This Meme Needs To Go Away

I've seen this meme, and have been tagged with it, more times than I can count.

I'd be happy to see it go away.  Why?

--First off, it's arrogant.  It makes us vegans look like a--holes.

--Most cardiologists at this point are aware that meat-filled diets are associated with increased risk of heart disease.  So I can't imagine a cardiologist telling a patient to go eat more meat.

--The meme assumes that if you're a vegan that you won't ever have heart disease.  Not true at all.  Tell that to my vegan patient with rheumatic heart disease, a consequence of scarlet fever as a child.

--While a vegan diet does help load the dice in your favor, you are not immune to hypertension, diabetes, elevated cholesterol or obesity, all of which I have seen in patients who proclaim themselves vegan.

--Or what about the patient who sees the light after a heart attack and decides to go vegan?  My patients who have gone vegan after a major cardiac event have done great, I haven't needed to put a stent in any of them, nor have any of them had another heart attack.  But, they still need a cardiologist even if they're eating a diet that Esselstyn, Ornish, McDougall, Fuhrman, and the rest of the vegan gurus would laud.

Let's be civil and make this obnoxious meme disappear.  And when you see it again, please don't tag me.  Thanks.