mayim bialik

Mayim Bialik Smacks Down Vegan Diet Myths

6
by Ali Berman May 24, 2013
Categories: Eats, Healthy Living, Vegan
Tags: .
Photo: Helga Esteb / Shutterstock.com

“Big Bang Theory” star Mayim Bialik took to her facebook page yesterday to address the burst of messages she received about a 2011 news story.

We’re not sure why this story is getting a passed around like it’s new, but from what we can gather, Bialik’s fans are writing to her about a vegan mother in France who exclusively breastfed her baby. Tragically, the baby died at eleven months and was deficient in vitamin A and B12. Bialik, a devoted vegan and mother, is responding to the alarmist messages by publicly dispelling the false assumption that since this baby was unhealthy, all babies breastfed by vegan mothers are in danger.

Bialik wrote, “i am getting so many emails about this… the tragic death of a breastfed baby whose mom was vegan in 2011 is NOT proof that breastfeeding vegans are a danger to their babies. B12 deficiency can happen in adult carnivores… let’s not be alarmist about an isolated tragedy. i promise, vegans can breastfeed. please don’t get cookoo about this!!” She then linked to this story about breastfeeding.

Apparently, many still didn’t get the message, so Bialik went on to write, “i’m just a glutton: the baby who tragically died in 2011 did not die because her mother was vegan. period. there are SO MANY other things going on that have to do with choices about ignoring medical advice having NOTHING TO DO WITH VEGANISM. have a great morning and let’s focus on more important issues of the world than bashing vegans or breastfeeding. thanks :)”

Bialik isn’t the only vegan mom who breastfeeds. Alicia Silverstone and Emily Deschanel have also maintained their vegan diets while raising healthy children. Personally, I know tons of vegan moms who have happy and healthy children who were breastfed. Thanks to Mayim for always being a vocal advocate on the side of science.

About Ali Berman

Ali Berman is the author of Choosing a Good Life: Lessons from People Who Have Found Their Place in the World (Hazelden) and Misdirected (Seven Stories Press). She works as a humane educator for HEART teaching kids about issues affecting people, animals and the environment. Her published work can be found on her website at aliberman.com. In early 2012 Ali co-founded flipmeover, a production company with the mission to use media to raise awareness of social issues.

View all posts by Ali Berman →
  • Shawn Sweeney

    Great post Ali!

  • NuriaRodriguez

    People don’t want to get past the headline. But they aren’t even reading that right, because ANY baby still being exclusively, key word EXCLUSIVELY at 11 months is going to be malnourished, no matter what the diet of the mother is!

    • Jennifer Kathryn Edwards

      actually that is very untrue….babies can be entirely breastfed for a full year, most don’t however because they hit a stage where they are curious about food and start grabbing at and self feeding, but the rule of thumb for a breastfed baby is Food before One Is JUST for FUN.

    • Jenna Webb Stubbe

      100% False.

  • Cole Greenman

    While I’m not out to bash vegans and don’t know enough about the subject to weigh in personally, I can’t help but be skeptical of a nutrition article that is based off of a bunch of studies from the early 90’s. In the past 20 years both science and nutrition studies have made many advances; I’d be curious to see a more recent study that reflects these advances. For all we know new studies might show that vegan breast feeding is BETTER for the baby. I think it’s irresponsible though to go around telling people you KNOW something based off of 20+ year old studies.

  • Al_x

    Wouldn’t there be other signs of malnutrition if the baby wasn’t getting what it needed from its mother. And this Idea that a vegan mother would somehow be incapable of producing the nutrients her baby needs is absurd. I’m no vegan but I am pretty sure you can get all you need even without eating meat or animal products.

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