Vegan Shaming

A Tragic Death On Mount Everest Reveals An Ugly Truth About How We Treat Vegans

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Yesterday the news exploded about vegan climber Maria Strydom, who died on Mount Everest, because apparently the “vegan” part is what’s news.



I saw more than one person proclaim, “The jokes write themselves,” and many making derogatory remarks about the climber in the comments. But it’s not funny. How many of the other almost 300 deaths on Everest are we laughing about? How often does death on Everest make this kind of news? No, people are talking about it because she was a vegan, presuming cause and effect.



Strydom and her husband were at the final base camp when they began to suffer from altitude sickness. Camp 4 is above 26,000 feet. Above 26,000 feet is called the “Death Zone.” It’s called that because it kills people, all kinds of people, not just vegans.

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It kills them because oxygen levels are insufficient to sustain human life. There is no evidence to suggest that Strydom being vegan had anything to do with her death, just like not being vegan had anything to do with the multiple deaths that have occurred above that altitude with other climbers.



Some have suggested that Strydom was iron or vitamin B12 deficient, but there is no evidence to back up such a claim. Conversely, there is evidence to show that succumbing to altitude sickness may very well have a genetic cause. Diet has nothing to do with it.



As I have written before, veganism is neither magical nor unhealthy. If one is careful with their diet, veganism can be perfectly health. Just as being an omnivore can equally be healthy. Strydom and her husband were extraordinarily fit and accomplished climbers who had achieved numerous difficult summits. Odds are, dear reader, that she was in better shape than you.



And what about the Dutch Man, Eric Arnold, who also died from altitude sickness on Everest just a few hours before Maria Strydom did? There is nothing in the news about him being vegan. Did meat eating kill him?



Of course it didn’t, just like being vegan isn’t what killed Maria Strydom. So why are people laughing?



First off is the common trope that vegans are weak. While it’s true that veganism does present some dietary challenges to do well — you can live off Coke and potato chips and be vegan — there is no shortage of those willing to do the work to ensure that their vegan lifestyle is a healthy one. Two examples are Def Leppard guitarist Phil Collen, who is in astounding shape, and Lindsey Miller, who has completed an Ironman distance triathlon.



In this case, there is the fact that Strydom herself made an issue of her veganism. She was quoted in the blog for the university at which she teaches that, “It seems that people have this warped idea of vegans being malnourished and weak. By climbing the seven summits we want to prove that vegans can do anything and more.”



And now people are laughing and pointing out the irony of her statement, saying, “Ha, ha! No you can’t!”



Perhaps they thought she had it coming, that she was ramming her veganism down people’s throats. To me, it seems more like she just wanted to dispel the “vegans are weak” myth. But it’s pretty clear that it wasn’t veganism that killed her, it was the mountain. Everest doesn’t discriminate based on dietary choices. Everest will kill you no matter what you eat.