To think vegetarian mums are selfish?

[lisabd345]

There's a woman on my Facebook who has a son 6 years old.
She's a vegetarian and she's made sure her son is too.
She's just posted that her son is suffering from iron deficiency and GP has said it's probably due to his diet and the fact he doesn't eat meat....and the GP has gave him medication to take every day and he is crying about it ..so she's asking what to feed him to bring iron levels up.
Aibu to think he should make a decision when he's older if he wants to be vegetarian and not have it forced upon him?

YABVU. I've raised 3 vegetarian kids and none of them have ever been deficient in anything. 2 of them now eat meat occasionally as is their choice.

@SalemBlackCat the following quotes you e made I believe are totally OTT and making a huge drama.

FWIW I believe that OP only posted this to be goads and sit back and watch! So I'm off now! Have a nice day though......

*They scoff and binge in secret at other people's houses, to make you feel better and to please you. Enjoy that knowledge and have a nice day...

A couple actually beat up kids for their money/treats

e parents have no idea the psychological harm they are doing and the unhealthy relationship with food they foisting on their children. Ask anyone who works with children close enough to notice. They will all have stories to tell about 'those kids'. Those not allowed anything nice develop binge-eating behaviours and eating in secrecy, like in closets.

have many theories, the first obviously that bullies tend to be attracted to these diets and these diets are another outlet for their bullying and browbeating. It enables them an outlet, a platform to further practice their bullying and browbeating and militancy. But I also think that the lack of nutrition causes them to stick with the diet and thus become enraged and unhinged, ie screaming about 'toxins' and threatening to kick people out of home. The more I read about these people, the more the link between bullying and aggressive personalities and lack of nutrition to these diets becomes obvious.*

@Charlie97 Wow you really have a bee in your bonnet about me, don't you? Those quotes are due to my personal experience, especially the school children ones. I said I worked in a school. I have experience with vegan children. A few of them came over to my house as they are friends with my DC one still does. She binges on anything sweet. I am not lying, nor am I over the top. These are MY experiences. Sorry to burst your bubble and open your eyes to reality. What I said is simply the absolute truth. It appears you aren't around children much so clearly cannot see that my experience and truth is what actually happens. You're in denial.

Why are you talking about veganism anyway? The OP was on about vegetarians, not vegans.

I hope you get as het up about parents who feed a meat based but poor diet and who don't teach their children anything about healthy eating.

@SalemBlackCat

The problem is vegan diet is NOT healthier, not at all. It is very unhealthy and very dangerous. So it is selfish that you are giving your child a very unhealthy diet as well as forcing your views down their throat.

Really?
Do you have evidence of this?
Because in my 27 years of being a vegan (since childhood) I have never heard anyone consider our plant based diet unhealthy or dangerous.

Yes it has the capacity to be unhealthy, as does anyone diet, if someone chooses to live on chips and pasta, but there are very few long term vegans who actually eat like that.

I don’t find your comments offensive, as I expect you intended them to be, I just find them ignorant and ill informed.

A plant based diet is by definition healthier as you are cutting out an entire food group of mass produced, chemically processed, hormone pumped environmental damaging products.

There is categorically undeniable proof that humans do not need to eat meat or animal products to thrive, but by cutting out any other food group your body is lacking in basic nutrition and can easily become deficient.

That is the very basic proof that a plant based diet is the healthiest diet possible.

@SalemBlackCat as a total authority on children and knowing everything about vegans, bullying etc I will of course defer to you when selecting my children's food.

Again I'm not vegetarian or vegan but I am open minded and not blinkered. I don't profess to know that all vegans are bullies, all GPs will tell you in private a vegan diet is unhealthy or that vegans are psychologically damaging their children.

I should imagine that the above occurs across some vegans, vegetarians and omnivores.

Excluding a food group would not change your personality.

Now I really must get ready for work!

JollyAndBright I posted a link previously in this thread. I find you to be ignorant and ill-informed. There is no such 'categorically undeniable proof that humans do not need to eat meat or animal products to thrive', on the contrary! There is mountains of evidence of just how dangerous vegan diets are. I think you are deeply ill-informed and ignorant. Just do the research. The human race exists due to us eating meat. That is an undeniable and historical fact. That is the very basic proof that vegan is unhealthy, let alone the years and years of medical and scientific evidence.

@Charlie97 nor do I profess those things. So what is your point? Other than you read things into my posts that I didn't say?

I'm pretty sure this post is one pot-stir and the Mother, Child and GP exist solely in the absent OP's imagination.

It's not selfish to feed a healthy veggie diet at home, however once they are at school they should be free to make their own decisions outside of the house - my kids friends would ask for chicken nuggets or other junk if you took them somewhere and traded lovely rice boxes for ham sandwiches! My dd is now strict veggie, her friend is still eating meat outside the home.

Yes @SalemBlackCat, I am such a browbeating bully that I’ve decided to alter my diet and deprive myself of certain things I enjoy (I’m looking at you, M&S Profiterole Dessert) in order to stop contributing to an industry that I feel is cruel and unnecessary. FFS.

Although, my skin has cleared up massively since I stopped eating dairy, so every cloud and all that

Your point about all veggie/vegan children binging on animal products without the knowledge of their delusional parents is also ridiculous too. Some children might do that if they don’t want to be vegetarian/vegan and it’s been imposed on them by their parents, but all of the vegetarian or vegan children I know want to follow that diet and wouldn’t dream of doing that. It is possible for children to have moral standards too, and for those moral standards to be different to yours...

Vegetarian - no. Vegan - probably. Easier to get the right amount of protein with dairy products etc. Vegetarians have more balanced diets than Vegans. I don’t have time for anyone who forces their young child or pet to be Vegan.

Meh. DH and I don't ever buy, cook or eat meat, so why would we suddenly start feeding it to our daughter? I wouldn't even know what to do with it tbh.

I have always made it very clear to dd that she is welcome to eat meat when we're out and about or at friends' houses etc. So far, she has chosen not to, but she may choose to do so in the future, and if she does, that will be fine. I have no particular interest in forcing my beliefs on her, but I'm not going to rush out and buy meat just for her because I'm perfectly capable of feeding her a balanced diet without it. If, in the future, she asks to have meat at home, that will be fine as long as she learns to cook it properly first.

She is 13 now and has never eaten meat. She has bags of energy, despite doing loads of physical activity. She is never ill, and had 100% attendance at school last year, unlike the majority of her meat-eating friends.

I don't see why any of the above makes me selfish?

Here is what I was talking about re the bingeing caused by a strict diet and/or vegan diet. www.todaysparent.com/kids/kids-health/why-parents-and-schools-shouldnt-ban-junk-food/

"doesn’t surprise Victoria-based registered dietitian Jodi Holland. “When some kids are really restricted or feel deprived, they may go towards the tendency of hiding food or, when they do have access to those foods, they’re overeating.” While banning kids from junk food might seem like a simple way to create healthy eaters, the truth is a bit more complicated."

"“Whenever children feel deprived, the tendency is to push back and want it even more,” says Sara Dimerman, a psychologist in Thornhill, Ont., who sees children in her practice .
And when kids do get a taste of something forbidden, research shows they can end up overindulging. A 2002 study published in the American Society for Clinical Nutrition journal revealed that girls whose diets and access to junk food were tightly controlled by their parents when they were five were more likely to overeat at age seven. The girls who overate were also 4.6 times more likely to be overweight when compared to their peers who were more in control of their snacking."

"While binging or developing severe aversions to new foods is extreme, even sneaking treats can signal an unhealthy relationship with food. “Tightly restricting or banning doesn’t mean that your child will choose a healthy alternative,” notes Dimerman. In fact, they’re likely to opt for sugar and salt if given the chance—say, when they’re at a friend’s house."

I was raised vegetarian. No problems, no deficiencies. If I could change anything it would be to have had my parents bring me up Vegan.

Banning Junk Food, Creating Unhealthy Mindsets
Submitted by nedic on Mon, 10/28/2013 - 00:00
James S. Bell Junior Middle School in Toronto has banned “junk food” from lunches. Students who bring items such as candy or even granola bars will be asked to take the items back home. The reasoning behind this decision is that the school styles itself as a “sports and wellness academy”. They further reinforce these values by sending kids back to the cafeteria line if they do not have enough vegetables on their plate. Although the general population may perceive these initiatives as positive and healthy – they do not sit well with me. I believe that they reinforce the idea that junk food is “bad” and doesn’t have a place in a healthy balanced diet. This is not true.
Reading this story reminded me of the rules at the adult eating disorders program at North York General Hospital (NYGH). We would eat dinner together as a group and the highly qualified treatment team (made up of two social workers, a psychologist, and a nutritionist) would inspect our meals to see if they were nutritionally balanced – and believe it or not, it was mandatory that our dinners always included a serving of dessert. I was shocked and upset when I was first asked to eat a chocolate bar with dinner as I firmly believed that it didn’t fall within the confines a healthy diet. However, through treatment, I finally learned what truly constitutes a healthy balanced diet (hint: the key word is balanced). Although junk foods may contain high levels of fat and sugar and are not nutritious per se, eating a measured serving/portion once in a while is healthy. Especially at a school where children are doing 2.5 hours of physical activity a day! Surviving on “healthy” foods alone is not a positive attitude towards eating.
Labelling foods as good and bad for children in grades 1 to 9 will only serve to create negative attitudes towards physical health and wellness. It also creates an aura and mystique around “bad” foods and will likely lead to children sneaking and bingeing on junk food. With secretive eating also comes a feeling of shame – an undesirable side-effect since children are emotionally vulnerable and still developing their core self-esteem and body image. It is positive if children are asked to eat the correct serving of vegetables with their meal, but if they are encouraged to fill up on extra vegetables because they are hungry and not allowed to eat bread – then that is not healthy. It’s dangerous to put so much emphasis on “good” foods at a time when children are still physically growing (eating disorders are known to cause stunted growth). It’s important that children have a healthy mindset. At the hospital we didn’t even call it junk food; rather we used the term “high energy food” (which sounds a lot more positive). Creating positive eating attitudes in our youth will help them grow into strong, healthy, and energetic adults and may help mitigate the growth of eating disorders.
Link to Story:
ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/dailybrew/toronto-school-bans-junk-snacks...
Priyanka Parshad started volunteering with NEDIC in February 2012 after she recovered from an eating disorder. She first assisted as a social media editor and now facilitates outreach workshops whenever her schedule permits. To read more blogs by Priyanka, visit her site www.EDawareness.org where she writes about self esteem, body image, mental wellness, and physical health. Twitter @PriyankaParshad

"These are just a few examples from clients, or others who have stopped me after a workshop who have been told, “Just don’t have it in the house.” and they don’t, and here’s the result…
• the 8 year-old daughter is found hiding in the bathroom at a neighbor’s with candy and cookies
• the 12 year-old boy, whose mom was in tears about his weight gain, rides his bike home from school and stops by the corner story and eats a package of donuts or other “junk”
• the mom of the 7 year-old who found a frosting container that her daughter pulled out of the garbage and ate secretly in her room.
This tactic may work for some kids who may be less interested or get less pleasure from foods in general, but for many, forbidden fuels obsession, makes it hard for kids to learn to handle these high-sugar, high-fat foods. I’ve written on this before (one, two), so this is just a brief post. Unless your child is on house-arrest or you live in a commune far from civilization, they grow up, they go to places other than your home, and you can’t always be the food cop. You don’t need to be. ‘Forbidden’ leads to shame and secretive eating and bingeing. Those three children above are not eating competent, in spite of having loving, concerned, intact families, who did as they were told. These kids are already disordered with their eating, and I worry for them. You don’t have to have a free-for-all, but children do need an opportunity to learn to manage all foods."

@SalemBlackCat Interesting that you always pop up on these threads with a really anti vegetarian/ vegan view, and unsubstantiated claims about health and the environment. Yet on the last thread when you said veganism is bad for the environment, using a newspaper article from an “ex vegan” (who actually wasn’t vegan yet when he wrote it and, having reviewed the evidence, is now vegan for environmental reasons) and I showed you reams of evidence from peer reviewed articles all showing that veganism is better for the environment you just didn’t respond.

@kikisparks Because the claims you posted were unsubstantiated and of narrow scope. I couldn't be bothered, especially with someone so brainwashed and not willing to accept they may be making an unhealthy lifestyle choice. You simply weren't and aren't ready to accept the truth with an open mind. I do not btw have an anti-vegetarian view. Never have. I was vegetarian once. However veganism is very unhealthy and very dangerous, and decades of medical and scientific research attests to that. There is nothing to debate about it. My posts here are in response to a pp who mocked my truth and my experience having worked in a school with children on restricted diets. That is all.

Re binge-eating children, proof that Dietitians can cause more harm than good - "Growing up, my parents would “allow” junk food – chips, pizza, candy, etc. I was also a very picky eater so my parents were typically happy when I ate anything. But because it wasn’t taboo, it was easy to be moderate.
My closest friend was the daughter of a dietitian. They weren’t allowed junk food (or tv) so whenever she came over all she wanted to do was gorge on chips and zone out on reruns. It was really boring – for me!"

@SalemBlackCat “Was going to say to the vegetarian/vegan (more so vegan) parents on here; if you think your child doesn't eat meat at school or scoff sweets and junk food in secret, you are delusionally naïve. I can promise you this; they do. They definitely do, no matter what they tell you.”

Eh nope. I was raised vegetarian and definitely didn’t eat meat anywhere. Everyone I know who was raised veggie, which is quite a lot, either stayed vegetarian or went vegan as an adult.

@SalemBlackCat they were neutral peer reviewed scientific articles. They were not “unsubstantiated” you just didn’t have an answer to the truth.

Lol if you really believe none of them did at someone else's house, you are delusional. They just didn't tell you. And, no, sorry, I was not the one who didn't have an answer to the truth. ;)

Also Vegan doesn’t equal no junk food, they aren’t remotely the same.