Children brought up as strict vegetarians suffer mental and physical problems that can affect them for the rest of their lives, according to a leading nutritionist who condemned parents who refuse to give their offspring meat or animal products.
Studies of children fed a vegetarian diet have shown that just two spoonfuls of meat a day can have a dramatic and permanent improvement in their physical and mental development, said Lindsay Allen of the University of California at Davis.
The study took place in Kenya where children are fed almost exclusively on staple crops and have a poor diet lacking many of the vital micro-nutrients that are essential for the growth of brain and muscle tissue, Allen said.
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"It's applicable to the West as well. There have been studies on vegetarian women (in Europe and the US) and their children are very developmentally delayed," she said.
The study took place in Kenya Although some vegetarian parents give their children food supplements to offset deficiencies in diet, many vegans, who eat no animal produce at all, rear their children on the same food they eat themselves.
"There is absolutely no question that it's unethical for parents to bring up their children as strict vegans. There is data to show that," Allen said.
"Even when they were adolescents these children who were fed as vegans when they were young still had delayed development or permanently impaired development," she told the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington DC.
In addition to being rich in protein, meat and to a lesser extent animal products such as milk or cheese, contain vital micro-nutrients such as iron, calcium, vitamin B12 and vitamin D.
"We have realised over the past 20 years that micro-nutrient deficiencies are much more of the problem in terms of the causes of growth stunting and poor development in developing countries," she told the meeting.
Children fed the meat were found to have muscles and were up to 80 percent bigger
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