Vegans are angry that this alternative health food company is promoting full
Vegetarians and vegans in the UK are up in arms against an alternative health food brand after it promoted full-fat milk on Instagram.
SEE ALSO:McDonald's is testing out a McVegan burger in FinlandRude Health is a London-based company that prides itself of selling natural ingredients-only muesli, granola, almond and coconut milks with no artificial ingredients and nothing refined.
For this reason, it's incredibly popular not only among lactose-intolerant and health-conscious people, but also among vegetarians and vegans.
However, their latest Instagram post, featuring a gif of a guy throwing stones in a river, seems to suggest Rude Health's ethos about food is pivoting in a different direction.
View this post on Instagram
The post, which has the motto "You’re in Rude Health when…you skim stones, not milk," reads:
"We may be dairy alternative producers but that doesn't mean we are against dairy. Quite the opposite. We are for good quality, proper milk...we're talking whole milk. Full fat milk. We don't use skimmed milk powder in any of our foods. Nature has provided us with an ingredients that is the perfect balance of protein, good fats and natural sugars (lactose). Why mess with it? When they take cream out of milk, they remove most of the texture and all of the joy. We are not skimmed milk people, we live life to the full, with full fat dairy products."
Even from the first line -- "we're not against milk" -- the post has a whiff of a PR move or publicity stunt. It's unclear if the company is planning to release dairy products, but it's certainly advocating them.
Safe to say the vegan community on Instagram and Twitter wasn't happy, to say the least:
Tweet may have been deleted
Some people and shops said they'd be boycotting Rude Health from now on:
Tweet may have been deleted
Tweet may have been deleted
Tweet may have been deleted
But that is not all.
What really enraged Rude Health customers is an anti-vegetarian and anti-vegan rant from co-founder Camilla Barnard.
In a blog post dated 26 September, which resurfaced now after the full-fat milk saga, Barnard hits out against those two regimes saying they promise "to save you from cancer and early death and save the animals while you’re at it" if you fall for "What the Health, Okja and other popaganda films masquerading as documentaries on Netflix."
Her words have been interpreted as an inexplicable and sanctimonious way to alienate Rude Health's main customer base:
View this post on Instagram
People had a lot of feelings about it:
Tweet may have been deleted
Tweet may have been deleted
And the boycott movement seems to be growing:
Tweet may have been deleted
Camilla Barnard and Nick Barnard told Mashable that the company is not against vegetarianism or veganism or other food or lifestyle choices but it is concerned about "anxiety around food and anxiety around eating or not eating certain foods or food groups."
“For those who know us only for our dairy-free drinks, which happen to be vegan as well as dairy-free, it may seem strange that Rude Health does not promote itself as a vegan company," they said in a statement.
“Our range is about quality and choice and our focus is on flavour, responsible sourcing and the enjoyment of food, so much so, that we tend to rant about it from time to time, be that on social media, on our website, or in a field in North Wales.
We worry about people feeling confused or guilty about the food they eat. We rave about eating as a social activity and about reconnecting with food, through education. We rave about choice.
At Rude Health we believe food is more than a way to simply nourish us; it should be a pleasurable, social and thoughtful part of our lives. We eat to live and live to eat and embrace all foods as long as they are sustainably produced and as unrefined as possible. What we really want is for everyone to be in rude health. How each and every one of us achieves this goal is truly personal and very individual.”
Featured Video For You
Here’s what happens when you cut out just 10% of meat from your diet