The Royal Academy of Medicine of Belgium prohibits the vegan diet for children and pregnant or breastfeeding women.
More and more frequently imposed by parents on their infants, the vegan diet is to be avoided for children and pregnant or breastfeeding women, according to the Royal Academy of Medicine of Belgium (ARMB). “This restrictive diet requires permanent medical monitoring of the children”, deplore the experts in the preamble.
Psychomotor delays
Essential vitamins such as D and B12, calcium or even trace elements and nutrients are absent from this diet. “We are talking about delays in growth in stature and weight and psychomotor delays, malnutrition, significant anemia, explains Isabelle Thiébaut, pediatric dietician who collaborated in the drafting of the ARMB opinion. Certain developments must be made at a specific moment in life and if they don’t happen, it’s irreversible”. Excesses in potassium and fiber are also observed when vegetables represent too large a part of the diet.
“When you are a child, the body manufactures brain cells in particular. This implies greater needs for proteins and essential fatty acids. The body does not produce them, they must be provided via animal proteins. Veganism is not indicated neither for a child nor for a pregnant or breastfeeding woman”, note the experts.
Remove guardianship from parents
The Belgian delegate for the rights of the child Bernard Devos even proposes to withdraw guardianship from parents who impose a vegan diet on their children. “Health personnel are sometimes confronted with a real ethical problem. We leave a certain latitude, we try to explain to parents the risks of such a diet, but what to do when we believe that they have a dangerous attitude for their child’s health?” asks Professor Georges Casimir, Pediatrician at theHUDERF. In the United States, a five-month-old baby in a serious state of malnutrition was recently narrowly saved, and his two parents arrested: all following a vegan diet.
Veganism is a way of life consisting of not consuming any product derived from animals or their exploitation. Its adoption generally stems from an ideology that challenges the domination of humans over animals.
5% of French people are vegetarians or vegans
Beyond the adoption of a vegan food practice (which excludes meat and fish, but also dairy products, eggs and honey), veganism excludes the consumption of any other product derived from animals, their exploitation or tested on them (leather, fur, wool, silk, beeswax, cosmetics and medicines tested on animals or containing animal substances).
5% of French people are vegetarians or vegans, according to a survey conducted in 2017 by the institute for marketing studies and opinion polls Harris Interactive. 30% are flexitarians and 50% say they want to increase their consumption of plant products.
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