[Buddha-l] Victimized vegans?

[Dan Lusthaus]

> Let this story be a warning to all those who heed the dietribes (diatary
> diatribes) in the Lankavatara and Shurangama Sutras.
>
> http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2007/05/09/vegan-baby-death.html

Hardly! The tag paragraph states:

"The Canadian Pediatric Society says a vegan diet may compromise the growth
of infants and children. The group suggests a less restrictive lacto-ovo
diet of non-animal foods plus eggs and dairy products for children to meet
their nutrition needs."

In India dairy is always sattvic (cows are sacred), so Buddhist vegetarian
diets were not vegan, but lacto-vegetarian. In East Asia (these days
especially in Korea and Taiwan), where a strict vegetarian diet is followed
by clerics and some laity, dairy is not included due to a long-standing East
Asian aversion to dairy ("barbarian food"). Pizza, desserts, and other
delicacies are breaking down that aversion amongst the general populace. but
is only piecemeal infiltrating monastic diets.

A more interesting query might be: How do Jains, who strictly follow a Jain
diet, feed their infants? Breast milk, I assume, would be the staple. But
what else? And during these modern times?

Dan Lusthaus