I was browsing the parenting section of the local B&N when I noticed to my horror a "Skinny Bitch" book in the pregnancy section. For those of you not familiar with this franchise, the "Skinny Bitch" series of books seeks to convince people to follow a vegan diet with a double whammy approach of telling people that the current animal food production system is vicious and broken (with graphic imagery) and that they will lose weight following a vegan diet.
I mostly ignore these books thinking that if people want to gamble their own health on veganism instead of sourcing humanely raised meat, dairy and eggs, that's fine. But this book really got to me in that it's pushing a vegan agenda on women who are at a stage in their life when they need the absolute BEST nutrition to keep their babies and themselves healthy. By trying to push a vegan diet totally out of the blue onto pregnant women I think that this skinny bitch franchise is going WAY TOO FAR. They write in the book that eating meat or drinking milk will give you and your baby cancer, ignoring the fact that rigorous supplementation is needed to prevent uh, DEATH, to infants on a vegan diet.
Are my concerns totally overblown here? Do you know anyone that has been healthy on a vegan diet during pregnancy? What would the paleo perspective be on encouraging health in pregnant women that want to be vegan or vegetarian?
