Posted on 06/11/2008 10:38:39 AM PDT by Dawnsblood
A girl of 12 brought up by her parents on a strict vegan diet has been admitted to hospital with a degenerative bone condition said to have left her with the spine of an 80-year-old.
Doctors are under pressure to report the couple, from Glasgow, to police and social workers amid concerns her health and welfare may have been neglected in pursuit of their beliefs.
The youngster, fed on a strict meat- and dairy-free diet from birth, is being treated at the city’s Royal Hospital for Sick Children. She is said to have a severe form of rickets and to have suffered a number of fractured bones. The condition is caused by a lack of vitamin D, which is needed to absorb calcium and is found in liver, oily fish and dairy produce.
Dr Faisal Ahmed, the consultant treating the child, said he believed the dangers of forcing children to follow a strict vegan diet needed to be highlighted. “Something like this needs publicity,” he said. However, he refused to blame the parents, who are understood to be well-known figures in Glasgow’s vegan community: “We shouldn’t name and shame . Mum feels guilty about the whole thing and feels bad about it.”
Jonathan Sher, head of policy at Children in Scotland, said: “If the consequence of parental behaviour is physical, mental or emotional harm to a child, then the child protection system should become involved.” Bill Aitken, justice spokesman for the Scottish Conservatives, added: “If the youngster is coming to clinical harm, something must be done.”
In 2001, British vegans Hazmik and Garabet Manuelyan, from Staines, were sentenced to three years’ community rehabilitation after they admitted starving daughter Arenai, 10 months, to death. She had been fed nothing but breast milk, raw fruit, vegetables and nuts.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
“its also supplimentally added to milk in the industrialized world, it helps your body absorb and process calcium (found in dairy)”
and also found elsewhere....
Food Amount of Calcium in milligrams (mg)
1 cup of milk 300
6 oz of yogurt 350
1 oz hard cheese (cheddar) 240
2 slices processed cheese 265
1/4 cup cottage cheese 120
1/2 cup soft serve frozen yogurt 100
1/2 cup ice cream 85
1/2 cup tofu 258
1/2 cup pinto beans or chick peas 40
1/4 cup almonds 95
1 Tbsp almond butter 43
Want to see what other foods contain calcium? Then read more
Food Amount of Calcium in milligrams (mg)
1 Tbsp sesame seeds 90
1 Tbsp Tahini 63
1/4 cup Brazil nuts or hazelnuts 55
8 medium sardines (canned) 370
3 oz salmon 180
1/2 cup oysters (canned) 60
1/2 cup shrimp (canned) 40
1/2 cup bok choy 75
1 cup kale 94
1 cup broccoli 178
1 cup celery 54
1 cup cooked green beans 58
1 cup cooked butternut squash 84
1 cup cooked sweet potato 70
1 medium naval orange 56
2/3 cup raisins 53
10 medium dried figs 269
1 cup calcium-fortified orange juice 300
1 cup enriched soy milk 300
1 cup enriched rice milk 300
My Dad’s sister had a grandchild that was being fed vegan and was skinny and always hungry. My aunt kept feeding him real food when the parents were gone. He survived the ordeal and the parents gave up vegan a number of years ago.
I didn’t say CALCIUM.. Calcium is not added to milk, VITAMIN D is added to milk.. You can have all the calcium you want, but if you aren’t getting enough vitamin D it won’t matter... go back and re read my post.
Vitamin D is also produced by your skin when exposed to sunlight.
In the end of the day you don’t cut off a child from dairy and meat.. you are just asking for what has happened to this poor girl.
With the exception of sardines which certainly aren’t vegan, and calcium enriched processed foods, which I’m sure the pure vegans were avoiding as well, none of those food come close to dairy.
You DON”T deny dairy from kids, they need it and vitamin D for their bodies... this girl was clearly denied calcium, or vitamin D or both.
Ron White’s friend was probably having a reaction to the MSG that is in almost all commercially produced beef broth.
Sum ting wong here. Most babies at 10 months are only fed breast milk with a few fruits and veggies introduced. That is not starving a child. There must be a little more to that story.
You mean the stuff our bodies were designed to run on like animal protein and fat? My stock jab at vegantarianists is to ask them what those sharp pointy teeth in the front of their head are designed to do.
Cases like this place what is wrong with parents and people these days. They place THEIR OWN wants, desires, and goals above the health and wlefare of their children. It is a complete breakdown of morals. Everything is about me, me, me, and how I feel. I pity the poor children.
And the animal bones found marked with knives and burned with fire at nearly every human campsite ever uncovered from any time period?
Humans have been meat eaters from the beginning by all evidence.
“Gen 9:3 Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.”
Amen! Why would God make pigs, cows, chickens, sheep, fish, etc. taste so good if we weren’t supposed to eat them? (Now I’ve got a hankerin’ for a big juicy cheeseburger.)
Oh no. Don't tell me you are a Raw Food “Enzyme Potential” nutter.
Please explain to me how the natural enzymes in fruits and vegetables survive being put at the low pH of the stomach? Please explain how humans are incapable of making their own enzymes to perform the task of breaking down macromolecules when appropriate?
That being said, vitamin pills are tested for bioavailability, and the vitamin pills on the market are readily absorbed by the body in physiologically relevant amounts.
“Which deeply held religious beliefs trump a child’s health?”
I can’t think of any that would be acceptable to me, but those parents in the West Bank who strap bombs to their children and send them to their deaths certainly have deeply held beliefs that trump the children’s welfare.
Unlike many, I don’t pretend to understand how it worked, and fully expect evolution to be in there somewhere.
Looks like the liberals in “Great” Britain aren’t safe from the Orwellian tribunals they so much wanted.
The mind reels.
“My stock jab at vegantarianists is to ask them what those sharp pointy teeth in the front of their head are designed to do.”
For eating flesh, of course. They are not called canines for nothing. And we all know canines are primarily flesh eaters.
In Genesis, God gave Noah permission to eat meat after the flood (post flood).
Genesis 9:3 "Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things. "
LOL!
Same here. "Those are for tearing tofu burgers, Jack!"
I presume you know the difference between raising an obese child and starving a child.
Nice try. Better rebuild that straw man for your next argument.
(Professional writer/editor. Typing too quickly while looking over my shoulder :)
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