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Nutritionist against a vegan diet Pure vegetable food unhealthy for children?
More and more people in Germany feed themselves without animal products. Many children nowadays grow up with purely plant-based nutrition. Federal Nutrition Minister Christian Schmidt (CSU), however, says vegan food is not good for children and adolescents. The Bavarian politician warned of a possible malnutrition.
More and more people live without animal products
The number of people who live vegan for moral and ethical reasons is increasing. Also, the offspring of parents who eat purely vegetable, often lives without animal products. Nutrition and health professionals have many tips on what parents should consider when taking their children's vegan diet. However, some people basically see it as a problem when the little ones grow up vegan. So is pure plant-based diet from view of Federal Minister of Food Christian Schmidt (CSU) nothing for children and adolescents. "Vegan food can lead to dangerous malnutrition - especially in children," said the Bavarian politician to the "Bild".
Vegan diet can lead to deficiency symptoms in children, warns the Federal Minister of Food Christian Schmidt (CSU). Vegans should avoid vitamin B12 deficiency
Above all, a lack of vitamin B12 could be harmful. According to a message from the dpa news agency, Schmidt calls for a school subject that teaches balanced nutrition. There are, of course, ways to find out on the internet which foods contain the most nutrients and how vegans can prevent a vitamin B-12 deficiency. According to estimates by the Vegetarian Federation (Vebu), more and more Germans refrain from using animal products such as meat, milk and eggs. About 1.1 percent of the German population lives vegan.
Large supply of dietary supplements
Vitamin B12 is considered to be a critical nutrient in a purely plant-based diet as it is naturally contained almost exclusively in animal products. Therefore, the supply of dietary supplements or fortified products for vegans is quite large. According to the German Society for Nutrition (DGE), children who are purely vegan have an increased risk of deficiencies because of the special nutrient requirements in growth - also because they could store vitamin B12 worse than adults. Therefore, delayed growth and neurological symptoms threatened. And also for brain development relevant nutrients such as iodine and polyunsaturated fatty acids are not included in vegan diet or not in sufficient quantities, as the nutritionist Helmut Heseker (University of Paderborn) explained according to dpa.
"A very clever selection" of vegetable foods
Although there are no numbers to vegan-fed children. "Paediatricians see in everyday practice but again and again children whose physical development is in the lower limits of normal or below, and that is often behind a vegan diet," said Heseker. Even pregnant and breastfeeding rate the DGE from vegan diet. Mathilde Kersting, Managing Director of the Research Institute for Child Nutrition (FKE) in Dortmund, said that those who want to eat vegan food would have to make "a very skilful selection" of plant foods, but often deviate from the local dietary habits. She gave as an example the combination of cereals and legumes. The fact that legumes are healthy was also recently discussed by the UN. The organization launched 2016 as the International Year of Legumes. According to the agency message, veganism can only be tolerated in children if critical nutrients are added. Kersting advises parents who want to give their child a vegetable diet to seek advice from the pediatrician. The FKE recommends a balanced mixed diet for children. Although this should contain a lot of vegetable, but also about meat, milk and eggs. (Ad)