For adult, veganism is usually regarded as healthy diet. Sometimes people argue plant-based diets are better than omnivorous diets. How about children? Is vegan diet better than omnivorous?
A new children book to be going to be on selves is stirring up controversy about veganism for kids.
The book titled "Vegan Is Love: Having Heart and Taking Action" will teach young children to veganism as a lifestyle of compassion and action as well as a diet choice. So it deals with some subjects of not only food but also clothing, animal testing and the use of animals for entertainment purpose.
The author and illustrator, Ruby Roth, who raises her daughter on a strictly vegan diet intends to deliver some lessons through her book, which are the way to protect animals and the environment, the way to make ethical decisions by refusing product of animal, and more.
Some experts and parents expressed concern about children's poor nutrition caused by vegan diet.
Child psychologist Jennifer Hart Steen said on the “Today” show, "There’s so much fear presented in the book and if you would just give it to a child as a children's book they don't understand it. So now they're just going to be afraid."
"The main problem I have with this book is that children are impressionable, and this is too sensitive of a topic to have a child read this book. It could easily scare a young child into eating vegan, and without proper guidance, that child could become malnourished," said Nicole German, a dietician.
Dr. Marjorie Greenfield, chief of obstetrics and gynecology at University Hospitals Care Medical Center in Cleveland said, "A lot of people listen to their bodies and switch from being vegan to vegetarian when they're pregnant. In general, listening to your body is important."
She added, "In order to make whole proteins, there are certain essential amino acids your body can't make. You have to combine your vegetable protein to make them."
However, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND) takes a different stance.
The AND says indicating on its website, "Well-planned vegetarian diets are appropriate for individual during all stages of the life-cycle including pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood and adolescence and for athletes."
Joy Bauer, the Today Show and Everyday Health nutrition experts, also supports this opinion. But she mentions the lack of vitamin B12 in vegan diet. As this vitamin is provided from animal food, breastfeeding moms and children need to get it from fortified foods or supplements.
Natalie Potman, well- known for pre-vegan actress, has dropped her vegan diet when she was pregnant with her first child. Although the reason she quit her veganism is not because of nutritional condition but because of her carving for sweets, she said, "I think you have to just be careful, watch your iron levels and your B12 levels and supplement those if there are things you might be low in your diet."
Vegans often need to take supplements like iron, vitamin B12 and vitamin D. Sufficient intake of protein is also important for both pregnant women and children. Sometimes unbalanced vegan or vegetarian diet can cause malnutrition which can lead hair loss, weak bones, and anemia.
Bauer also notes, as children grow, it can be appealing them to overload on white starches, such as pasta, and potatoes, instead of eating protein-rich plant foods.