How a strict vegan diet made my children ill

[Heated]

It's sensationalist, interviews someone with half a brain cell - well it is the DM - but is there any 'grain' of truth in it?

There ARE children in this country being brought raw vegan who are incredibly healthy, but I imagine their parents' are very clued up on what a healthy raw vegan diet for children constitutes.

I would agree that many people with eating disorders are attracted to a raw food diet, but I also think that it can be a very healthy way to live.

Agree the vegan aspect is a red herring, I have a friend who brought up 2 children as vegan because of various food allergies(the other 2 are lacto vegetarians) and both are strapping, healthy boys.

bamboostalks, no, there aren't many many things you cannot eat - there are two - meat, and milk

it's easy to be healthy on a vegan diet unless you further restrict it by not eating a wide range of foods, or have no knowledge of nutrition in the first place

if you think children need meat or milk protein to be healthy, you are wrong
the meat and dairy industry would also like us to believe this, but it isn't true

one of the healthiest children I know has never tasted meat or milk
she eats a wonderful, healthy, varied diet
much better than 95% of children in this country IMO

Is no one else curious about why they were allowed one slice of goats cheese per month?

As biologically we are omnivores - able to eat a diet mainly based around Veg, grains, dairy etc. with a small amount of meat and fish - then on that basis Vegetarian and Vegan diets are restictive - but that doen't mean they are unhealthy.

Plenty of people eat meat fish and dairy and are extremely unhealthy - it is how you manage your diet that counts. I know many healthy Vegans - I just cannot give up cream and butter -

I wondered about the goat's cheese thing too.....

Some kids are born with thick parents who stuff them with hydrogenated fats and processed sugars. Some kids are born with thick parents who think lettuce and chickpeas will nourish them. The lucky ones are the ones born with mners for parents

But seriously, veganism is a safe way of eating and occasional burgers and fruit shoots are safe too, extremes of anything food wise tend to be dangerous to health and development.

Isn't the Japanese diet very low in dairy (and high in seafood) - they are one of the healthiest populations on the planet - apparently they think westerners smell bad because we eat so much dairy

Absolutely franny & Carm.

I agree Carmenere.

I know plenty of healthy vegans too, and a couple of healthy vegan children for that matter. I am a dyed-in-the-wool omnivore (ex veggie who buckled at the smell of a bacon butty during a weak moment) but if dd ever expressed a wish to become vegetarian or vegan, I would support her and I would do lots of research into how to keep her diet healthy. It really isn't that hard to get hold of such information in this day and age.

that is true bigmouth. They have a healthy well balanced diet though. These poor kids didn't.

LOL bigmouth, you are right, apparently it's OK to smell of fish though

whats a lacto vegetarian? How does it differ from a vegan? Franny I thought you couldn't eat egss either.

The goats' cheese just struck me as more evidence of the mother's faddy ways - ie if it's a bit leftfield and not normal cheese, it must be better for you. She maybe had a clue that they were a bit undernourished and needed it.

(I have very vivid image of them crawling blinking out of a darkened cellar once a month, looking a bit like Gollum, and reaching up to the wee slice of cheese sparking in the sunlight, snatching it and gobbling it up. I'm sure it wasn't actually like that)

She thought their diet was "exceptionally healthy" . Even a teeny tiny bit of research done on her part would have proven her wrong. Why didn't she do some research first? She could have found out loads through a quick trip to a public library and 30 minutes spend online on the computers there.

I guess the good news is she realised she had made a mistake. There waqsa case last year in America where the parents kept insisting that their diet was not worng or unhealthy. That's sadder

as far as I'm aware you can't eat eggs on a vegan diet

No eggs with a vegan diet. Many don't eat mass produced honey either.

A lacto vegetarian is a vegetarian who eats dairy products. An ovo-lacto vegetarian is a vegetarian who eats eggs and dairy. A vegan eats neither of these, nor other animal source products such as honey.

shameless thread hijack - those of you with vegan sympathies...I direct you to my request for wholefood recipes in the recipe thread
apologies for butting in.

sorry, Kewcumber, of course you are right

Obviously, you can manage to eat a healthy diet by not eating chicken, beef, fish, eggs, milk, yogurt, cheese etc, but why would you wish to deny your children all of these things and more. I do not understand it. E.g. The most easily absorbed iron source for the human is red meat, yes you can seek other sources but if the meat is ethically raised etc then why bother? They can make those choices for themselves when they are old enough.

I don't give my daughter huge amounts of milk to drink but I do ensure that she has cheese etc as this is essential for girls. If you have seen as many cases of relatively young women with diminished bone reserve as I have then you would realise the importance of dairy. Nothing to do with the farming industry. It has been the primary source of calcium in this country for generations.

"why would you wish to deny your children all of these things and more"

for health and ethical reasons
just because the meat has been 'ethically raised' doesn't mean we all feel comfortable with animals being killed for us to eat
you must have come across this view point before surely? it seems to be new to you

Dairy is not the best source of calcium for humans - it's designed for calves to drink, not people - and calcium can be found in many other foods that are healthier for humans, rather than cows

btw do you restrict your children's diet at all? or do they enjoy squirrel, hedgehog, dog, rat, beetles and other fine sources of protein that people in other cultures enjoy? If not, why would you wish to deny your children all these things and more?

can I ask a question re dairy.
My DD was b/fed and now hardly drinks milk (just has it on cereal), I give her cheese sticks as a snack and yoghurts.
What should she be having as better sources of calcium?