Hey! I wanted to educate you, since quite a few of you decided to take over my other (quite vague, to be honest) post about disabled people and (the food part of) veganism.
First of all I'd like to introduce you all to a feeding tube
Here's mine! It's a jejunal tube, I have it because I'm unable to digest food through my stomach properly due to gastroparesis.
Next, here's a feeding tube pump
It is attached to a bag full of formula, that literally keeps me alive.
Lastly, the formula in question
Any formula can be used as an example, but here's the one I use currently. A broken down formula, Peptamen.
What's in this formula, you may ask?
Milk, and other ingredients derived from animal products.
Why am I making a whole post on feeding tube formula? Well, many people don't understand how ableist the statement "everyone can be (completely plant-based) vegan" is. Everyone simply cannot be (a completely plant-based) vegan, it just isn't possible. They do make specialty plant based formula (the most notable company is Kate Farms) however, these formulas start at $9 a carton, and can occasionally be covered by insurance, but unfortunately in my case, is not. Disabled people often have medical debt, so it would be quite rare someone could out of pocket pay $45+ a day on just one part of their medical plan. So what's the other option? Whatever insurance will cover: Nestle formulas, Vital formulas, and other generics with non vegan ingredients.
Another non tube related point I'd like to share is that soy and tree nuts are among the most common allergies, and my argument against rice milk? It is a grain, made of (most commonly) brown rice, which people with gastroparesis have the hardest time processing.
So I'll leave you with this point.
Next time you include how "all" disabled people can and should be plant based. Take into consideration disabled people with outside lifesources, not just tubes, but TPN, animal based medicines, etc...
[Editing this post to add, first of all, thank you for spreading this, and also thank you to the kind person who added on! This post is about food specifically, not veganism in it's entirety. We've heard too many times that "there's always another option," and seen disabled people be demonized for consuming animal products, that's why this post was created ❤]
[Another edit! I really hope you guys aren't like this in real life lmao, some of you have gross attitudes 😷 Again I'll say (and have fixed Len's post to make more sense) that this is about food. Nothing more, nothing less.]
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