Vegan Diets for Children: Unethical or Beneficial?

In late February a number of articles appeared in the British media claiming that it was dangerous to rear infants and children on vegan diets. The articles were based on a story that first appeared in the USA in which Professor Lindsay Allen of the University of California and the US Agricultural Research Service was quoted as saying:

Animal source foods have some nutrients which are not found anywhere else. If you're talking about feeding young children and pregnant women and lactating women I would go as far as to say it is unethical to withhold these foods during that period of life.

Since the story first broke Professor Allen has sought to distance herself from it, complaining that the reporter “hyped” her concern about vegan diets and omitted a crucial clause from the preceding quote.  In an email message she wrote:

The news reporter “hyped” my concern about vegan diets for pregnant/lactating mothers and infants/children by not adding the sentence I was emphatic they keep in, namely that vegan diets were unethical UNLESS those who practiced them were well-informed about how to add back the missing nutrients through supplements or fortified foods. I completely agree that it is possible to add back those missing nutrients and have stated this in a position paper on nutrition in pregnancy for the American Dietetic Association. I also agree that well-managed vegan diets, plus supplements plus fortified foods to get those missing nutrients, are probably healthier for adults and even many children than the average US or UK diet.

Professor Allen’s assertions were criticised by Professor Tom Sanders of King’s College London who has researched the health of vegan infants and children living in the UK.  In a letter to The Guardian newspaper on 24 February 2005, Professor Sanders stated:

Professor Lindsay Allen wrongly claims that it is unethical to deprive children of meat. This claim ignores the plethora of research that shows that children in the US and Europe develop quite normally on a vegetarian diet. My own research, which has followed vegan children from birth to early adult life, has proved that children can be successfully reared on a vegan diet. Ms Allen’s research was conducted on children in an impoverished community, consuming a corn-based diet, where micronutrient deficiency is likely. As meat is a rich source of micronutrients, the effect of small amounts of meat was not unexpected. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/letters/story/0,,1423887,00.html)

Dietician and co-author of Becoming Vegan Vesanto Melina joined in the criticism, pointing out that Professor Allen “does not know how to create a nutritionally adequate vegan diet”, and that “it can be viewed as unethical to feed your child a diet high in animal products, and to set your child up for a future that increases his or her risk of various cancers, cardiovascular disease or diabetes”. She added:

It is not true that animal products contain essential nutrients that are not found anywhere else. Animal products are unique sources of certain substances such as cholesterol. However dietary cholesterol is not essential; we make what we require in our bodies and too much may be a risk factor for disease. Vitamin B12 comes from bacteria and is present in animal products as a result of bacterial contamination. Properly designed vegan diets contain vitamin B12 from fortified foods or supplements.

The Vegan Society also circulated a press release on the story which gave more information on Professor Allen’s research and roundly refuted the allegations.  As the Society pointed out, there is strong evidence that vegan diets support healthy development in children.  In the UK a study of 39 vegan children found that “the growth and development of children reared on both vegan and vegetarian diets appears normal” whilst in the USA, a study of 400 vegan children reached the same conclusion.

Sadly, there have been instances in which infants have suffered serious ill health or even death when reared on very restricted macrobiotic vegan diets.  However, thousands of children (including several born to members of Oxford Vegetarians) have been reared successfully on vegan diets and The Vegan Society recommends that all vegans include a reliable source of vitamin B12 in their diet and eat a wide variety of foods, especially nutrient-rich foods in the case of children (see www.vegansociety.com).

Paul Appleby, March 2005

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This page created 27 March 2005 by Paul Appleby.