Forcing your child to follow a
vegetarian diet is unethical, top nutrition expert says
February 22, 2005
By Mark Henderson
VEGANS and vegetarians who force their children to
adopt their strict diets are inflicting unethical damage
on their health, a scientist claimed yesterday.
Children who are denied meat, milk and cheese early
in life suffer mental and physical impairments that
can cause permanent damage, said Lindsay Allen, Professor
of International Nutrition at the University of California,
Davis.
Research led by Professor Allen found that adding just
two spoonfuls of meat to the daily diets of Kenyan children
transformed their development, doubling increases in
muscle mass over two years and improving their performance
on tests of mental agility.
Although the study took place in a developing country
among undernourished children, its findings are also
relevant to parents in the developed world, she told
the American Association for the Advancement of Science
conference in Washington.
Comparisons with control groups given an energy supplement
in the form of oil indicated strongly that the greatest
benefits came from the nutrients and protein in meat
rather than from the extra calories.
Studies in the US and the Netherlands have also shown
that a vegetarian or vegan diet holds back children’s
development, and that the damage cannot be redressed
by restoring meat or dairy products after the age of
16. “Animal source foods have some nutrients which
are not found anywhere else,” Professor Allen
said. “If you’re talking about feeding young
children and pregnant women and lactating women, I would
go as far as to say it’s unethical to withhold
these foods . . . there’s a lot of empirical research
that will show the very adverse effects on child development
of doing that.”
She was particularly critical of vegans who refuse
to feed their children eggs and dairy products. “There’s
absolutely no question that it’s unethical for
parents to bring up their children as strict vegans,”
she said.
The findings brought an angry reaction from vegetarians
yesterday. Sir Paul McCartney, whose first wife Linda
brought out a range of a meat-free foods, telephoned
the Jeremy Vine show on BBC Radio 2 to say that the
claims were “rubbish”. He said that he had
been a vegetarian for 20 years and raised his children
as vegetarians with no ill-effects.
In Professor Allen’s study, 544 Kenyan children
with an average age of seven were split into four groups.
One group received two ounces of meat each day while
two others were given equivalent extra calories in the
form of milk or oil. A fourth control group received
no supplement.
After two years, the children receiving all three supplements
had gained 400g more weight than those in the control
group and had greater muscle development in the upper
arms. The increase was greatest in the meat group.
The meat group also did significantly better in tests
of intelligence, problem-solving and arithmetic: in
one test, scores improved by 35 points for the meat
group, compared with 14 points for milk and nothing
for the controls. The milk and meat groups were also
less likely to be deficient in micronutrients such as
vitamin B12.
Professor Allen said: “The group that received
the meat supplement showed the biggest improvement in
fluid intelligence over the two years, and those who
had either milk or energy supplements were better than
the controls. The group that received the meat supplements
were more active in the playground, more talkative and
playful and showed more leadership skills.”
Source:www.timesonline.co.uk
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