Can kids thrive on a vegetarian diet?

Australia’s Sunday Morning Herald tackles the question and concludes:

The bottom line says [dietitian Mark] Surdut is that vegetarian diets, including vegan diets that exclude dairy food and eggs, can be healthy for kids as long as they’re well planned.  That’s not just his opinion either. Last year the professional association of dietitians in the US, the American Dietetic Association, gave the thumbs up to vegetarian diets at all life stages in a position paper that also suggested vegetarian diets in childhood and adolescence can help establish lifelong healthy eating patterns. [...]

If you need good advice on planning meat free meals  for kids – or grownups – there’s good advice from the American Dietetic Association - or check out Hungry Human Beans: a guide to vegetarian diets for children from Sydney’s Westmead Children’s Hospital.

Though the article isn’t entirely pro-vegan it still provides some good, basic info as well as the reminder that:

while feeding children a vegetarian diet can raise eyebrows, we often forget about  other eating styles that can leave kids short on nutrients

Think about it. Which kid is developing healthier eating habits: The one who eats a broccoli and carrot stir-fry with tofu over brown rice and a glass of calcium and B12 fortified fruit juice or the one who eats a “personalized” pepperoni pizza with extra cheese, a side of french fries, and a soda…? (The second kid doesn’t even eat the pizza crusts).

Healthy diets for children are the ones that are well-planned and have approval from doctors and dietitians. Those kids of diets include both vegan and nonvegan diets, but only if they include important things like fruits, veggies, whole grains, protein and iron. When it comes to healthy eating, it’s not so much about what someone excludes from their diet, it’s about what they include.

In the example above, the first kid excludes animal products like meat and cheese, but she includes protein and iron (tofu), veggies (carrots and broccoli), whole grains (brown rice), fruit (juice) as well as essential nutrients (calcium and B12). The second kid includes meat and cheese (protein, iron, and calcium), but excludes fruit, veggies, and whole grains. The second kid also includes a lot of unnecessary saturated fat (cheese) and sugar (soda) and excludes fiber (fruit, veggies, and whole grains).

So… if your kid wants to be vegan and you want your kid to be healthy, just do a little research and little planning. Here are some resources to help:

• Keeping Kids Healthy section on vegan kids: http://www.keepkidshealthy.com/welcome/treatmentguides/veganchildren.html
• The American Dietetic Association recommendations for feeding vegan and vegetarian infants and toddlers: http://www.eatright.org/Public/content.aspx?id=8060.
• The ADA’s guide to important vegetarian nutrient sources (for all ages): http://www.eatright.org/Public/content.aspx?id=6374
• The American Dietetic Association’s recommendations for getting children and teens to eat their fruits and veggies (for ALL children, not just vegan and vegetarian children): http://www.eatright.org/Public/content.aspx?id=6749
• Vegan Health info page on vegan pregnancy and children: http://veganhealth.org/articles/preginfchil
• The Vegetarian Resource Group’s paper on vegetarian and vegan kids: http://www.vrg.org/nutshell/kids.htm

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Sections: Vegan Resources
Topics: ada, children, dietitian, eating habits, health, kids, nutrition, teens, veg, Vegan, vegetarian