By John Johnson

Newser

A judge in Florida has allowed a vegan mom who defied a doctor's orders to regain custody of her infant son, reports WFTV. The strange case began in June when police in Casselberry charged Sarah Markham with neglect and took away 2-week-old Caleb.

The charges came after a pediatrician diagnosed Caleb as dehydrated and underweight, and told Markham to take him to the hospital immediately, recounts WKMG. Instead, Markham bought soy formula to supplement her breast milk.

When she didn't show up at the hospital, police came to her house, and she told them she wanted a second doctor's opinion and stressed that she did not want her son getting formula from animal products.

Today, a Seminole County judge granted her custody again with the provision that she provide a nutritionist's report in 10 days. "There's no case, there's no abuse, there's no neglectthere's simply a doctor who has been challenged by a mother, and he didn't like it," says Caleb's grandfather, Bo Markham.

The child has been with his grandparents since he was taken out of his mother's care, and now weighs about 17 pounds. "He's still on a soy formula," says Bo Markham.

The criminal neglect charges are still pending, though Sarah Markham's attorneyMark O'Mara, who defended George Zimmermansays he expects they will be dismissed now. (PETA wants an Indiana sheriff to feed an alleged cannibal a vegan diet.)

This article originally appeared on Newser: Vegan Mom Regains Custody of Baby

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Vegan mom gets baby back after losing custody

Many of us have grown up with the belief that meat and milk build strong bodies. That belief, however, has been based on a myth, according to preventive healthcare expert Neil Nedley, MD, author of Proof Positive.

Competitive athletes have known for years that animal fat and protein are things to be kept at a minimum when trying to build endurance. Nedley said that in general, these athletes engage in a practice known as carbohydrate loading. Such approaches, he added, are based on years of research in the area of sports medicine.

One of the classic studies was performed in the late 1960s when the Scandinavian researcher, Dr. Per-Olaf Astrand, studied nine highly trained athletes. Astrand changed the diets of these athletes every three days. At the end of each three-day period, he had each athlete pedal a bicycle at high speed to exhaustion, related Nedley.

Nedley added that those who ate the high-meat diet (high in both protein and fat) became exhausted after about an hour. When on a mixed diet, lower in meat, fat and protein, and higher in plant foods, they could pedal at high speed for almost twice as longfor a total of 1.9 hours. However, when on a vegetarian diet, they went for 2.78 hours until exhaustion set in.

Improved endurance

This dramatic improvement in endurance should not surprise keen observers of the animal kingdom. After all, the ox, the elephant and the horse have no problems with strength and endurance on a vegetarian diet. Horses can run at high speeds for 12 hours. Elephants are noted for running 10 or 12 hours straight at high speed. Can you imagine carrying all of that weight (over 6 tons) at 25 miles per hour for 10 or 12 hours straight?

On the other hand, meat-eating big cats such as cheetahs and tigers have good speed at the start, but they fatigue within a short time, often within less than 5 minutes. Indeed, in the animal kingdom, endurance, the ability to provide top energy for long periods of time, is largely a characteristic of vegetarian animals, said Nedley.

Nutritionist and book author Sally Beare once said that a typical 800-pound adult male gorilla thrives on a vegan diet of vegetables, fruit and nuts. True, the gorilla is only a close relative of ours, but the latest research in sports nutrition shows that our top athletes not only build sufficient muscle, but do best in terms of endurance and stamina, when following a vegetarian diet.

International Sports Sciences Association-certified trainer Rea Frey, who authored Power Vegan: Plant-Fueled Nutrition for Maximum Health and Fitness, enumerated a long list of vegetarian or vegan Olympic athletes that includes Brenzan Brazier (professional Ironman triathlete and author of Thrive), Andreas Cahling (Swedish champion bodybuilder and gold medalist in the ski jump), Chris Campbell (wrestling champion), Keith Holmes (world-champion middleweight boxer) and Scott Jurek (ultra marathoner). Scott Jureks achievements, according to another website No Meat Athlete Run on Plants, have placed him squarely at the top of the ultrarunning world as a shining example of whats possible with a vegan diet.

Nine-time Olympic gold medal winner and vegan Carl Lewis, who was voted Sportsman of the Century by the International Olympic Committee and named Olympian of the Century by the American Sports magazine Sports Illustrated, was quoted in chef Jannequin Bennetts book Very Vegetarian that his best year of track competition was the first year he was on a vegan diet. Moreover, by continuing to eat a vegan diet, my weight is under control, I like the way I look, he said in the books introduction.

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Vegan athletes hurdle myths

Nov. 14, 2014, 10 p.m.

BALLARAT foodie Alan Ryan will open the doors to his organic food haven at the weekend for a rare glimpse at the people who make the produce.

BALLARAT foodie Alan Ryan will open the doors to his organic food haven at the weekend for a rare glimpse at the people who make the produce.

Chef Alan Ryan with some of the produce available at the Meet the Producer event. PICTURE: JEREMY BANNISTER

The Meet the Producer event will be held the Harvest Foodstore and Cafe on Saturday from 5pm.

The event is part of The Couriers Good Food Ballarat Month and will include the owners of Hellbilly Roasting, Greenvale Farm, Grounded Pleasures Exquisite Drinking Chocolate, Tea Drop tea and Spring Creek Organic vegetables.

Mr Ryan said every product on his shelves wassourced from local producers.

We want to bring the freshest, healthiest best quality food to people, Mr Ryan said.

We know all our producers personally. We know the quality of food we are getting because we source it directly.

He said organic food was his lifes passion and that was what spurred him to open his cafe in July last year.

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Fresh from the farm

Hindraf says the heritage commissioner did not use full extent of the law to save Vivekananda Ashram.

KUALA LUMPUR: Non-governmental organisation Hindraf has initiated legal action against Heritage Commissioner Zainah Ibrahim, seeking an explanation as to why she failed to gazette the Vivekananda Ashram as a national treasure even if its board of trustees objected to it.

In a statement, Hindraf said the Heritage commissioner still had the legal right to go ahead and gazette the Ashram as a national heritage but that she failed to use the full extent of the law for that purpose.

The statement explained, if it was determined the Ashram site is of cultural heritage significance, then the onus was on the commissioner to designate and gazette the site as a heritage site/building.

Hindraf said the commissioner should have conducted a hearing to determine whether the objections of the board, made in 2008 and 2009, had any legitimate grounds under Section 29 of the National Heritage Act 2005.

With moves now being made to re-develop the site into a 23-storey residential complex, Hindraf, through their lawyers, has given the commissioner two weeks for an explanation, failing which legal action will be initiated to compel the commissioner to gazette the site as a national treasure.

Saying the Vivekananda Ashram was deemed a national treasure as far as Hindraf was concerned, the building then did not solely belong to the trustees of the said ashram to do as it pleases.

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Hindraf: Commissioner didnt do enough save Ashram