Transcript Episode 16 - Is a vegan diet for kids cruel and dangerous? Here are 3 Facts & Myths

Karla Moreno-Bryce: Whether you choose to raise your kids on a vegan diet for ethical reasons or for health reasons or environmental reasons or all the above, you may know that feeding your kids a vegan diet can support their growth and development. Many of you on this journey may already be feeling like it’s morally right to raise vegan kids and just an obvious choice, especially if you yourself have been following a vegan diet for a while now. 

You and I both know that a vegan diet can meet our kids nutritional needs so that their bodies grow strong and healthy. It’s no surprise that this is why more and more families are raising their kids vegan because you know that you can follow your values and align them with your diet in a way that is nutritionally adequate for everyone in your family—whether they are 2 weeks old or 16 years old. 

However, many outside the vegan community continue to question whether a vegan diet is actually nutritionally adequate for a child, and question whether it’s a healthy diet to follow throughout childhood. One of their biggest concerns is whether following a vegan diet long-term can be sustainable for health. In addition, there’s the misconception that a vegan diet is more expensive than an omnivore diet and thus makes a vegan diet unsustainable. Now, with inflation and the rise of food cost aside, we know that this isn’t true. 

So, in today’s episode, I’m breaking down the myths that we commonly hear about raising and feeding vegan kids. Myths like kids needing meat in their diet to grow healthfully, that it’s cruel and may even be dangerous to raise a vegan child, and that a vegan diet is not practical and expensive for families. By dispelling these myths, I want to be clear that this is different from saying a vegan diet is better than an omnivore diet, or any other diet for that matter. While there’s research saying that a diet centered around plant-based foods brings nutritional and health benefits, there’s no data that actually shows which diet is best for humans. 

Today’s episode is a bit of an extension to Episode 1 where I talk about when a vegan diet may be unsafe for growing children and strategies on how you can prevent that by focusing on a few key things in your meal planning, such as calories. So, if you’re interested in hearing more about those tips and need a bit of encouragement that you can raise a healthful vegan child, go take a listen to episode 1. I’ll leave the link to that episode in the show notes. 

Alright, let’s talk about the first myth many of us hear from others that meat or dairy is needed in a child’s diet to grow healthfully. Before we dive into this I want to first answer the question of why meat and dairy products? Why is meat and dairy so central to society’s meal plan? And my first initial thought is for survival. We need food to survive right. Meat and dairy have become part of our food system that provides us with vitamins, minerals, and other key macro nutrients to thrive. They are central to recommendations set by governmental and other nutrition-related institutions. And yet, we don’t need them. 

Some argue that because a child doesn’t consume meat and dairy, their diet is too low in vitamin B12, iron, protein, and omega-3 fatty acids. And while these nutrients are important for young children, they don’t need to meet these nutrients by consuming meat, dairy or any other animal-based food. 

These key nutrients are found in some plant foods, where animals don’t have to be harmed for the purpose of sustaining a child’s growth. That’s the beauty of a vegan diet. It’s plant foods like beans, tofu, chia seeds, and quinoa to name a few that help a child meet their iron and protein needs without ever having to consume any product or by-product that came from an animal. 

And I’m not just saying that because I’m a vegan registered dietitian but it’s actually supported by research studies and health organizations. 

I often hear that children need meat because it’s a superior source for meeting iron needs compared to sources from plants. And I disagree with that argument because we know from research that those who consume plant-based foods consume as much iron, if not more, than those who eat an omnivore diet. The VeChi Diet Study is a cross-sectional study that examined the diet of 430 German children between the ages of 1 to 3 years old who were either vegetarian, vegan, or followed an omnivore diet. They found that vegan children had the highest intake of iron compared to the rest of the children. That’s incredible right? Vegan children actually consume more iron from plant-based foods than children who consume animal-based foods. 

While the bioavailability of nonheme iron (or the rate of absorption) in plant-based foods is lower compared to heme iron from meat (absorption 2–5% vs. ca. 20% in heme iron), it’s more advantageous to consume non-heme iron from plants than heme iron from meat products. And this is because our bodies only absorb the non-heme iron that it needs. So, depending on your child’s iron stores, their iron absorption is regulated by how much iron they have stored. 

Now, absorption can vary greatly as it depends on the types of foods consumed at the meal, cooking practices used, the composition of the meal as a whole and the iron status of your child. So, there’s a lot of factors that play a role in how well your child absorb iron from the foods they consume. But, your child can meet their iron needs from plant foods. And we dive into this topic in more detail inside the Vegan Kids Nutrition Blueprint course because iron is such an important nutrient for growing children. There isn’t a time in our life that we need the most iron than in our childhood and later in our adolescence years. 

So, with the right practices and meal planning, your child can meet their iron and protein needs on a vegan diet without the need for meat or dairy products in their diet. There’s a false belief that only meat and dairy products can effectively meet a child’s nutritional needs. 

Alright, the second myth that I want to debunk is the idea that raising a vegan child is cruel and may even be dangerous. Now, let’s define cruel and dangerous here for a bit. According to Merriam-Webster, cruel is defined as “disposed to inflict pain or suffering” and dangerous is defined as “involving possible injury, pain, harm or loss”. Now, I don’t know about you, but the desire to provide a healthful diet and the best possible nutritional outcome to our vegan children is far from these definitions. No parent wants to intentionally inflict pain or suffering to our children and providing a dietary pattern centered around plants that is well-balanced and supplemented is far from involving any harm. 

What is cruel and dangerous is the inhumane treatment to non-human animals that are sent to slaughterhouses for food consumption. And that’s something that the majority of society fails to understand. Farm animals like pigs, cows, and chickens to name a few are among the most abused creatures on earth. I would argue that those that consume animal-based products like meat and cow’s milk play a part in the pain and suffering farm animals endured. And we know that one of the biggest industries that is involved in this pain and suffering is the animal agriculture. It doesn’t extend this to just animals but humans too. Workers, who are primarily individuals of color, suffer greatly in their job. They work long hours and suffer trauma from the abuse that is inflicted in animals. 

So, if others presume that we as parents raising vegan children are being cruel and providing a diet that may be considered dangerous, I don’t believe it. Research shows that consuming a plant-based diet helps reduce the risk of several chronic diseases, leads to a higher intake of antioxidants and fiber, and may lead to a more healthful and long life. All while extending compassion to farm animals by not exploiting them for food, clothing, or entertainment.

In choosing to raise a vegan family, we are making an impact to end the oppression of humans and non-human animals; to end injustice and in doing so, we are paving a more impactful path for the future of our children and generations to come. We’re creating change. Change that brings sustainability, happiness, and growth. 

And now the third and last myth I want to share is that a vegan diet is not practical and can also be expensive for families. I’m not entirely sure where this belief comes from. Perhaps it has to do with the meat analogs or other meat alternatives which can be relatively high. Food prices can dictate a food or product choice, especially with high food cost these days with inflation but as a whole, a vegan diet can be affordable compared to that of an omnivore diet. 

Some families follow a mixed dietary pattern at home, like maybe several family members eat meat products and others eat more plant based foods, and perhaps what is observed with the overall family’s food budget is that animal-based foods make up a large portion of the family’s food cost. If a family following a vegan diet consumed primarily legumes, grains, fruits and vegetables, these are foods that are reasonably priced. Legumes and grains tend to be some of the least expensive foods, which happens to be great sources of iron and protein for vegan kids. 

There is limited data on the food costs of plant-based diets compared to an omnivore diet but the veCHI Youth study found that following a vegetarian diet was the least expensive compared to an omnivore or vegan diet. I’ll spare you all the details of how they analyzed and weighed food from children and adolescence to come to that conclusion but it was interesting to see that although the average calorie intake per day was highest for vegan diets, followed by omnivore diets, and vegetarian participants. However, the daily food cost differed significantly between the diets. They found that food cost was comparable between the vegan and omnivore diets. And it had primarily to do with their overall caloric intake. Vegans had the highest intake of fruits and starchy foods where the omnivore diet had the highest intake of meat products and sweet and snack foods. 

Now, this data comes from German children and adolescents, so it would be interesting to see if this type of research can be expanded to international countries. But despite having limited data, we see that following a vegan diet isn’t that much more expensive than an omnivore diet. So, once again, this idea that raising vegan kids is expensive isn’t truly factual as the research doesn’t support it. 

Raising your child on a vegan diet brings benefits to their health but also to humans and non-human animals. And parents like you who are informed about how to ensure key nutrients are met throughout each stage of their child’s growth, tend to raise children confidently on a vegan lifestyle—no matter what others say about your choice. Where you can confidently feed your kids knowing that they’re getting the nutrition they need. Rather than feeling worried if you’re missing a key nutrient or making sure you’re providing the right portion sizes or unsure of what supplements your vegan child needs, you feel more empowered in your child’s nutrition. One where you live a life of purpose because you have peace of mind that the foods and meals you’re preparing for your child are supporting their growth. And that’s where the Vegan Kids Nutrition Blueprint can help you. 

It provides the information and tools you need to ensure that your child is meeting their key nutrients while following a vegan diet so that you can feel confident feeding your kids at each stage of growth. So, come join me inside the Blueprint course because inside the members only community I and other vegan parents are there to support you every step of the way. You can join using the link in the show notes. 

Alright my friend, I hope that today’s episode gives you more clarity of how a well-balanced and supplemented vegan diet can be a healthful way of life for your child, your family and that of animals. Children do not need meat or dairy to support their growth and development, plants can wonderfully do that and it is not cruel or harmful. On the contrary, it’s a more compassionate dietary pattern that we should feel proud of. So, thank you for choosing to raise your family on a vegan diet. I’ll see you in the next episode. Bye for now.