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.
Well, what can I say, I'm a stinker.
So, you object to someone telling you not to feed them a bottle of lye?
There are a wide variety of opinions, and a wide amount of discretion...but there are limits.
This is a beefsteak tomato.
Learn the difference, or I'm not having salad at your place. ;)
LOL!
"It's like their brains are not firing on all cylinders."
Well, could be the low-grade fuel. Could be timing is retarded or a couple of screws are loose....
So...you want the recipe for my walnut-balls? ;o)
Interesting thing about the change in dietary habits. Liver used to be the choice delicacy...now it's the food few would eat willingly. I suspect it has a lot to do with nutritional cravings. People have no need for the concentrations of fats and things that would drive them to crave something so icky.
There is a world of difference between "vegetarian" and "vegan". I raised my children vegetarian with PLENTY of milk and cheese, and they are strapping healthy adults.
The vegan diet, OTOH, is terrible and unhealthy. Cows were designed to give more milk than the calves need so people can drink it. And people were designed to drink milk.
People are made out of meat too.
It's neither. The verse before it, that every living thing which moves shall be meat for you, clearly eliminates a prohibition on meat.
But life was associated with the blood of animals in the sacrifice. It was the blood of the lamb on the door that saved the Israelites during the passover in Egypt. It was the blood offering that was the sin offering. It's believed that's why cain's offering was rejected, is because it wasn't a blood offering. The whole sacrifice system was to foreshadow Jesus.
I don't know that the Israelites had a prohibition on canibalism, or needed one. They were to bury their dead. You couldn't kill a man, and dead things were unclean, so it was pretty much excluded.
Cats can easily catch the meat they need if they're out in the country. Lizards and flies are meat as well as mice and rats.
Hmmmm. Sounds like Prader-Willi. Generally kids that young CAN'T eat that much even if encouraged to do so.
And how can you get every drop of blood out of meat?
Answer: can't be done.
Insulting? You? Noooo!
:)
If people weren't made to be eaten, why are they made out of meat?
Ideas are coming fast and furious!
My new favorite idea is to have a slot for quarters, placed strategically so when people put a quarter in, they hear an "Ouch, dammit" like it hit me in the head.
This will essentially be a puppet theater with lots of curtains, so you can see there's someone inside but not quite what. Very Oracle at Delphi-ish.
Old joke... I'll eat anything that cant catch a frisbee.
Our oldest child suffered from severe stomach ailments for a time between 6 and 12 months in age. One remedy we tried was switching to skim milk for a time instead of formula (long story, but we had tried a million remedies). Our pediatrician promptly read us the riot act and explained infant nutrition to us.
What he emphasized most was the essential amino acids found only in mother's milk (or formula) and animal flesh. Without these amino acids, a child's brain does not develop fully and there is a lot of maladies that may result in other areas of the body.
Upon further research, we found that without fats from animal milk and flesh, we truely are under nourishing ourselves.
Goat's milk is healthier, but more expensive because they're smaller than cows. Cow milk produces so much extra mucuous at least with me. I wake up coughing, it's digusting. That's why I'm getting rid of it.
Fallacy of False Dichotomy.
Man was made to eat meat, fish and protein. I like the paleothin diet.
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