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Hi all--
I'm new here! I suppose I should have introduced myself elsewhere first, but I just wanted to chime in on this discussion because it's a very interesting subject to me.
These few cases about vegan parents not providing sufficient nutrition for their children have gotten a lot of press--probably an undeserved amount, in my opinion, considering the millions of other instances of severe child abuse that occur every day. It makes me wonder whether, if the media is truly so interested in veganism and those who choose this lifestyle, do we only hear about it when something like this happens?
I am not vegan but I have been very interested in veganism for a number of years (disclaimer--I'm not vegan because I prefer to be flexible with my diet and don't want to put labels on it--I might be eating 99.5% vegan but know that someday in the future I'll want pizza with cheese or whatever. I love eating vegan (if only I could feed my Ligurian herb stuffed ravioli with walnut sauce to the world!!) and find it a very easy and tasty way to eat, however I don't want to make myself feel like a failure should I sometime want something outside of this wide range of food) and have studied vegan nutrition extensively, including nutrition for pregnant vegans and vegan children. I am absolutely convinced that raising a vegan child is not only doable, but is often an excellent choice. Because vegan parents know that certain deficiencies are more likely to occur with a vegan diet than with an omnivorous one, they tend to pay much more attention to what their chilren eat, and from what I've seen, vegan children tend to consume a huge amount of the vitamins, minerals, and various protective phytonutrients that are all too often lacking in children's diets. Their fats tend to be unsaturated from foods flax oil (excellent source of omega 3's that are so important to brain development, by the way), nuts, avocados, etc., and of course plant foods don't contain cholesterol so we don't see vegan children developing atherosclorosis like so many other American children. Also, it's pretty difficult for a child raised on a vegan diet to become overweight and/or to develop type 2 diabetes, which are the problems that we should be focusing on.
It is way too easy to write off a vegan diet as unable to provide sufficient nutrition, but that is very far from the truth. Yes, vegans do need to supplement B-12, but I don't see anybody pointing a finger at everyone else needing to supplement iodine in salt or vitamin D in milk. Incidentally, B-12 is not inherent to animal products; it's produced by bacteria in the soil, which is consumed by animals and transported to us. If we weren't so obsessed with cleanliness, B-12 probably wouldn't be an issue.
Anyway...sorry for the novel. There's just a lot of misinformation out there. If anybody were truly interested in vegan nutrition (instead of just wanting to (no offense) ignorantly bash it), Becoming Vegan and The China Study are fascinating, well researched books on nutrition. And just some anecdotal evidence; my good friend, completely vegan for 15 years, had a baby last fall. He weighed over 8 pounds at birth, has remained right on track with weight gain, is bright, healthy...exactly the child that anybody would wish for. She has breast fed him all the way through (breastfeeding is the preferred way to go for every vegan I've ever talked to) and has had absolutely no trouble producing plenty of milk. This is the story for the 10 or so other vegans I know who have had children within the past few years. They've all chosen to raise their children vegan because they believe it's the best choice--yes, for moral reasons but primarily for health. If you think about it, children don't really ever have a say as to what they eat; they eat what their parents give them. Is it better for the kids to be eating lots of fruit, whole grains, beans, vegetables, and minimally processed fats or something out of a box or bag, pumped full of who knows what?
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