Vegan diets healthy, 'organics' not always animal friendly

Liz Kersjes had quite a few inaccuracies in her column Vegetarian contemplates changing diet (SN 1/29).

First off, it is easy to eat out and be a vegan. A lot of restaurants have vegan options on their menus. Chili’s, Ruby Tuesday, Denny’s, Chipotle, Panera Bread, Bennigan’s, as well as many fast-food restaurants cater to vegans. Since going vegan, I have not had any trouble eating out.

She also made a mistake when saying vegan diets aren’t always the healthiest. As a whole, vegans tend to be healthier than nonvegans. Many studies have shown the more meat and dairy a country consumes, the more deaths there are from heart disease, cancer and stroke.

Kersjes said organic dairy comes from animals that are treated humanely. That couldn’t be further from the truth. The “organic” label doesn’t have anything to do with humane treatment.

While I am glad Kersjes has adopted a vegetarian diet, I wish she would have focused her column on the atrocities of factory farms, on how a vegan diet is the best diet for the global poor, on how a vegan diet is the only environmentally responsible diet or on the health benefits of a vegan diet. Instead, she stated multiple inaccuracies.

The main thing we all need to remember is when we consume meat or dairy, we aren’t just making a personal choice, rather we are contributing to the suffering and killing of animals who had no choice in the matter.

Phil Letten

political science junior