Posted on 02/21/2005 2:06:27 PM PST by Constitutionalist Conservative
Lindsay Allen, of the US Agricultural Research Service, attacked parents who insisted their children lived by the maxim "meat is murder".
Animal source foods have some nutrients not found anywhere else, she told a Washington science conference.
The Vegan Society dismissed the claims, saying its research showed vegans were often healthier than meat eaters.
'Development affected'
Professor Allen said: "There have been sufficient studies clearly showing that when women avoid all animal foods, their babies are born small, they grow very slowly and they are developmentally retarded, possibly permanently."
| There's absolutely no question that it's unethical for parents to bring up their children as strict vegans Professor Lindsay Allen, US Agricultural Research Service |
"If you're talking about feeding young children, pregnant women and lactating women, I would go as far as to say it is unethical to withhold these foods [animal source foods] during that period of life."
She was especially critical of parents who imposed a vegan lifestyle on their children, denying them milk, cheese, butter and meat.
"There's absolutely no question that it's unethical for parents to bring up their children as strict vegans," she told the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
Missing nutrients
She said the damage to a child began while it was growing in the womb and continued once it had been born.
Research she carried out among African schoolchildren suggests as little as two spoonfuls of meat each day is enough to provide nutrients such as vitamin B12, zinc and iron.
The 544 children studied had been raised on diets chiefly consisting of starchy, low-nutrition corn and bean staples lacking these micronutrients.
Over two years, some of the children were given 2oz supplements of meat each day, equivalent to about two spoonfuls of mince.
Two other groups received either a cup of milk a day or an oil supplement containing the same amount of energy. The diet of a fourth group was left unaltered.
|
HAVE YOUR SAY A wide-ranging mixed diet with exercise is essential for any child James, Cornwall, UK |
These children grew more and performed better on problem-solving and intelligence tests than any of the other children at the end of the two years.
They also became more active, talkative and playful at school.
Adding either meat or milk to the diets also almost completely eliminated the very high rates of vitamin B12 deficiency previously seen in the children.
No quick fixes
Professor Allen stressed that although the study was conducted in a poor African community, its message was highly relevant to people in developed countries.
She accepted that adults could avoid animal foods if they took the right supplements, but she said adding animal source food into the diet was a better way to tackle malnutrition worldwide than quick fixes with supplements in the form of pills.
"Where feasible, it would be much better to do it through the diet than by giving pills," she said.
"With pills it's very hard to be certain that the quantity of nutrition is right for everybody and it's hard to sustain."
In Africa, good results had been obtained from giving people a dried meat on a stick snack which proved both nutritious and appealing.
Professor Montague Demment, from the University of California at Davis, said more emphasis should be placed on animal source food to combat global malnutrition.
Vegan defence
However, the claims have been dismissed by the Vegan Society in the UK.
In a statement, it said increasing numbers of people were opting for a plant-based diet.
Kostana Azmi, the chief executive officer, said: "The vegan diet can provide you with more energy, nutrition, and is bursting with goodness."
She said plant sources were sometimes a safer, and cheaper source of nutrients.
For instance, animal sources of omega-3 oils, needed for the development of the brain and nervous system, were often contaminated with pollutants, such as mercury in fish.
In addition, the vegan diet was often a healthier alternative. She said dairy and meat products were rich in saturated fat, while plant based diets were low in it.
The society does recommend that vegans supplement their diet with vitamin B-12 pills.
The US Agricultural Research Service is part of the US Department of Agriculture.
Very deceptive, since he left out the sentence before 9:3 as well, which God explicitely states Every living thing that moveth (with the exception of fellow man, banned from being killed by fellow man in Genesis 9:6) shall be meat for you.
The full context of this is as follows:
Gen 9:3 Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.
Gen 9:4 But flesh with the life thereof, [which is] the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.
This in context states that basically all moving things (other than man as I stated is forbidden), is indeed meat for man to consume given by God.
I'll see you there! We'll be moving to TX later this year. My whole family is looking forward to the Rattlesnake Roundup and the chilli cook-offs.
Cool! I just hope I haven't been too corrupted by my liberal neighbors in California to fit in there anymore. But a couple weeks ago in Austin I polished off a healthy plate of brisket without a second thought, so maybe it's like riding a bike. :)
I became an "almost" vegan about 15 years ago (after having been a lacto vegetarian for 20 years) because of lung congestion. Not only did I do no better without dairy, the soymilk was really congesting.
So I delved more into Ayurvedic dietary methods and everything got better.
The cold milk, tons of cheese and ice cream, and generally chemicalized "dead" food people eat are killers. Artificial ingredients are highly toxic. People feel bad a lot but just don't put two and two together.
I used to be able to afford to eat all organic and it made a huge difference in well being. Lived in a place where organic food was cheap. No more! But I carefully avoid all artificial colors, flavors, preservatives, pre-packaged, microwaved and so on food. Makes a tremendous difference in health. Needless to say, I never eat out, and make all food from scratch.
Duh!
Kind of like us conservatives? :-)
Cows were BRED to do so, over thousands of years.
And people were designed to drink milk.
They were designed to drink their mother's milk, not the milk of another species. Drinking cow's milk isn't any more natural than drinking milk from a hyena or a walrus.
Many cultures do not drink animal milk at all. Most Asians are lactose intolerant as well as a good percentage of hispanics. Go to a Chinese or Japanese restaurant and you'll see nothing with milk on the menu. And some people, like the American Indians, never had cows.
Regardless of what the dairy industry would have you beleive, you do not need cow's milk to survive.
No exactly.......conservatives are like a very large ocean (the majority). Those who would like to distinguish themselves (the minority), get out of the ocean, onto the shore and throw rocks back into the ocean.
"Putting children on strict vegan diets is "unethical" and could harm their development, a US scientist has argued."
This is not shocking. The plain truth is humans are omnivores, and need their meats and animal proteins. Vegans are another example of idiots trying to change what is common sense as proven by thousands of years of habits.
"The Vegan Society dismissed the claims, saying its research showed vegans were often healthier than meat eaters."
I can pick out vegans and vegetarians in no time - they look wan, drawn, pale green w/the look of death, and are invariably skinny overall. Not exactly healthy, I think.
"The society does recommend that vegans supplement their diet with vitamin B-12 pills."
Then their whole premise is a sham.
You haven't meant many 7th Day Adventists, I take it. Or Rastafarians. Or Buddhist monks. The Dalai Lama looks quite healthy by the way. So does Paul McCartney.
If we were the majority, Bush would have won by a lot more than 5%. Sadly, it ain't so.
"They were designed to drink their mother's milk, not the milk of another species. Drinking cow's milk isn't any more natural than drinking milk from a hyena or a walrus."
While your post is generally true, it also doesn't consider that milk is naturally available all the time to animals.
Humans, cats, dogs, lots of carnivores will happily drink milks - as well as eat alot of things they'd never find in the wild. In their natural state, they simply don't have the opportunity.
No, I probably haven't.
Most of the veggies I know, I admit, tho, are current or former druggies, and often truly depressed (cause or effect?) - and wearing Goth outfits. It could be a combination of all the above! ;-)
Crap - that should have said naturally NOT available....
Interesting. What kind of insults? Is it a Don Rickles kind of thing??
LOL!
I know there is at least one adult still that they need to get.
The outdoor cats get some birds, moles, and the occasional tree rat.
Brownies....lots of brownies...
ehhh- wrong answer. Cook it until it is well-done. It ain't "blood" anymore.
My dog is surviving on a purely vegetarian diet (well, sometimes I cheat). Going on 2 years and she's only a bit older than that. I have to say she doesn't look or act any differently (except for helping the allergy problem), but the vet has always been concerned about getting some "meat" back in her diet. We just cannot find a way to do it.
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