UK Vegetarian Society comment in Belfast Telegraph
Expert hits out over vegan diet children
'Unethical' to deny animal products
By Andrea Clements, 25 February 2005, www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk
A local vegetarian representative today hit back at claims that denying young children animal products was "unethical".
Strict vegetarians who insist their children live by the maxim "meat is murder" had come under fire after a Californian study showed that adding just two spoonfuls of meat to the diet of poverty-stricken children in Africa transformed them both physically and mentally.
Professor Lindsay Allen, director of the US Agricultural Research Service's Western Human Nutrition Research Centre, who conducted the study, was especially critical of parents who imposed a vegan lifestyle on their children, denying them milk, cheese and butter as well as milk.
Prof Allen said: "Animal source foods have some nutrients which are not found anywhere else.
"Talking of young children and pregnant women and lactating women I would say it is unethical to withhold these foods during that period of life."
Beth Gourley, for the Vegetarian Society of the UK, said she believed the majority of vegetarian parents were responsible and showed no neglect in regard to their children's diets.
"Don't parents have the right to bring their children up according to their morals?
"Vegetarian diets can be more healthy and pose less risk of diseases which affect people in later life.
"There's a 25% lower risk of dying from heart disease for vegetarians and few vegetarians are overweight."
She pointed to tofu, green leafy vegetables, wholegrain foods and beans, pulses and nuts as of significant nutritional value.
Gillian Killner, speaking for the British Dietetics Association in Northern Ireland, said the study was the first to suggest a strong need for meat in the diet, and that further research should be awaited.
She stressed the importance for vegans or vegetarians, especially those who were pregnant, breastfeeding or feeding young children to get the right nutrients.
"There are good meat alternatives which have been used for generations.
"Vitamin D, B2 and vitamin 12 would be of concern, therefore alternatives from the sun and fortified foods would be recommended.
"Following a planned diet will mean that you will not miss out on essential nutrients."
press release from the European Vegetarian Union (EVU)
Prejudice against vegetarian nutrition
24 February 2005, www.evana.org
It is not new that attempts are being made to discredit the vegetarian way of life. The most recent case is a particularly remarkable combination of scientifically untenable statements, extreme living conditions of the children under observation, and obvious financial involvement of the meat industry.
Speaking at the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington, Prof. Lindsay Allen of the University of California made serious accusations: "Animal source foods have some nutrients which are not found anywhere else. If you're talking about feeding young children and pregnant women and lactating women I would go as far as to say it is unethical to withhold these foods during that period of life. "
Unethical? The European Vegetarian Union, an umbrella for most European Vegetarian Organisations, wants to put the record straight:
1. Professor Allen's lecture was based on a study (1) with 544 children in Kenya who ate a very unbalanced diet, many suffered from several health problems, including amebiasis, a source of intestinal blood loss which leads to a deficiency of B12 and iron. It is well known that vitamin B12 deficiency can impair the cognitive development of children and so it comes as no surprise that additional B12 brought about positive health effects. However, even though the children suffered from multiple micronutrient deficiencies, increased plasma Vitamin B-12 proved to be the only detectable micronutrient response to meat or milk supplementation.
(2)
However, it must be stressed that of the three tests (Raven's Progressive Matrices test, verbal meaning and arithmetic) only the first shows a better development of the meat-group. Regarding the verbal meaning and arithmetic tests, the nutrition supplement without any animal products (but with vegetable oil) shows the best results. In all three tests the milk-group had the poorest results; the Raven-test results in that group were even worse than in the control group. If these malnourished children had received a carefully planned vegetarian diet, their health would have improved even more.
2. In some newspapers, reference is made to unspecified "studies of vegetarians in both the United States and Europe/Holland" implying that missing out on meat and dairy products could permanently damage a child's development.
a. These reports are challenged by living proof:
- Indians have been vegetarians for hundreds or even thousands of years. There is not the slightest indication that this way of life has "impaired" them in any way - just the opposite.
- Children in some European families are vegetarians in the fourth or fifth generation and they are bright and healthy.
- Long term vegetarians are appalled by the statements of Prof Allen. Sir Paul McCartney, himself father of four healthy and successful vegetarian children, dismisses her claims as "rubbish".
b. In their position paper "Vegetarian Diets", the American Dietetic Association and Dietitians of Canada (ADA), the nation's largest organization of food and nutrition professionals with nearly 70,000 members, states that "appropriately planned vegetarian diets are healthful,nutritionally adequate, and provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases. [.] Well-planned vegan and other types of vegetarian diets are appropriate for all stages of the life cycle, including during pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, and adolescence. Vegetarian diets offer a number of nutritional benefits."(3)
3. Even to impartial observers, the research mentioned by Professor Allen raises some doubts as to its neutrality: it was presented at the conference "Animal Source Foods and Nutrition in Developing Countries" held in Washington, D.C. June 24-26, 2002 and sponsored by Global Livestock-CRSP. Supplement publication was supported by Food and Agriculture Organization, Land O'Lakes Inc., Heifer International, Pond Dynamics and Aquaculture-CRSP. The National Cattleman's Beef Association partly supported the project.
Conclusion: The European Vegetarian Union wants to point out that a vegetarian diet needs to be balanced, just like any other one. However, comprehensive studies conducted over long periods and with thousands of participants have proven again and again that the vegetarian way of life is a very healthy one.
Renato Pichler
Acting President
European Vegetarian Union (EVU)
www.european-vegetarian.org
From Dr. Michael Greger's monthly newsletter mailbag
MAILBAG: "I read there was a study that showed raising kids vegan was dangerous."
It was like a bad Saturday Night Live skit. The National Cattlemen's Beef Association pays USDA researchers to feed meat to starving kids in Africa and, surprise surprise, they perk up (and no, I'm not making this up). The children adding meat to their starvation diet developed better than those children adding, well, nothing. (Don't let the tobacco companies know, they might try to asphyxiate some kids and prove that breathing cigarette smoke is significantly better for you than, say, suffocation).
Surely those weren't the only two groups, though: the meat-added group and the nothing-added group? In fact, there were indeed two other control groups in which they instead added a vegetarian food to these malnourished children's diets, but the children were nonetheless shown conclusively to grow best on the meat.
This of course raises the obvious question: what vegetarian foods did they choose to add to their diets to compare with the meat? Presumably realizing that almost all (90%) Africans are lactose intolerant,[36] the meat-industry-funded USDA researchers compared adding meat to these children's diets with adding... a glass of milk.[37]
So one group of starving children got meat, one group got nothing, one got milk, and the fourth and final group--to prove meat's superiority once and for all?--got... oil. Yes, just plain vegetable oil, providing essentially zero nutrition except empty calories. Sadly, the children were so malnourished that just adding those extra calories in the form of an extra spoonful of oil increased their muscle mass 40% over those that got nothing.[38]
Lest one thinks the meat industry wasted their money funding such a ludicrous study, these are some of the headlines they got:
"Meat is Important for Children's Development."[39]
"Vegetarian Diet 'Harms Children's Growth.'"[40]
"Vegetarian Diet 'Bad for Children.'"[41]
"Vegetarian Diet is Okay, But Meat is Required."[42]
"Young 'Harmed' By Meat-Free Diets."[43]
And my personal favorite:
"Forcing Your Child to Follow a Vegetarian Diet is Unethical, Top Nutrition Expert Says."[44]
Dietitian and author Brenda Davis responded to the study by citing the fact that the largest organization of nutrition professionals in the world (the American Dietetic Association) officially declared that "Appropriate planned vegan and lacto-ovo vegetarian diets satisfy the nutrient needs of infants, children, and adolescents and promote normal growth," as well as providing "health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases." In recognition of that fact, Dr. Benjamin Spock, perhaps the most esteemed pediatrician of all time, in the final edition of his book, "Dr. Spock's Baby and Child Care" (second only to the bible the best-selling book in American history) recommended that children be raised vegan.
In her response, Brenda explains why the researchers presumably chose not to include a nutrient-rich plant food as a control group: "doing so would have demonstrated that it is not vegan diets that are inadequate, but rather energy, fat, and protein deficient diets that are inadequate. That would have defeated the purpose of the organization which funded the research, namely the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (US)."
You can sign up to receive the newsletter via here. The newsletter on his website has the references.
Cautions About Vegan Diet Baseless, says Physicians Group
March 18, 2005,
www.pcrm.org
Research on Undernourished Children Was Misinterpreted as Research on Vegans
WASHINGTON—A researcher’s cautions about a vegan diet that were publicized at the meetings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in February were not based on studies of vegans at all, but rather were based on a study of undernourished Kenyan schoolchildren, says the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM).
The study was designed to test whether adding oil, meat, or milk to the diets of malnourished Kenyan children would improve their overall health, growth, muscle mass, and intelligence test scores. Dr. Lindsay Allen, a nutritionist at the University of California-Davis, and now with the United States Department of Agriculture, was the principal researcher for the study, which was partially funded by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.
The two-year research project tracked the progress of 544 children with an average age of seven years. One group was fed 400 grams of meat daily; another had its diet supplemented with milk; another with the equivalent calories in vegetable oil. The control group continued to consume the highly restricted, near-starvation diet that is typical fare for many poor Kenyans.
Not surprisingly, the three groups receiving nutritional supplements—meat, milk, and vegetable oil—outperformed the control group in every measured category.
The study was trumpeted at the AAAS meeting as an attack on vegan diets. Dr. Allen has distanced herself from criticisms of vegan diets, saying vegan diets are probably healthier for adults and even many children than the average U.S. or U.K. diet.
“The only conclusion you can draw from this study,” said PCRM Nutrition Director Amy Joy Lanou, Ph.D., “is that if you add ANY food, you can improve the health of chronically undernourished children. To draw the conclusion that vegan diets are somehow less healthy for children is absurd.”
Dr. Lanou points to study results that show the group receiving supplemental vegetable oil—high-energy, but devoid of nutrients—also showed marked improvement over the control group. Moreover, she said, study has little relevance to Europe or North America, where excess food intake, especially overconsumption of meat, dairy, and sweets has led to epidemics of obesity, diabetes, and hypertension.
Dr. Lanou said, “There’s little doubt that a varied vegetarian or vegan diet is the healthiest regimen for everyone, young and old.”
Re: Veganism on Woman's Hour
hmmm I think I recognise Dr Who, he's Seamus's dad! :)
Re: Veganism on Woman's Hour
Ha Ha!!! It is me fellah Neil.
We were waiting to see if we would get on, but they never rang. Everyone who did get on from our side did well though. :D
Mary
Vegans convicted of assault for starving their daughter
Vegans convicted of assault for starving their daughter
"An appeals court in Brooklyn has affirmed the first-degree assault conviction of two vegan parents who were accused of nearly starving their daughter to death.
One member of the four-judge panel of the Appellate Division, Second Department, however, cast doubt on whether the parents were aware of the risks that a vegan diet posed to a baby. The judge, Justice Sondra Miller, said the assault conviction should be vacated.
"The defendants may have been naïve, and misguided, and even unfit to serve as the custodians of their child," Justice Miller wrote in People v. Swinton, 2003-04653. "What they did not do, however, is evince criminal recklessness."
Silva and Joseph Swinton, both 24, were convicted in 2003 and sentenced, respectively, to 6 years and 5 years in prison. Mr. Swinton was given a more lenient sentence due to his reduced mental capacity.
Ms. Swinton gave birth to a baby girl, Ice Swinton, in July 2000. Mistrustful of doctors and modern medicine, she gave birth at home, assisted only by Mr. Swinton. Ice weighed three pounds at birth.
Over the next 16 months, the Swintons fed their daughter nothing more than nuts and fruit. In November 2001, Ice weighed 10 pounds when she should have weighed about 25. She had no teeth, underdeveloped and soft bones, and could not lift her own head. Ice is reportedly now healthy and living with relatives."
People need to teach themselves how to do things properly. Especially when it comes to a helpless life.
Sad...
Re: Vegans convicted of assault for starving their daughter
That's a shame that their vegan diet was mentioned when clearly, stupidity was to blame. When omnivores get arrested for this sort of thing, does the news article state, "two omnivore parents..."?
Re: Vegans convicted of assault for starving their daughter
What an awful thing to happen. I agree - veganism wasn't to blame here. Inexperience and stupidity was to blame. I'm glad to hear though, that the baby is now healthy.
Re: Vegans convicted of assault for starving their daughter
I agree Artichoke -
Really, what they did wasn't even veganism. It was just plain stupidity. (as you said).
"Mr. Swinton was given a more lenient sentence due to his reduced mental capacity"
....does this mean that he was mentally retarded?
It's good to know that the baby is doing better now. But it's too bad that it's probably on a meat-eating diet and now everyone is thinking that the reason why she is better is because she's getting her "proper food" (meat, eggs, milk...gross).
Re: Vegans convicted of assault for starving their daughter
2 things, first of all, the parents fed the baby cod liver oil, which last time i checked wasn't vegan. The news just picked up on the word vegan because they're dictionary impaired. Second:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/...in668225.shtml
Re: Children 'Harmed' by Vegan Diets
Baby's vegan parents clear of manslaughter
By Ihosvani Rodriguez, November 09, 2005, www.news.com.au
JURY yesterday rejected charges a vegan couple committed manslaughter by starving their newborn daughter to death with an unorthodox diet of raw food and vegetables.
While the parents were cleared of manslaughter, the jury found Joseph and Lamoy Andressohn guilty of neglecting their four other children who authorities say were malnourished and small for their ages.
The jury, which reached its verdicts in less than two hours, hurried out of the Miami-Dade County courthouse without explaining the split decision.
The mixed verdict is the latest twist in a unique criminal case that made international headlines, sparked internet debates and was followed closely by many in the vegan community.
Sitting next to four cardboard boxes filled with the documents prosecutors used to make their case, and with disturbing autopsy photos within centimetres from the jury, Joseph Andressohn kissed his wife's hands and breathed deeply after a clerk read the jury's verdict.
"I can't wait to see my children," said Lamoy Andressohn, 30. "I thank God and I thank the judge."
Asked how she felt that the jury had ruled she neglected her children, Lamoy Andressohn said quietly, "I know that I didn't."
Her husband said he was pleased with the verdict and said the outcome was the best he and his wife could have hoped for.
The Andressohns could be sentenced to 20 years in prison and encounter some legal trouble regaining custody of their four children.
The children and a fifth child, born earlier this year, are in an aunt's custody. Sentencing is scheduled for December 12.
Determined to fight the charges from the start, the couple rejected several plea offers including serving only probation.
Authorities charged the parents after an autopsy report determined five-month-old Woyah Andressohn died of malnutrition on May 15, 2003, and weighed only 3.17kg - about 2.7kg less than she should have at six months.
She was fed a diet which relied heavily on wheat grass, coconut milk, avocado, fruit and nuts.
The Andressohn's lawyers Ellis Rubin and Robert Barrar spent the month-long trial raising doubts with a group of hired medical experts who defended the diet and said the child may have died from a rare genetic disease.
In his closing arguments yesterday, Mr Rubin said overzealous officials botched the investigation.
He said at the time of the death, Florida's Department of Children and Families was still red-faced over the mishandlings in the high-profile case of missing five-year-old Rilya Wilson and was determined to make amends.