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Rupert Rupert is offline
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Default Daily Mail: How a strict vegan diet made my children ill

On Jun 25, 1:45 am, "Mr.Smartypants" >
wrote:
> On Jun 24, 11:01 pm, Dragonblaze > wrote:
>
>
>
> > How a strict vegan diet made my children ill

>
> > By Angus Watson
> > Last updated at 1:30 PM on 24th June 2008

>
> > Comments (11) Add to My Stories
> > Holly Paige couldn't understand why her children, Bertie, then four,
> > and Lizzie, three, were looking so drawn and skinny, yet their
> > stomachs were full.

>
> > Then when Lizzie smiled at her one day, Holly was horrified to see
> > that her top row of teeth were brown and full of cavities.

>
> > 'I couldn't work out what was going on,' says Holly, who lives in
> > Totnes, Devon. 'We all ate exceptionally healthily, with plenty of
> > vegetables, nuts and seeds.'

>
> > Misguided: Holly Paige with her two children, Bertie (left) and Lizzie

>
> > The problem was that this was all the Paiges ate. They had a strict
> > vegan diet, and ate only raw food.

>
> > From the day they were weaned, Bertie and Lizzie had never eaten meat,
> > fish or dairy foods - except a slice of raw goat's cheese once a
> > month.

>
> > 'I'd heard about the raw food diet through a friend and thought it
> > sounded like a really healthy thing to do,' says Holly, 45.

>
> > 'I was assured by the people who devised the diet that we would get
> > all the protein we needed from nuts and seeds, and we also took a
> > daily supplement to replace the nutrients found in animal foods.

>
> > 'We also ate pulses, grains and soya; I thought we were on the most
> > nutritious diet possible.

>
> > 'But then I started noticing that something wasn't right. The children
> > were wearing clothes two sizes smaller than they should have been. I
> > have two older children and they never had growth problems or tooth
> > decay. Bertie and Lizzie's muscles seemed weak and they had problems
> > seeing at night.

>
> > 'When we went to the supermarket, Lizzie would grab a pack of butter
> > and start gnawing on it. I couldn't understand why this well-fed child
> > was behaving like this. I was so brainwashed that the fact our bodies
> > were craving dairy products had passed me by.'

>
> > Holly referred to a vitamin book, where she discovered the children's
> > symptoms were a sign of serious protein and vitamin D deficiency.

>
> > 'I had let malnutrition in through the back door in the name of
> > health,' she recalls now with horror.

>
> > She immediately introduced dairy into their diet, and says the change
> > in the children's health has been 'remarkable'.

>
> > Alarmingly, Holly's is a far from unique case. Earlier this month,
> > Glasgow's Royal Hospital for Sick Children reported a 12-year-old girl
> > with a severe form of rickets.

>
> > Her parents, 'well-known figures in Glasgow's vegan community', had
> > unwittingly starved her of necessary nutrients found in fish and meat,
> > causing her to develop the bone-wasting disease usually associated
> > with 19thcentury slums.

>
> > A Trading Standards study into nursery food recently found that many
> > nurseries were feeding toddlers a diet too high in fruit and
> > vegetables, and too low in calories and fats, putting them at risk of
> > nutritional deficiencies.

>
> > Health information overload

>
> > 'There's so much health information that parents are confused,' says
> > the Mail's nutritionist, Jane Clarke.

>
> > 'They think it's best to take what they think are "bad things" out of
> > their child's diet, but often denying children meat, milk or wheat can
> > do more harm than good.'

>
> > Jessica Hatfield discovered this for herself when her nine-year-old
> > son Max, a previously active, sporty child, became increasingly run
> > down. Some days he had no energy at all and couldn't get out of bed.

>
> > To Jessica's surprise, her GP referred Max to a child nutritionist. 'I
> > couldn't understand it - he'd always eaten so healthily,' she says.

>
> > She was even more astonished when the nutritionist said his supposedly
> > 'healthy' diet - no carbohydrates and only meat, fish, and salad -
> > wasn't giving him enough energy to fuel his active life.

>
> > As Judy More, the nutritionist who saw Max, explains: 'Once his diet
> > was described to me, it was obvious why he had no energy. Children
> > need a constant supply of energy, especially if they're doing sport,
> > and the quickest way is carbs.

>
> > 'His mother's mistake was to follow a fad diet, hyped up by magazines
> > and endorsed by celebrities, to a growing child.'

>
> > Furthermore, forcing a child to go dairy-free so young, without
> > replacing calcium, also risks giving them bad teeth and poor bone
> > growth and osteoporosis. Since bone-building stops in our early 20s,
> > weak bones in our teens mean weak bones for life.

>
> > Red meat is another worry for parents after a recent World Cancer
> > Research Fund report linked processed red meat to cancer.

>
> > Some mothers have removed all red meat from their children's diet,
> > without replacing its vital iron. This is potentially harmful because
> > children need iron for brain development and physical growth.

>
> > Too much fibre is another problem created by some fussy parents. Jane
> > Clarke recalls: 'A miserable little boy was brought to me with
> > constant diarrhoea.

>
> > His parents, who were feeding him almost exclusively on bread and
> > vegetables, couldn't see what could be wrong. He got better as soon as
> > we switched to a lower fibre diet.

>
> > 'Because fibre absorbs water, it's like a sponge inside the stomach.
> > Since a child's stomach is so small, it's easy for food to fill them
> > up before they eat other nutritious foodstuffs such as protein and
> > fats, which are essential for energy and helping them grow.'

>
> > Too many wholegrains

>
> > She says it's important not to give pre-school children in particular
> > too much wholegrain food. The irony is that later in life, once free
> > of their dietary strictures, these 'healthily' skinny children are at
> > risk of obesity, says paediatric health and exercise specialist Dr
> > Caroline Dodd, of Northumbria University.

>
> > 'An American study found that restricting children's access to snacks
> > leads to more snacking later in life.

>
> > 'It's particularly true of young girls. By making sweets and crisps
> > taboo, they become all the more attractive.'

>
> > Everyone agrees the solution is simple: don't treat children as adults
> > and subject them to faddy diets or crazy exercise regimes.

>
> > Although dieticians are seeing more children harmed by over-fussy
> > parents, Jane Clarke is optimistic the numbers will soon decline: 'The
> > pseudo-science on ridiculous TV programmes is beginning to be exposed,
> > and sensible advice from properly qualified people is beginning to
> > prevail.'

>
> > For Holly's children, the good news is that their early lack of dairy
> > seems to have caused no long-term damage. 'Bertie and Lizzie are now
> > the correct size for their age and their rotten milk teeth are being
> > replaced by healthy, white ones. I'm so relieved.

>
> > 'What I realise now is that the raw food movement is actually a cult -
> > these people will do anything to explain away the fact that for some
> > people, this diet can have very damaging health consequences.

>
> > 'I'm a very maternal person and can't believe I was so misguided as to
> > risk my children's health.'

>
> > Some names have been changed.

>
> along with the FACTS.
>


It's worth noting that these children did not follow a strict vegan
diet; they ate a slice of raw goat's cheese once a month. Hence the
title of the thread is a misnomer. This is perhaps a minor quibble. A
more important point is that this piece of anecdotal evidence about
one family is more relevant to the merits of a raw food vegan diet in
early childhood, than to the merits of a vegan diet in early childhood
per se. Only a small proportion of vegans are raw food vegans. I make
no comment about the appropriateness of a raw food vegan diet in early
childhood; I have no information about that. I linked to a position
paper by the American Dietetic Association which contains a lot of
information about the various vegetarian diets, presumably based on
extensive scientific research. This is not a group with any particular
agenda to push and I assume they will be making a good faith effort to
present a balanced picture. The following quotation is noteworthy:

"Well-planned vegan, lacto-vegetarian, and lacto-ovo-vegetarian diets
are appropriate for all stages of the life cycle, including pregnancy
and lactation. Appropriately planned vegan, lacto-vegetarian, and
lacto-ovo-vegetarian diets satisfy nutrient needs of infants,
children, and adolescents and promote normal growth. Vegetarian diets
in childhood and adolescence can aid in the establishment of lifelong
healthy eating patterns and can offer some important nutritional
advantages."