Veg*ns, what do you think about Lierre Keith?

Question

Lierre Keith is the author of a book Called "The vegetarian myth."

In her book and some of her interviews these are some arguments she always brings up:
She claims only meat is a complete protein. 
She claims meat eaters have no chance of getting cancer, heart disease, etc.
She claims vitamin A is only in animal foods.
She claims vitamin D is only in animal foods like milk. Even though cows milk is fortified with vitamin D.
She claims meat eaters have much better teeth than veg*ns. 
She claims meat eaters have bigger brains. 
She claims that fruits has way to much sugar and we are not supposed to eat a lot of it. 
She claims vegetarianism is destroying the environment. 
She claims she was vegan for 20 years, and always craved eggs. She says this is proof that the vegan diet is not healthy. Even though I'm pretty sure meat eaters crave big macs, that doesn't mean they're body wants protein.

I could go on. It just makes me sad that so many people believe everything she says. She even admits that she gets a lot of her information from Wikipedia, which is not a reliable source.

She just seems to have a general hate for veg*ns, and seems very misinformed.

Here is an interview with her if you would like to watch. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNON5iNf07o

? · Accepted Answer

She claimed she was a vegan but in one of her interviews, she said that she stuffed her face with eggs and dairy every chance she got.  She also claimed that all vegetarians and vegans *cheat* once a week and that they *cheat* by eating beef. She then goes on to say that because vegetarians and vegans don't eat meat, they will live their entire lives unhealthy, which contradicts her earlier statement that we all eat beef once a week. She is a head case, all she does is spout bull crap.
Interestingly, she never tells us what she ate when she was vegan or what she eats now that she is an omnivore. Except to say that she used to eat "all carbohydrates" (All? No wonder she was sick) and that she now eats mostly animals and their secretions

1) pg. 140: The author states that "Carbon-13 is a stable isotope present in two places: grasses and the bodies of animals that eat grasses". She goes on to suggest that since there is no evidence of grass "scratch marks" on the human teeth found, that they must have been eating animals. There are many flaws in this thought process. First, I cant even begin to explain the preservation and degradation issues present in examining three million year old teeth for 'scratch marks'. Second, carbon-13 is an isotope found in ALL terrestrial and marine plants, not just grass. Finding high levels of C3 or C4 (which are what carbon-13 breaks down into) in human teeth only means that that human was eating large amounts of SOME plant, seed, nut, etc. (not JUST grass) or the animal that ate those. It is not as simple as GRASS OR COW.

2) pg. 142: The author states that there are no bacteria in the human stomach. This is simply untrue. In 2005 Barry Marshall and Robin Warren won a Nobel Prize in Medicine for discovering a stomach bacteria that causes gastritis and ulcer disease. There are currently over 130 known stomach bacteria.

3) pg. 146: The author states a "rumor" authored by RB Lee about hunter-gatherers getting 65% of their calories from plants and 35% from meat. She states that this "simply isnt true". First, this rumor-spreader is one of the most well-respected anthropological/archaeological researchers in hunter-gatherer studies who edited what is considered THE tome on hunter-gatherer theory, 'Man the Hunter'. He isnt some random hack. Second, saying those numbers 'simply arent true' is simply not true. Hunter-gatherers did and do inhabit a huge range of environments and likewise their diets cover a wide range. Some do follow the 65/35% number. Some eat much more meat. Some eat much less.

And those are just examples from the first six pages of the book!

The author cites 207 references in this book.
62 of those references are websites (~30%)
18 are newspapers and magazines (~7%)
32 are journals (~15%)
95 are other books (~46%)

First of all, think about that. 30% of the references in this book come from website information. Five of those 62 website references were Wikipedia. Wikipedia! One was Google Answers! If I referenced those sources in an English paper in Grade 9, I would have failed it.

This woman is an airhead. Anyone who listens to a word she says is just as blind and moronic and she is. Here is a website drawing on her idiotic statements and claims:
http://durianrider.org/2011/09/01/lierre-liar-keith/

Anonymous · Answer

Anybody willing to say veganism was the cause of their illness due to the lack of animal product with no personal examination by a qualified professional & then write a book called ''the vegetarian myth'' to perpetuate that a vegetarian diet is wrong (ie not veganism) is an idiot looking for sales. Ironically she also states she binged on meat/eggs etc whenever she got the chance which completely contradicts her claim that veganism gave her health problems.
I'm also fairly sure she doesn't however promote arguments against using animals in other areas unrelated to health (cosmetics/fashion)

Far as i'm aware she is an anarchist like Jensen & believes modern civilisation is destroying the environment, i'm pretty sure she supports perma-culture, i also feel bad that she got that chili pepper pie to the face by those idiot ''rebel vegans''. That being said her book is a prime example of how easy it is to fool the public by environmental hysteria as long as there is citations & psuedo-scientific terms, it is like the ''ban dihydrogen monoxide (ie H2O)'' petitions to show how modern society lacks the brains by and large to critically analyse things of environmental concern

Gail · Answer

By all accounts, Stephen Tyler or Alice Cooper could have given Moon a run for his money. I'll guess rum cake was Keith's favourite. Neil Peart would be be his favourite drummer. All the above answers are complete and utter guesses.

? · Answer

Well, let's just say she's a stereotypical lying *****. Has she even done research before on vegan diets? And she HATES vegans? Excuse me, but what did we ever do to her? Seriously, some people nowadays can be such idiots and just make up crap towards a minority and EVERYONE would believe them. Why don't people just do their own research instead of listening to this misinformed ***** who is prejudiced against people based on what they eat?

You know what? Society is completely a *****. It's all full of lies, hate, stereotypes, and injustice, which everyone believes and takes the wrong way. I just hope I die peacefully without being killed based on my skin color or race or gender or even what I eat. *sigh*

freeyourself1anarchist · Answer

She wasn't vegan and she is blaming the animals because she is too stupid to learn how to do something right. She is brilliant when it comes to feminism but anywhere else and she just fails. People love her because she lies and her lies are taken as truth.

She wrote what she wrote because she felt threatened by the invisible non-existent threat of vegetarianism. She need a defense to the voices in her head.

? · Answer

Who?

In other words: nothing much. Of all the crazy books about food this is just one more.

мι¢кιє♀ · Answer

I do not really care, so far the books I have seen about vegetarianism/veganism that are not cookbooks tend to be biased one way or another.

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Veg*ns, what do you think about Lierre Keith?

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