Vegan Diet - Healthy?

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Today I was talking to a preteen and her mother about nutrition, and her mother explained that the family follows a strict vegan diet (no dairy, eggs, or meat). The mother was actually a raw vegan or raw foodist, and she only eats unprocessed vegan foods that have not been heated above 115 degrees Fahrenheit. Do you think a vegan diet is healthy enough for growing kids and teenagers?

P.S. I am not criticizing any type of alternative diet as I am a lacto vegetarian (no meat or eggs, yes dairy).

Specializes in NICU, Post-partum.

Tweety, I did a quick search on the net for more information....this is on Japan and not China...but I'm sure it's a similar situation...and a very scary one if you live in that country.

http://www.usmef.org/TradeLibrary/files/07_10_SMP_Japan_Beef.pdf

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Specializes in Geriatrics, Home Health.

I don't think a vegan diet is healthy or wise for children. A vegetarian diet is fine, but if you aren't very careful, a vegan diet can leave you with deficient in things like protein, calcium, Vitamin D, iron, and Vitamin B12. That's bad enough in an adult, but worse for a growing child.

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Specializes in Geriatrics, Home Health.

Don't Asians have relatively high amounts of osteoporosis because they tend to have thin frames?

edit to add: I did find a good source, that addresses the problem in Asia: http://www.iofbonehealth.org/download/osteofound/filemanager/newsroom/pdf/osteoporosis-fact-sheet-01-07.pdf Also it still states the highest rates of hip fractures for instance are in the USA, Denmark, Sweden, etc. Industrialized dairy eating folks.

According to the sheet, the countries with the highest risk of hip fractures are Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Denmark and the USA.They're also northern countries, that don't get a lot of sunlight for large parts of the year. Vitamin D deficiency goes hand-in-hand with calcium deficiency, which can lead to osteoporosis.

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Specializes in Med-Surg.
According to the sheet, the countries with the highest risk of hip fractures are Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Denmark and the USA.They're also northern countries, that don't get a lot of sunlight for large parts of the year. Vitamin D deficiency goes hand-in-hand with calcium deficiency, which can lead to osteoporosis.

Which highlights my point exactly. More dairy and promoting dairy might not necessary be the answer to bone problems associated with agining.

I don't think a vegan diet is healthy or wise for children. A vegetarian diet is fine, but if you aren't very careful, a vegan diet can leave you with deficient in things like protein, calcium, Vitamin D, iron, and Vitamin B12. That's bad enough in an adult, but worse for a growing child.

Fair enough. But look at what a good deal of Americans are feeding their children. Children are now having a problem with obesity, type II diabeties, and you can bet these aren't vegan kids. Kids get so few fruits and vegetables kids foods are mandated to have supplements because they aren't getting proper nutrition from food.

PS: Are you SURE it was beef?

Sorry....couldn't resist!

LOL....Well, it could have been water buffalo because while I saw them, I didn't see any cows. But I stuck primarily to urban areas.

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Specializes in ICU/Critical Care.

I think its great that there are parents taking the time and effort into feeding their child a healthy diet. It's better than what some parents do like shoving a cheeseburger into their kids' hands or giving them high-sugar content food like ice cream covered in chocolate syrup and sprinkles.

I'm not sure if I think a vegan diet would be suitable for a child between ages 1-3 so I'm curious if vegans give their children soy milk in place of cow's milk. Has anyone here raised their children vegan?

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Soy milk, rice milk, almond milk .... I am not vegan but in my experience those are the type of "milk" drinks that children get. If you are a raw foodist then not even those are allowed if they have been processed with heat .

What do children who are lactose intolerant get in place of milk products?

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My cousin and her husband were strict vegans until she got pregnant and her baby was born SFDs. ANyway, after a year of vegan ness they called it quits and returned to meat eating.

It might just be that in NZL its hard to live that diet as we dont' get such a wide range of "different" foodstuffs in. But I'm always a bit weary of those on vegan diets, probably because all the vegans I've met have been underweight. Of course, I'm also weary of those on the McD's diet!

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Oh I meant to add ... quite often those that are following a strict vegan diet are still breastfeeding thier children at 2 or 3 years of age as it seems to go with thier lifestyle. Hope I am not generalizing here, thats just my experience locally where veganism, raw foods etc. is very common.

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Specializes in ICU/Critical Care.

There is lactose free milk

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Tweety, is it safe to assume that you are vegan?

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I think if you are eating healthy things in place of the dairy, eggs and meat, then yes, it can be okay. I say this because my 4 year old son has severe food allergies. He's allergic to dairy, eggs, wheat, peanuts and used to be soy--but just outgrew it. He's doing great. I just make sure that he receives a healthy, balanced diet with plenty of protein and good fats---and good vitamin supplementation as needed.

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I think its great that there are parents taking the time and effort into feeding their child a healthy diet. It's better than what some parents do like shoving a cheeseburger into their kids' hands or giving them high-sugar content food like ice cream covered in chocolate syrup and sprinkles.

I'm not sure if I think a vegan diet would be suitable for a child between ages 1-3 so I'm curious if vegans give their children soy milk in place of cow's milk. Has anyone here raised their children vegan?

Haven't raised my kids vegan per se, but as I posted a second ago, my oldest son (4) has severe food allergies. He's allergic to eggs, dairy, peanuts, wheat and was soy--just outgrew it. My youngest (almost 2) was also very allergic to soy and dairy---he had to be on Neocate formula, as a matter of fact. Thank goodness we caught it early and he has fully outgrown it. For my oldest, since he couldn't do soy milk, we did enriched rice milk and then once we were cleared on tree nuts, switched to enriched almond milk. I just made sure I supplemented his diet with a good dose of healthy fats and vitamins as necessary. The little one, however, went straight from Neocate to enriched soy milk with no problems. He also gets supplementation with the fatty acids, etc. just because it's healthy. :)

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