Sir, – In your issue of November 12th ("Gaps in a vegan diet", Health + Family), Orla Walsh discussed the question of veganism. She looks at veganism mainly from a dietary point of view. She fails to realise that the strongest reason for following the vegan philosophy is ethical: limiting unnecessary exploitation and suffering of animals. Furthermore, the American Dietetic Association and the British Dietetic Association, the two largest bodies of diet and nutritional experts, have stated categorically that a vegan lifestyle is indeed complete in dietary requirements for all stages of life, including pregnancy and infancy.
To touch briefly on the environment, Oxford University conducted a study showing that “veganism is the single biggest way to reduce our environmental impact”.
What this fundamentally means is that the exploitation and use of animals are unnecessary. – Yours, etc,
DOROTHY PULBROOK,
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Mullingar,
Co Westmeath.