Children at risk

Press, 20 November 1982, Page 10

Children at risk

Professor

Don Beaven

Macrobiotics, a diet in which no animal or processed foods are eaten, can ? retard children’s growth. A

Food

Malnourished . children have been admitted to hospital in New Zealand. Where there is no disease present, alterations in dietary intake are suspected and a full dietary history or investigation is undertaken. Sometimes these small children are from vegan families where the dietary and nutritional knowledge is insufficient to counter the lack of any animal products such as milk, cheese, and eggs. While those who do not believe in killing and eating animals for food are probably increasing in numbers in New Zealand, most of these people are vegetarians and not vegans. The former can, and usually do, maintain adequate protein intake from cheese, eggs, nuts, and milk. Intelligent families with a good educational standard can provide the necessary variety of food choices for vegetarian children. Disadvantaged children such as those from some solo parent families or too young parents may, however, be at risk of nutritional deficiencies if the economic climate becomes more difficult., A Careful study A large-scale nutritional study on vegetarian children has recently been reported from Boston. In the introduction to their report. Professor Johanna Dwyer, who is Director of the Francis Stern Nutrition Centre and leads a Tufts New England" Medical research group, makes the point that there is very little reliable scientific data on such children. Unlike the scene in New Zealand, in the United States there has been a great deal of interest in the dietary

goals suggested by the United States Senate select committee.

Not only interest, but also a considerable change in behaviour. One result of the American reduction of intake of animal fats and butter may have been a contributory factor to the decrease in mortality from coronary heart disease. Another result is a steady shift towards a higher vegetable intake and more vegetarianism. The more extreme or vegan type of vegetarianism leads to ' what are called “macrobiotics.” Vegan diets are those in which no animal products are consumed. Macrobiotics appears to be a philosophy where no foods are. eaten which have been processed through factories or have added chemical fertilisers during their growth. The Boston group of workers carefully studied 39

children. They were able to compare children eating standard vegetarian diets, children from vegan families, and a group of children ■from families who had adopted the philosophy known as macrobiotics. Extreme vegetarianism As would be expected, all groups had a higher intake of carbohydrate than suggested by the United States dietary goals. The vegetarians’ dietary intakes met or exceeded the nutritional recommendations, except in the vegan or macrobiotic groups. These groups had half the recommended levels for vitamin D and vitamin 812, and below the recommended intakes for zinc, calcium, and riboflavin. There was also doubt about the adequacy of bioavailable iron. When blood levels of nutrients were measured some of the macrobiotic children had lower levels of vitamin A. When careful measurements were made on height, weight, and bone age, it was . concluded that children from macrobiotic arid vegan families were shorter than would have been expected from the height of their parents. Conclusions The vegetarian children who had milk, cheese, eggs, had a generally satisfactory nutritional and general health, status. It should be noted, however, that these families had been having regular and sympathetic counselling sessions with the nutrition centre in the previous few years. These parents were presumably knowledgeable and extremely well informed. It was also concluded that children subjected to vegan or macrobiotic diets needed to be given on going health supervision by a pediatrician. New Zealand does not have strong macrobiotic' groups, but the message is clear. Moderate and wellinformed parents with liberal vegetarian views will allow vegetarian children to grow up healthy even if a little shorter than average. Extreme nutrition groups can damage their children’s health, and will need extra nutritional assistance and medical help. These latter two conditions may not be always met, and hence the occasional child victim in our hospitals. Not from the. violence of their parents but tragically due to the extreme views and lack of knowledge of otherwise devoted parents.