More misinformation about vegetarianism in the news

There was no wondering which way this veg-related opinion piece on Raleigh-Durham, NC's WTVD-TV website was going to lean after reading its subtitle. The title "Is Vegetarianism Better?" leads into "Have you ever been bullied by a vegetarian?" and Health Blog writer Akiia James proceeds to share her story of her own experience as a malnourished vegetarian (she describes it as having been "lacking in nutrition"), by virtue of having been what she calls an "uneducated vegetarian". In her article, she promotes a website called "The Fast Guide for Vegetarians and Vegans" as being a good resource. The site features numerous articles, most of them sketchy and well-intentioned at best, but with others with titles like "The Top Five Nutrients Vegetarians Lack" which features protein at the top of the list (and don't get me started on this ridiculous protein deficiency myth). James provides this info, although asserting that she herself is now a happy meat eater who chooses to get her protein from animal sources and who knows several other vegetarians who have resumed meat eating because of their own exercise regimens.

So I have to ask what the point of the whole article is. Why offer up information on vegetarianism if you're going to admit that you failed at it because you ate an unhealthy diet (i.e. lacking in "whole grains, legume and larger quantities of green leafy vegetables"), that you think going back to eating meat was the healthy and "satisfying" choice and that many of your vegetarian acquaintances followed suit. Yet, James claims that she "understands and respects both sides of the issue", even though she starts the article with some sort of vague gripe against a vegetarian on a radio talk-show and then spends the rest of her time going out of her way to show that her personal experience points towards meat eating being the right choice.

The article was badly-written, incredibly biased and uninformative. Mucho downward thumbishness, it gets from me.