Vegans

Health-Conscious Doctor’s Group Actually a Bunch of Preachy Vegans

Stock photo vegan.
Stock photo vegan. Photo: iStock Photo

Oh look: That group called The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (or PCRM, the same assholes who were hating on sweet, innocent, Ina Garten last month) is suing the government over the food pyramid because it fails to promote a vegan alternative. And look! People are writing about it. Well, we’re calling bullshit on the PCRM here and now. This has gone on long enough.

Who are these jokers? Not doctors, that’s for sure. In fact, according to ActivistCash, they’re a nonprofit whose membership is 95% non-doctors. They also take funding from PETA! Their founder, Neal D. Barnard, was the President of the foundation that became the PETA Foundation! And a quick glance at their website reveals prominent links to an Animal Research & Alternatives section, and the 21-Day Vegan Kickstart. They also have a separate Cancer Project, which promotes the idea that veganism prevents cancer.

So they’re vegans, not doctors. Why didn’t they just say so? Well, you know that friend you have that’s a vegan, and they just drone on and on and on about how healthy veganism is and how much you should just try it you’ll love it and blah blah blah? And all you want them to do is shut up? Right. Nobody listens to preachy vegans. But over the years PCRM has become a savvy publicity machine — with Dennis Kucinich’s 33-year-old vegan wife, Elizabeth, serving as their director of publicity since late 2009 — through legitimate-sounding, science-y publicity stunts that purport to have the backing of the larger medical community, a community which doesn’t, by the way, insist that veganism is the only healthy way to go. In August 2009, they launched an assault on school lunches which got picked up by the Washington Post and Time magazine because it focused on President Obama’s daughters. As recently as September they released an television ad showing a corpse on a gurney clutching a hamburger, which landed them some publicity on the Times’ health blog. The shocking nature of the ad “uses a page from PETA’s playbook,” as this anti-PCRM website points out, going further to call the group “PETA wackos in lab coats.”

For the record, we know vegetables are healthy. We really really like them, in fact. But God, shut up about it already and just be honest about your agenda. Thanks.


Doctors’ group sues USDA over vegetarian alternative to food pyramid [LA Times]
Earlier: The War Against Ina Garten [Grub Street]
A War on Good Taste [WSJ]
Doctors Prescribe Alicia Silverstone’s Cookbook Over Paula Deen’s [Grub Street]

Health-Conscious Doctor’s Group Actually a Bunch of Preachy Vegans