vegan child removed from parents' custody in Milan after being found malnourished.

The one year old boy had the weight of a three month old, and was brought to the hospital by his concerned grandparents. He was deficient in iron and calcium.

https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/europe/vegan-child-removed-parents-custody-milan-italy-after-found-malnourished-a7130571.html

11. Vegan Italian parents investigated for neglect after baby son found severely malnourished.

The 11-month old boy could neither crawl nor sit up. The child refused the vegetables that the parents were giving him, so he was being raised solely on breastmilk, which is not nutritionally sufficient for children over the age of six months. He may have suffered permanent damage: it will not be known until he is 3-4 years old.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/11716428/Vegan-Italian-parents-investigated-for-neglect-after-baby-son-found-severely-malnourished.html

12. Vegan parents starved baby of nutrients, gave her cerebral palsy, court told.

They repeatedly ignored medical advice that their plant-based diet would not sufficiently nourish the young girl, and disengaged from healthcare services altogether because they felt that "mainstream medicine did not understand them." They clashed with doctors and nurses concerned for the wellbeing of the girl, threatening to take action against them.

She was rushed to the hospital by her father and grandmother when found to have widespread bruising, discolored skin, rashes covering her body, and multiple open wounds. She was found to be bleeding internally and needed life-support measures, staying in ICU for a month.

https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/vegan-parents-starved-baby-of-nutrients-gave-her-cerebral-palsy-court-told-20200911-p55upz.html

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Other interesting articles on children and veganism:

1. In 2016, Italian lawmakers were considering making it a crime to feed a child under the age of 16 a vegan diet.

https://nutritionfornonnutritionists.com/2016/09/feeding-kids-a-vegan-diet-in-italy-could-be-a-crime

https://arstechnica.com/science/2016/08/raising-your-kid-as-a-vegan-could-soon-be-a-crime-in-italy

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-37034619

2. Italian court orders vegan mother to feed her child meat.

https://www.thelocal.it/20150528/italian-court-orders-mum-to-feed-child-meat

3. Custody Battle Boils Over Vegan Diet

A father is seeking full custody of a couple's 10-year old quintuplets on the basis that his ex-wife has serious control issues, first and foremost which is strict adherence to a vegan diet and lifestyle, including prohibiting the children from visiting their gransparents because they have leather furniture in their home.

https://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=3323914

4. PubMed NIH: Risks and benefits of vegan and vegetarian diets in children.

"Nutrients of potential concern are protein quantity and quality, iron, zinc, selenium, calcium, riboflavin, vitamins A, D, B12 and essential fatty acids. Although intakes and status of some nutrients (e.g. vitamin D and iron) are low in many children, vegan children are particularly susceptible due to inadequate supply and/or excess dietary fibre as well as other components that limit bioavailability."

"European statements include strong recommendations to parents that vegan diets should not be adopted by children without medical and dietetic supervision."

"...successful provision of a complete vegan diet for a young child requires substantial commitment, expert guidance, planning, resources and supplementation."

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33504371

One member of my extended family is vegan, and when I visit with the larger family unit, meals often include fake meat or cheese as a substitute. I am looking for advice on how to politely and respectfully ask that they not include synthetic meat or cheese in the dishes. I do not want myself or my children eating these products.

For the record, I am fine if they are otherwise meat/cheese free. I am happy to add in my own protein.

Since Islam is the fastest growing religion in this day and age halal food shops are pretty easy to find and since factory farmed animals aren't considered permissable to eat halal shops only sell organic and often hand raised and slaughtered meat. Studies also show halal meat and food in general tends to be healthier for you because it has to meet higher standards of quality and since they drain out literally all the blood there's less chance of bacterial contamination.

Plus to meet halal standards farmers have to raise their animals the right way and that includes the animal being well cared for and fed a natural diet so no GMO feed or spending their lives in feed lots.

Halal shops also often source from local family farms or if they're in a city the closest farmers they can find so it helps multiple local businesses too.

(Note that not every place has hand slaughtered meat as some places use a machine so you'd have to ask)

I don't have too much trouble justifying my meat-eating, but I've recently been on the fence over whether it's ok to eat cephalopods, specifically.

Like, you can link me stories of "Look at this cow play fetch!" all you want, it's not gonna convince me they're sapient enough to truly suffer on the same level as a human. But then I see stories about octopi and...well, I start to wonder where the line is.

Octopi can unscrew jars, escape aquariums, and solve god damned Rubik's Cubes. Like, doesn't that freak anyone else out? Isn't there a point where an animal is intelligent enough that slaughtering it for food is unacceptable? I think we would all agree that it's not cool to eat chimpanzees or dolphins, shouldn't we include octopi on that list?

I'd really like input on this, been struggling to answer this for myself.

I am a sexual assault survivor. I recently got into a conversation with a vegan friend of mine who said “rape and eating meat are justified in the same way”.

I did not have a long enough conversation to know what exactly he meant by that, I blocked him right away because I was severely distressed and shaking. I have been sick to my stomach since then.

Am I the only one who has had such a a severe reaction to someone saying that? How do I deal with my extreme emotions to that?

Vegans often claim that the world needs 2.5 times more land for grass fed ruminants consumption. Any idea where the data comes from and what are the assumptions behind it?

hi everyone i was vegan for 8+ years but i decided i don’t want to be vegan anymore. But i now have a problem. All the food i learned to cook and perfect to my taste is vegan. All the non vegan food i try to make myself just doesn’t satisfy that craving. I don’t know what to cook or eat even. All the things i remember used to taste good to me or i used to love before going vegan just don’t have the same delicious taste i remember them to have. Please help me recover from the long 8 brainwashed years😖😖