Vegan diets may not be good for children, depriving them of proteins that build the brain and promote body growth, a study has found.
I cannot say that I am surprised. While I admire the desire of vegans to eke out what they perceive as an ethical form of eating, you cannot defeat evolution. Human beings have had a meat component in their diet since, well, since the common ancestry with the chimpanzee (chimps hunt.) Meat is directly responsible for our ability to form complex brains, our signature characteristic. Faking out your body with vitamins is only going to get you so far.
That of course doesn't mean those of us who are walking human carnosaurs get to smile smugly either. :-) Most people eat far too much meat. I've read that the maximum daily intake of meat should be about 6 oz., and most of us don't eat so little.
Monday, February 21, 2005
Vegan diets - bad for children?
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3 comments:
I would probably not try to force children to vegan or vegetarian diets until they are old enough to make choices about what they eat. It's a little different with religious diets, but I don't think there's a need to deprive young children of meat.
Most religious diets I know of are still plenty nutritious. For example, we Catholics who eat fish on Fridays and no other meats are adding much needed Omega 3 fatty acids to our diet.
Similarly Halal and Kosher food only omit certain meats (such as shellfish and pork) and certain combinations (meat and dairy at the same time.
I'm a big advocate of a conscious diet, and even traditional religious diets, because they are time tested. No religious diet could have lasted long in those days if it could not meet the requirements for raising healthy children.
Fasting is another question - I know in Islam there are prescribed fasts, and in Catholicism, there are Good Friday and Ash Wednesday fasts. I think it is best to introduce children to the concepts of these things, without requiring it of them...
Absolutely, I agree. In Judaism, there are fasts too, but there's minimum age requirement (12 for girls, 13 for boys). I think that's pretty reasonable.
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