Children who follow a vegetarian diet would grow identically to children who eat meat. But they are twice as likely to be underweight.
- The vegetarian diet would not disturb the growth of young children
- On the other hand, children who do not eat meat are more likely to be underweight, which is a sign of malnutrition.
Can making young children follow a vegetarian diet affect their growth? The answer is “no” according to a study by researchers at St Michael’s Hospital in Toronto. But this work published in the journal Pediatrics still shows that this diet increases the risk of being underweight.
It was by evaluating the data of nearly 9,000 children aged 6 months to eight years from the TARGet Kids cohort study collected between 2008 and 2019 that the scientists came to these results. The children were categorized into two groups, one consisting of those who followed a vegetarian diet excluding meat and the other of those who were non-vegetarians. Children in the vegetarian group had body mass index, rail, iron, vitamin D and cholesterol levels similar to those found in children who ate meat.
“This study demonstrates that Canadian children who follow a vegetarian diet have growth and biochemical measures of nutrition similar to those of children who follow a non-vegetarian diet“, emphasizes Dr. Jonathan Maguire, lead author of the study.
Underweight, an indicator of undernutrition
But… the data analyzed also reveals that children following a vegetarian diet are twice as likely to be underweight. And this underweight is an indicator of undernutrition and a sign that the quality of the child’s diet does not correspond to his nutritional needs for normal growth. This represents a serious “flat” on the lack of impact on the growth and development of vegetarian practice in children! “This higher likelihood of being underweight requires careful dietary planning for naturally underweight children who would consider following a vegetarian diet.“, warns Dr. Maguire.
The impact of vegan diets has not been evaluated
This does not prevent him from estimating that “vegetarian diets seem to be suitable for most children and since they are mainly plant-based, they are recognized as a healthy way of eating due to increased consumption of fruits, vegetables, fiber, whole grains and a reduction in saturated fat“. But his study nevertheless specifies that the quality of vegetarian diets has not been taken into account while these “come in many forms and that the quality of the individual diet can be very important for growth“And moreover, this work did not assess the impact on the growth of young children of vegan diets, which are even more restrictive than vegetarian diets since they rule out all products of animal origin such as dairy products or eggs.
-1604670325.jpg "Dietary deficiencies have caused young people in some countries to lose 20cm")
