Twoddle

[Guest guest]

What a load of twoddle! I notice the research was done by an

agricultural body, not a medical or health body! Unfortunately this

research gets in the news and gives ammunition to anti-vegans, and

could possible make vegan parents doubt their choices

 

Children 'harmed' by vegan diets

By Michelle Roberts

BBC News health reporter, in Washington DC

 

 

 

Meat, milk, butter and cheese are all avoided by vegans

Putting children on strict vegan diets is " unethical " and could harm

their development, a US scientist has argued.

 

Lindsay Allen, of the US Agricultural Research Service, attacked

parents who insisted their children lived by the maxim " meat is

murder " .

 

Animal source foods have some nutrients not found anywhere else, she

told a Washington science conference.

 

The Vegan Society dismissed the claims, saying its research showed

vegans were often healthier than meat eaters.

 

'Development affected'

 

Professor Allen said: " There have been sufficient studies clearly

showing that when women avoid all animal foods, their babies are born

small, they grow very slowly and they are developmentally retarded,

possibly permanently. "

 

There's absolutely no question that it's unethical for parents to

bring up their children as strict vegans

 

Professor Lindsay Allen, director of the US Agricultural Research

Service

 

" If you're talking about feeding young children, pregnant women and

lactating women, I would go as far as to say it is unethical to

withhold these foods [animal source foods] during that period of

life. "

 

She was especially critical of parents who imposed a vegan lifestyle

on their children, which denied them milk, cheese, butter and meat.

 

" There's absolutely no question that it's unethical for parents to

bring up their children as strict vegans, " she said at the American

Association for the Advancement of Science meeting.

 

 

Missing nutrients

 

She said the damage to a child began while it was growing in the womb

and continued once it had been born.

 

Research she carried out among African schoolchildren suggests as

little as two spoonfuls of meat each day is enough to provide

nutrients such as vitamin B12, zinc and iron.

 

The 544 children studied had been raised on diets chiefly consisting

of starchy, low-nutrition corn and bean staples lacking these

micronutrients.

 

Over two years, some of the children were given 2oz supplements of

meat each day, equivalent to about two spoonfuls of mince.

 

Two other groups received either a cup of milk a day or an oil

supplement containing the same amount of energy. The diet of a fourth

group was left unaltered.

 

The changes seen in the children given the meat, and to a lesser

extent the milk or oil, were dramatic.

 

These children grew more and performed better on problem-solving and

intelligence tests than any of the other children at the end of the

two years.

 

They also became more active, talkative and playful at school.

 

Adding either meat or milk to the diets also almost completely

eliminated the very high rates of vitamin B12 deficiency previously

seen in the children.

 

No quick fixes

 

Professor Allen stressed that although the study was conducted in a

poor African community, its message was highly relevant to people in

developed countries.

 

She accepted that adults could avoid animal foods if they took the

right supplements.

 

But she said adding animal source food into the diet was a better way

to tackle malnutrition worldwide than quick fixes with supplements in

the form of pills.

 

" Where feasible, it would be much better to do it through the diet

than by giving pills, " she said.

 

" With pills it's very hard to be certain that the quantity of

nutrition is right for everybody and it's hard to sustain. "

 

In Africa, good results had been obtained from giving people a dried

meat on a stick snack which proved both nutritious and appealing.

 

Professor Montague Demment, from the University of California at

Davis, said more emphasis should be placed on animal source food to

combat global malnutrition.