January is upon us once again. A time for guilty post-Christmas self-flagellation. Veganuary is in full swing, and many parents are considering switching their family to a plant-only diet. The media is fearful to argue for the impacts this can have on development, so you probably want to know exactly what a vegan child lacks…
There are a number of nutrients and essential components that are scarce, or non-existent in a vegan diet. These include DHA omega-3 fatty acids, collagen and zinc. Some, such as vitamin B12, cannot be ingested without supplementation, proving the unsustainable nature of the diet.
Why would you raise a child vegan?
As the vegan message gets louder and they gain more media and commercial attention, some parents are passing their “compassionate” and “natural” values on to their young children. The core belief of veganism is that the exploitation of animals is wrong. Now, we can all agree, I’m sure, that there are obviously forms of animal exploitation. However, eating sustainably raised- grass-fed, pasture-raised etc, not factory farmed- animals is not only natural for humans, but it’s far more compassionate and good for animals as a whole than conventional veganism.
I could carry on but that’ll have to be for another post!
Another popular reason is for apparent health benefits concerned with a plant-only diet, which is what this article will focus on. To understand how veganism took the moral high ground on nutritional health, we need to know how meat became vilified.
Read here to learn about why industrial plant products were chosen over meat, and why we suffer from that decision now.
This isn’t a stab at vegans or vegan parents. I understand that most, especially early vegans, get into it for the right reasons. Unfortunately, vegan propaganda is everywhere and is now taken verbatim. Vegan parents choose to not feed their children meat because they think it’s better for the animals, the planet and most of all, the child. Forget the first two, for now, but what does a vegan child lack that is essential for their proper growth?
What does a vegan child lack?
1. Collagen
Collagen is used to make connective tissue and is the major component in skin, muscles, bone, tendons and cartilage. It’s in so much that it’s the most abundant protein in the body. Collagen is a popular supplement at the moment in the beauty industry because it makes tissues strong and able to withstand stretching. But not only does it make your hair, nails and skin look nicer, it’s absolutely essential during childhood.
Unsurprisingly, seeing as so much of their body is made of it, adequate collagen is vital for growth. Children are in a state of pure growth, and to be able to sustain it they need the materials to repair and create the tissues.
How does the body get collagen? You can get collagen by eating it through foods such as:
- Bone Broth
- Connective tissues (tendons, oxtail, pork rind etc)
- Egg yolks
Obviously, some people have been vegan for years and are still able to make the collagen they need. Also, there are many people eating a poor quality diet that doesn’t contain sufficient collagen to keep their tissues in optimum condition. To get around this, our bodies can convert vitamin C into collagen. But the natural way humans are supposed to build our tissues is by eating it directly(1).
To increase uptake of this vital protein, there are supplements. I don’t like to use many but, for example, if my son is going through a particularly fussy stage, I sprinkle some collagen powder from grass-fed cows in some yoghurt or porridge- foods he always eats. Here are some examples available on amazon:
2. Saturated Fat
Yes, that’s right. Saturated fat is vital for health and is almost non-existent in a vegan diet. Your child needs it to form their hormones, build cell membranes and to grow their brain.
As they’re naturally anti-inflammatory, saturated fats promote a positive environment for your endocrine system to function correctly. It also contains fat soluble vitamins (A,D,E,K) which are needed for hormone health. In your son’s interest as well, is how saturated fat affects testosterone and the steroid hormones. Since the 1980’s, mens serum testosterone levels have been dropping as our society has decreased saturated fat. These fatty, healthy foods are usually replaced with high carbohydrate (sugar) meals. Seeing as sugar also reduces testosterone, it’s a good idea, for your pre-teen or teenage son especially, to eat a diet high in animal fat and low in sugar.
The membranes that wrap around each individual cell not only hold all the important parts inside, but control the transfer of things in and out of the cell. Eating inadequate levels of saturated fat means that these membranes are made up of less stable fatty acids (poly-unsaturated, mono-unsaturated and trans) which weakens the membrane and affects the health of the cell(2).
3. Vitamin B12
A vegan diet is completely devoid of vitamin B12 without supplementation. Which shows how nonsensical it is for anyone to state that veganism is the natural human diet. B12 is absolutely essential for brain development. A deficiency in children is associated with low IQ, speech and language issues, and mental illnesses from depression and social delays to more serious conditions.
B12 deficiency symptoms can be confused with autism. Unfortunately, B12 levels are very rarely checked, so children may have been diagnosed with autism when in fact their poor diet led them to have an underdeveloped brain.
It needs to be stated that it’s not only a vegan diet that is a risk factor for B12 deficiency. The standard western diet that prioritises grains over grass-fed meats leaves people thinking that their children are eating healthy, but infact they’re missing out on an essential nutrient. Low quality grain-fed meat eaters are also at risk, as grain is terrible for their health as well as ours. So the meat can be low in B12(3).
Read here to learn more about how vitamin B12 is vital for your son’s brain.
4. Vitamin D
The majority of vitamin D is synthesised by exposing your child’s skin to sunlight. Read more about the importance of sunlight here.
But for those living in northern regions such as the UK, Northern Europe and Asia/, and Canada, the exposure isn’t sufficiently strong enough during the winter months. This means that to get adequate vitamin D, it’s important to eat a high vitamin D diet, or supplement if necessary. Supplementation shouldn’t be used to cover up a bad diet or a lazy parent!
Vitamin D deficiency in children affects bone and brain development and immune health. Severe deficiency can lead to rickets due to the effect it has on bone mineralisation. It has also been associated with several diseases and mental health issues.
5. DHA
Omega-3 is one of the essential fatty acids. It’s split into 3 types: ALA, EPA and DHA. ALA is fairly easy to get on a vegan diet from things like walnuts and chia seeds, however getting the other two is difficult when not eating animals. There is a process that converts ALA to EPA but not necessarily to DHA. The results from studies are completely mixed, and some fail to show that you can convert ALA to DHA at all. Meaning that you can be feeding your child a vegan diet, be plugging it into a food app to make sure they’re getting enough omega-3, but really they are seriously lacking DHA.
This is important for vegans- and those considering feeding their children vegan- to know because a significant amount of our brain is made up of DHA. It has been called the ‘happy fat’, as low levels have been linked to depression and anxiety and general cognitive development and function.
If someone is committed to being vegan, they should either be re-educated, or convinced to take a DHA supplement that may not be vegan. There are some seaweeds and algaes that contain DHA but these are usually fairly unavailable for the average consumer in their pure form. Algae supplements are popular among vegans as a ‘natural’ way to increase DHA, however the ingredients often contain inflammatory plant oils, as well as severely toxic ingredients such as aldehydes(4). As is often the case,the simplest answer is usually the best. Feed them good quality fatty meats! DHA is found in grass-fed beef and lamb as well as wild caught fatty fish like mackerel and salmon(5).
6. Zinc
Zinc is a critical mineral for your teenage son. It’s vital for:
- DNA formation
- Cell growth
- Building and healing tissues
- Supporting immune system
- Sex hormones and sexual maturation
Zinc deficiency is most prevalent in places where the population eat less animal products and more grains. Even if zinc intake is theoretically adequate, phytic acid- found in whole grains, seeds and legumes- inhibits absorption. So it’s hard to know whether your son is deficient if he overeats plant foods and under-eats animal foods.
Your son’s diet is especially important during his teenage years. This is a major growth phase, and a lack of any essential nutrients during this time is harmful. A lack of zinc during adolescence- and pre-adolescence- can slow sexual maturation and overall growth and development(6).
Teenage years are a time when it’s common to rebel against the norm and try to ‘make your mark’. It’s a time when they’ll be pressured to lower their meat intake for the planet or the animals. But its important for parents to know how vital it is that they maintain a healthy human-specific diet, and guide them.
Zinc is found in shellfish and grass-fed meat. Organs also contain good levels of zinc. To keep my levels up I take APE Nutritions ‘Optimised Male’ organ supplement every morning.
These freeze dried ancestral supplements are a great way to get a variety of human-specific foods in every day. Have a look at their full range and see how they can help you and your son thrive. If you use the link below I get a small commission, but I can’t recommend them enough.
7. The Truth
Everybody likes to think that they’re compassionate. A lot of families try veganuary or go fully vegan because the parents believe that eating meat is cruel, and they want to pass that message on to their children. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. I think that we should live closer to how we were designed- more in balance with nature and the other animals we share the planet with. But the organisations that promote veganism are a massive obstacle to that idea.
The big arable and sugar companies destroy the environment and kill countless animals to turn huge areas into mono-crop farms. The whole process of this isn’t designed to be sustainable. The ideal conditions, in the companies’ eyes, is for these crops to grow with no interference from ‘pests’ like animals and insects. The use of pesticides is wide-spread, and the unsustainable way of farming means that the soil is damaged, sometimes irreparably. Even the process of planting and harvesting the crops requires the whole ecosystem to be destroyed. Compare that to a field of cows or sheep. They eat the grass and are, largely, left to their own devices. Other animals- except maybe badgers- are free to roam, and no artificial treatments can be used on the grass because it would affect the health of the animals.
But aren’t most crops fed to livestock?
This may be true- it also may not be. However, this still isn’t sustainable and it isn’t what I would advocate for. Eating pasture-raised animals is the most sustainable way to eat. They eat the grass, which we can’t eat anyway, and their excrement feeds the soil, boosting the health of the natural ecosystem. The figures concerning how many animals are killed when producing crops are all over the place. But even if we take it that a handful of animals are killed while producing grains and vegetables, I would still argue that the most vegan way you can feed your child is by eating a single grass-fed cow as a family over the course of a year. That’s one death. If the answer to compassion is simply minimum deaths, then this is surely the way to do it.
Although for many I imagine that they choose not to do this because it’s more the connection they feel with an animal when they eat it. They are happy to forget about the, potentially, hundreds of animals that have died so they can eat plants. But the thought of eating a steak that has come from a cow that they could look in the eyes and see as cute triggers their ‘compassion’.
Vegan for the animals? Or vegan for themselves? Propaganda is everywhere. Remember there are some extremely powerful organisations that benefit from plant-based eating. Don’t be a slave.
Caveat
It isn’t only a vegan diet that causes deficiencies. The standard modern diet is terrible. But all of the processed junk that is marketed towards us, and especially towards children, comes from this idea that meat is bad and plants are good. That’s how we get to a society hooked on sugar, vegetable oils and refined grains. So I’m not having a go at vegan parents. I think that they’ve not benefited from honest information for the last couple of generations.
I completely disagree with the concept of factory and intensive animal farming. If veganism can get rid of that then great. However, I fear that all that will happen is the large animal agriculture origanisations will keep going selling cheap , low quality meat-bad for everyone. And the only ones hurt will be the small-time farmers that raise the quality healthy meat we need.
Summary
Do veganuary yourself if you want, but be very careful before submitting your young child to it.
Collagen is a protein that so many people lack in their diet, especially vegans and vegetarians. Make your own stews with bone broth stock and tougher (and cheaper) meats.
Saturated fat is essential for the health of our cells and hormones. Most fats on a vegan diet are unsaturated.
B12 is essential for energy and for brain growth. A diet that lacks B12 is not suitable for a human being.
Low vitamin D is associated with mental health issues and low immunity. If you don’t get enough sunshine, you must eat foods high in vitamin D.
Children need DHA for a healthy brain. DHA is abundant in grass-fed meats and seafood but is very difficult to get in plant-only diets, without supplementation.
Zinc is critical for adolescence- and all growth stages. It is needed for tissue repair and growth as well as sex hormones and normal sexual maturation. Phytic acid, found in plants, inhibits zinc absorption.
Eating one grass-fed cow at a time is the most vegan way you can eat, if animal suffering is your main priority.
Raise Your Legacy.
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