Thursday, September 27, 2012

Intolerance will not be tolerated!

Today I met someone who was not only anti-vegan, but downright vegan intolerant! To make matters worse, he owns a health food store!

I don't normally call for boycotts, but I am asking all vegans in the area to boycott Nutrition Unlimited in Southgate. They are anti-vegan and quite evangelical about it!

Instead, please support other local establishments, such as Total Health Foods in Wyandotte. They are vegan-friendly and tolerant of all people, regardless of their eating habits.

Let me go back and explain how I came upon this information.

As you know, I published a vegan, gluten-free cookbook last January. I have been trying to get local stores to carry the book. (Currently, it's being sold at Total Health Foods and Nutri-Foods in Royal Oak.) I happened to be going by Nutrition Unlimited so I thought I would stop in and re-introduce myself and see if they would be interested in checking out my book. (I say re-introduce because years ago when they first opened I actually used to be a somewhat frequent customer. I introduced the owner to several new products that he continues to carry to this day. Needless to say, he wasn't anti-vegan, or at least didn't preach it, at that time.)

So I went in and introduced myself and as soon as I said the word vegan he said, "Vegan?! We don't promote veganism! That's what we teach people in our clinic - not to be vegan. You can only get Vitamin A from animal sources so where do you get your Vitamin A?" I was a bit startled and replied, "Well I'm not Vitamin A deficient and no vegans I know are Vitamin A deficient so we must be getting it from somewhere." To which he retorted, "Well that's surprising."

I think I mumbled something like "Ok, thanks for your time" (because I was still trying to be polite) and I started to walk away. He followed me. And then he said, "Don't you know the cause of all autism? Autism is caused by Vitamin A deficiency!" What I really wanted to say was, "Are you implying that autism only affects vegan children and all vegan children become autistic?" but I really didn't feel like arguing with someone so clueless. I replied, "Actually, there's a lot of research on autism linked to nutrition but it's not focused on Vitamin A. I could refer you to some doctors that are doing cutting edge research on the causes of autism. But I see it's not a good fit here for my book, thanks anyway."

Again, I preceded to leave. And again he chased me down! And this time, he says very loudly, in front of a lot of customers, "Do you know where mother's get protein from to feed their babies?" I said, "I'm not interested in discussing nutrition of mothers and children." And he replied, "But do you know where it comes from? The protein comes from milk!" And I replied, "Yes, but not from the milk of other species."

And with that, I walked out the door.

So, not only is the owner anti-vegan, he clearly wants to push his misguided beliefs on anyone who is. So for all of you vegans and vegan supporters out there, please do not patronize his store! There are plenty of other places where you will be treated like a human being!

Wishing you peas and good health,

VeggiePatti