Book About Veganism Draws Unnecessary Backlash

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We live in a country where the obesity rate has been on a steady incline for the past decade. One would think that promoting eating healthfully would be a good thing, but in the case of a book called Vegan Is Love: Having Heart and Taking Action, the response has been less than savory.

The books deals with teaching children to lead a vegan lifefstyle. Author-illustrator Ruby Roth's intent was to judge, at least a little bit, with pictures of smog-covered land and sad animals. Roth's stance on eating meat is pretty overt—she thinks it will destroy the Earth and everyone we love, and soon.

Eating healthy shouldn't be controversial--soda in a baby's bottle should be.

Still, one child psychologist says it's "the most disturbing children's book [he's] ever seen."

But why is healthy eating (even if taken to what some people think is an extreme) the target for an attack? Some say that while veganism can be a healthy lifestyle, it can easily be less healthy than an omnivorous diet.

John Bagnulo, PhD., who teaches nutrition in Kripalu Healthy Living programs, says that kids can be healthy as vegans, but that it's important to not "just eat plants"—so many vegetarian and vegan parents embark on this journey with the misconception that kids have the same nutritional needs as adults. Nothing could be further from reality."

But despite the criticism, Roth is steadfast: "It's high time we engage youth in topics previously reserved for adults: democracy, supply and demand, and engaging ourselves in the public realm."

While we don't necessarily advocate for or against kids going full vegan, healthy eating habits should not be controversial. What should be controversial? How about the baby who has Coke in his bottle, or the little girl who eats frosted Pop-Tarts every day for breakfast?  I think we can agree that those dietary choices are far worse than having broccoli and tofu for dinner.