(personal underlines)
Why children shouldn’t go vegan
It’s bad for developing brains
In an attempt to sell vegan diets to parents and children, Team GB, recently partnered with Birds Eye’s vegan food brand Green Cuisine. The programme will be delivered in primary schools across the UK. Now, the Guardian is reporting that hundreds of academics are urging British universities ‘to commit to 100 per cent plant-based catering’. Why? You guessed right: ‘to fight the climate crisis’.
Research shows that veganism is intimately associated with nutritional deficiencies. A vegan diet negatively affects a developing brain, whether child or late adolescent. In Italy, after a number of babies raised on vegan diets required hospitalization for malnourishment, lawmakers made it a crime to feed children under 16 a vegan diet. Obviously inspired by developments in Italy, Belgian officials also made it illegal to force a vegan diet down a child’s throat.
Children raised on vegan diets suffer terribly. Worryingly, some reports suggest that as many as one in 12 British parents are now raising their children vegan. If you happen to be one of those parents, please stop. We are the descendants of avid meat-eaters. In the words of Dr. James O’Keefe when considering your health (and the health of your child), ‘you need to keep in mind the diet for which we’ve been adapted genetically’. ‘Animal-based foods have been an important part of the human diet for at least three million years. Eliminating all animal foods would be like deciding you’re going to feed a tiger tofu and expect that it’s going to be healthy.’ If you want your child to be healthy and happy, then, ‘you should feed it the diet for which it’s been genetically adapted via evolution down through the ages.’
In other words, don’t, under any circumstances, feed a young kid a vegan diet. After all, as studies show, veganism is intimately associated with osteoporosis and bone fractures. At school, children raised on vegan diets are less likely to thrive than meat-eating children. That’s because vegan diets often lack vitamin B12, which is found in meat, dairy and eggs. This vitamin plays an essential role in cognitive function and healthy brain development, as well as red blood cell formation and cell metabolism. Furthermore, vegan diets often lack other vital nutrients like protein, vitamin D, calcium, DHA, and iron. All are essential for a healthy body and healthy mind.
Veganism (and its close, slightly less problematic cousin, vegetarianism) is also strongly correlated with depression, which is affecting an increasing number of Brits, including a sizable chunk of teens and pre-teens. Meat-eaters tend to have lower levels of depression and lower levels of anxiety, another mental health problem plaguing British youth. To be clear, I am championing a diet rich in unprocessed meat: fresh chicken, turkey, beef, pork and fish; meat that hasn’t been modified. Burgers, chicken nuggets and other processed pretenders are to be avoided at all costs. They have no place in a healthy diet.
Finally, as researchers at the University of Alabama highlighted in 2020, disciples of plant-based diets are twice as likely to take prescribed drugs for various mental illnesses and three times more likely to engage in acts of self-harm than meat eaters. Omega 3 deficiencies appear to play a key role in fuelling these dark thoughts and behaviours.
But, some will say, a vegan diet is much better for the environment than a meat-based one. It’s not. Due to the overly aggressive agricultural practices involved, veganism contributes to soil pollution, air pollution, and water depletion. These are just some of the reasons why no child should ever be fed a vegan diet. And vegan propaganda has no place in British schools or universities.
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