I get not wanting to listen to right-wing misinformation like “it’s impossible for vegans/vegetarians to meet all their nutritional requirements,” because that’s bullshit. It’s absolutely possible, and not even difficult. It just requires some intelligent planning.

I do think that Americans have been trained to believe "Vegetarian" is eating a salad or a bunch of crunchy hors d'oeuvre.

There's a famous story of a community in Mississippi plagued by health issues, specific to the white population. The workers in this town were subsisting on cornbread, molasses, and a scant ration of salted meat. But only the colored communities were eating beans, because it was considered a "low class" food. Consequently, the meager ration of meat wasn't enough to fulfill nutritional needs for the white population, while the colored folks thrived.