Children Can Also Be Vegan
Every so often controversy arises and we ask ourselves, can children eat a healthy vegan diet? Of course yes!
The pediatric team at Hospital Sant Joan de Deu has warned that more and more children with nutritional deficiencies are being cared for due to a vegan, gluten-free or lactose-free diet. This is being used by many detractors of veganism to demonize this more respectful lifestyle with the planet and with the animals.
We experienced this same situation when several cases of children with nutritional deficiencies reached the Italian courts.
Can kids be vegan?
You do not have to be vegan to follow an unbalanced diet that causes significant nutritional deficiencies. There are many people who eat a diet that is harmful to their health and who suffer the consequences of it, but this is never attributed to their omnivorous lifestyle.
” Everyone can follow a vegan diet, even children, as long as it is well done,” says Àlex Vidal, professor of nutrition at the Open University of Catalonia (UOC). Other nutritionists focus on a healthy and balanced diet, regardless of whether you choose to restrict animal products.
The key to a healthy diet, vegan or not, is to consume all the essential nutrients in their proper proportion.
What foods can not be missing in the diet of a vegan child?
Parents must ensure that their children’s diet is healthy and balanced. It is undeniable that children have a very high energy expenditure; between school, extracurricular activities, homework and games do not stop all day. For this reason we must choose very energetic foods such as cereals.
Other foods that can not be missing in the diet of a vegan child are fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts and vitamin B12.
In conclusion, the vegan diet is suitable for all stages of life, as long as attention is paid to eating a healthy diet.
