Vegan Diets Kill Children
By speakeasy
@speakeasy (4171)
United States
May 21, 2007 4:55pm CST
If you, as an adult, choose to get by on a vegan diet, please do NOT place your children on it.
Small children and infants need other sources of nutrients and protein. Vegan diets are killing babies and stunting the grwoth of other children.
Death of Crown Shakur age 6 weeks - http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/atlanta/stories/2007/05/02/0502vegans.html
Death of Woyah Andressohn age 6 months - http://www.courttv.com/trials/andressohn/102005_ctv.html
Ice Swinton age 15 months, weight 10 pounds, rickets and malnutrition - http://www.courttv.com/trials/swinton/033103_ctv.html
These are just a few of the cases that have made the news. There are many more children who never make the headlines; but, die or suffer from malnurition due to parents, who even though they love them, are hurting them.
There is NO vegan society and there has NEVER been a vegan society in this world for the simple reason that children's nutritional needs REQUIRE nutrients that can NOT be gotten from plants. Any society that tried this type of diet would die out in just a few generations at most.
B-12 ONLY comes from animal sources and is essential to a child's health. Vitamins A, and D, plus Calcium and Zinc can not be obtained in the concentrated forms that infants and small children require for proper growth.
Soy, which is a staple source of protein for vegans is NOT healthy for small children - soy actually inhibits growth and reduces the absorbtion of proteins and minerals in children. Even a vegan mother's breast milk is low in DHA (omega 3 fats) which is vital for eye and brain development.
If you are an adult, your nutritional needs are different from a child's. Please feed your children a more varied diet until they are adults and can handle a vegan diet without hurting their development.
5 people like this
4 responses
@redyellowblackdog (10629)
• United States
21 May 07
I know you are right about vegan diets and children. Even adults really need to take special percautions to meet their nutritional needs. Being diabetic, I've looked into being a vegan. I found that while it is completely true we americans eat way too much meat, some is necessary, especially for children.
1 person likes this
@speakeasy (4171)
• United States
22 May 07
Actually, my husband is a diabetic and we found that he needed to increase proteins and decrease carbs to get a better ratio. (Plus, he had to eliminate aspartame from his diet, it was literally making his blood sugar impossible for the doctors to control even with medication.)
Human beings need a BALANCED diet; not too much of any one type of food and small children need this in a more concentrated form than us adults.
2 people like this
@redyellowblackdog (10629)
• United States
22 May 07
The aspartame story is an incredible tale of corruption and the FDA absolutely failing to do its job.
Aspartame provokes an insulin response. In type II diabetics who exercise a lot, (I do) this can accidently drive blood sugar levels too low! It has happened to me. When it first happened it took quite a bit of research to figure out what was going on. Anyway, if your husband is type II and starts some kind of regular serious exercise program and his body's insulin still responds to the hormone produced through exercise that makes your insulin work, unexpected drops in blood sugar can result from aspartame, splendra, or cyclamates. I have never been warned by any medical professional about this but have discovered it on my own and verified it in my own body by repeating the experiment several times.
Additionally, I know that aspartame decreases the stamina of the heart. I wear a heart monitor when I bicycle. Monitoring my heart rate when going up the same hill reveals that using aspartame right before strenuous exercise decreases the stamina of the heart. My heart beats faster sooner going up the same hill when I use aspartame as compared to when I do not.
Aspartame is also bad in many ways chemically that I'd have to look up to explain.
Long story short is that I do not use aspartame any longer and actually it is not good even for healthy people.
Seems a long ways from vegan to aspartame, sorry if I got too far off topic.
1 person likes this
@speakeasy (4171)
• United States
22 May 07
Not really, most vegans don't use aspartame either.
My husband has a very strenuous job and is very active. In his case, his blood sugar would NOT drop below 150 - 160 while he was using aspartame even though the doctor had him on THREE medications, twice a day, and was threatening him with insulin.
I read that for some diabetics, aspartame makes it difficult to control blood sugar; causes short term memory loss (which he was having problems with); speeds vision loss; and can even cause a coma (not, a diabetic coma). He had the first two problems but not the last two.
We had him stop ALL his medications and his blood sugar went up to where it started before the doctor started to treat him (200 - 220). We then removed ALL aspartame from his diet and his blood sugar came down to 140 - 150. He then started to take 1/2 tablet of ONE of the medications the doctor had prescribed once a day and now his blood sugar is stable at 80 - 90. He no longer has problems with short term memory loss.
We gave the doctor the other prescriptions back; told him what we had done and why. He couldn't argue with the results. Not every diabetic is affected this way by aspartame; but, my husband was one of the ones that was.
2 people like this
@michelledarcy (5220)
•
22 May 07
I am a vegan and so are my children, they always have been.
They have perfectly balanced diets and are not suffering from malnutrition in any way.
I think that children who suffer from being vegan are brought up by parents who have no knowledge of nutrition. I have a diploma in it and know what my children should be eating.
My family are far healthier than a lot of meat eating children who are fed a diet of processed meat products and chips, with salty fatty snacks and sweets in between meals.
I agree that the particular parents you mention are irresponsible, but please don't tar all vegans with the same brush. Most of us are very aware of the nutrients that our children need and work hard to make sure they get a good balanced diet which is more than I can say for most meat eating families who just assume the kids will get all the vitamins and minerals they need from chicken nuggets and beefburgers and then wonder why their kids end up constipated and suffer from heart disease, diabeties and cancers in later life.
B12 come from micro-organisms and can be found in many soya milks, margarines, tofu products as well as in supplements which are readily available to vegans if they wish to use them.
My daughter is top of her class for reading so has no problems with her brain development.
Please make sure you find out all the facts before making assumptions about vegans. I am a caring mother, always putting my children first, and I would never do anything that would put them at risk.
@speakeasy (4171)
• United States
22 May 07
Most parents who feed their children meat do not do so to the exclusion of other foods.
To the best of my knowledge (and if you do have proof please provide the link); no one has ever placed a baby or toddler on the Atkins diet (of course, even that diet does include some vegetables).
1 person likes this
@michelledarcy (5220)
•
23 May 07
Here is an article that prooves that vegans in the USA have a better balanced diet than meat eaters:
http://www.veganforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24
It is obvious that it is only a minority of vegans that have a problem with their diet, and that meat eaters should take more care with theirs.
@dramaqn (1990)
• United States
23 May 07
Yes, being vegan has become so trendy. Whatever happened to just being a vegetarian? I don't get it (I was raised vegetarian (due to religion).
I'm all for people wanted to be healthy or raise their kids to eat a certain way, but when it comes to nutrition it's important for parents to know. And a lot of young parents who are vegan don't know what they need to do with a baby they want to raise vegan. I mean if a baby was born diabetic or with celiacs disease the doctors would give them information they need to keep the baby healthy when it eats. Is there information given from the doctors automatically for vegan babies?
1 person likes this
@dramaqn (1990)
• United States
22 May 07
Yes, I heard something on the news about some couple having their baby on a vegan diet. I think that is sad. If they wanted they could have raised them vegetarian until they were teenagers or something, but completely vegan.. they are just crazy. And this couple I heard about wasn't giving the child baby soy formula, but the adult soy milk, which is not the same and not good for that developing life. Some people just don't think. Thank you so much for posting this discussion, it is a very important issue that needs to be talked about more often these days. Sad isn't it?
1 person likes this
@speakeasy (4171)
• United States
22 May 07
Yes, it is sad. If they had given the baby soy based formula it would have been OK; because there are other nurients added to the formula to ensure the babies get the proper nutrition; but, then it is no longer "vegan".
@michelledarcy (5220)
•
22 May 07
Fortunately in this country you can get soya formula that is suitable for vegans, it is odd that it isn't available over in the USA. I'm sure you have farleys brand things over there. Hopefully there will be an increase in demand if there are more vegans and it will become available soon.
@speakeasy (4171)
• United States
23 May 07
michelledarcy, when it comes to a lot of health matters the UK is miles ahead of us here in the US.
When my son was starting school, he was diagnosed as "atypical ADHD" because he had symptoms that didn't match. It was not until he was getting ready to go to high school that we ever heard of "Asperger's syndrome" and it was a PERFECT match for my son (40% of children with Asperger's also have ADHD). It was new here in the States; but, the UK had already been diagnosing and treating it for more than 2 decades.
For myself, I was having more and more allergy problems. The more I tried to "eat healthy", the sicker I was getting. I finally figured out that I was salicylate sensitive and made a major change to my diet. Now I only occasionaly have any allergy symptoms; but, doctors here in the US don't even really know what salicylates are and don't believe the condition exists except in it's more severe form (aspirin allergy). 90% of the information I was able to find came from the UK, NZ, and Australia.
So, as far as health goes, the UK is way ahead adn we could learn a lot from you guys.
@PsychoDude (2013)
• Netherlands
21 May 07
Try bringing that through to all the vegans, many of them actually still eat seaweed types which contain a vitamin B12 like substance for the belief it being good, whilst in reality it only blocks the uptake of real B12 and does nothing else.
There's just 2 options, eat meat or eat pills. Not just for children but also for adults this is the case.
1 person likes this
@speakeasy (4171)
• United States
21 May 07
I know and that is why so many of them have B12 deficiencies. It is not as harmful to an adult; but, to a small baby it can be devastating.
