Reality TV star Bethenny Frankel talks about raising her daughter Bryn as a vegetarian in a new entry on her website. Do you agree with initiating an organic vegetarian diet for you child from birth?
I eat almost everything, but I eat a mostly vegetarian diet. However, I occasionally eat meat if I’m really craving it or if there is literally nothing else around, but I’m fortunate to love vegetables, grains and all things healthy. As a child, I ate sushi, escargot, venison– anything and everything. I wasn’t squeamish about food and I’m proud to say that I’ve never ordered off of a children’s menu in my entire life.
When I took on the responsibility of Bryn’s diet, it took some planning and consideration, but mostly common sense. I knew she wouldn’t be a children’s menu child either. I often see 13-year-olds who only eat pizza or pasta noodles with butter and so many other adolescents who are picky about food. Food can be such a great passion, a conversation piece, a part of traveling to different places and an overall connection to others.
Thoughts???
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
there is a difference between vegetarian and vegan diets, obviously. vegan diets are dangerous for children as they tend to be nutritionally deficient (unless you’re careful) and can stunt growth or impair immunity/health.
vegetarian diets, which include some milk, eggs, and/or fish, provide the additional protein needed for growth, and the omega 3s in fish are critically important for optimal brain development.
Humans are naturally omnivores, it’s just that westerners eat TOO MUCH MEAT (and too much processed sugar) at the expense of plant foods.
Vegan is the best diet for any human. Infants included. My son was nursed by his mother and then was vegan for 9 months. He has always been above the 100 percentile in height. He excels at sports and has never been hurt. **knocks on wood**
you’re wrong about vegan being the best diet. you post only anecdotal evidence (yours) and not widespread evidence.
all evidence (collected for tens of thousand of people and over 40 years) indicates that vegan diets are not ideal for longevity or immunity. a vegetarian diet with small amounts of protein from animal sources produces the longest lived- healthiest people. (with animal sourced food amount to about 10% of calories).
the longest lived people on this planet (okinawans) are not vegans. nor are the seventh day adventists. nor are any of the blue zone people.
i can post anecdotal studies too. I was never sick as a child. when chicken pox swept through my school like a contagion – mad kids missed days of school. my back itched for like 30 minutes and that was it. at 25 and no longer training – i still run a 4.45 40 and have a 38 inch standing vertical leap and keep 7-8% body fat. I don’t eat fast food – but otherwise eat whatever. as a kid my favorite food was frosted flakes with milk that i put extra sugar on.
these come from genetics. every male in my family is a health and athletic freak. my nephew is 13 and runs a 4.5 40 and is already 6’2″ and change.
a simple google search will show how many parents in the US have been INDICTED because their babies DIED from vegan diets. DIED.
That’s dangerous shit. Good luck to you.
Food is big money. The data you are reading is tainted. If done properly vegan diets are fine for anyone.
wrong. i personally worked on data acquisition and analysis for one such project. not to mention that i still spend 6 months out of the year in japan where I collect data for another non-profit longevity project.
what’s flawed is your BELIEF – with NO DATA AT ALL.
but you seem to FEEL like you know something. so good luck to you. no good deed goes unpunished apparently – so who am I to tell you different about what you FEEL you know?
godspeed.
Yes. Why not?
I eat humans for lunch and dinner, and babies for breakfast.
Yuck… who put all of those vegetables in my chubby baby stew.
nice
Over 400,000,000 (more than the entire US population) East Indians are vegetarians and they are the worlds fastest growing populous.
Vegetarian diets are associated with lower levels of obesity and reduced risk of cardiovascular disease (which kills 25% of Americans every year).
The American Dietetic Association considers well-planned vegan diets “appropriate for all stages of the life cycle, including pregnancy and lactation”.
So kindly GTFOH anon, thanks.
No asshole you GTFOH.
You DON’T KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN VEGETARIAN AND VEGAN.
Learn the terms and then restate your assumptions homo.
and asshole, if your kid was breastfed – he’s not a vegan DUMMY.
You’re overmatched and underarmed.
Wow, way to keep your kid on a tight leash from the get go. I’m not opposed to vegetarianism at all, but it’s a choice. We should all have the freedom to make that choice when we’re old enough. Force feeding your values to your baby won’t change a thing. In fact, the kid will probably want to rebel against those values when he gets older so it’s a waste of time from the start. You think he’s gonna see all his friends with Turkey sandwiches and not wonder what it tastes like? Let the kid decide for himself if he wants to be a vegetarian or not.
I just found this post, so I apologize for the delay in responding.
I was raised vegetarian from birth as was my younger brother. My mother was/is among the “evangelical” types of vegetarians, having converted to as completely an animal-product-free and cruelty-free lifestyle as possible in the mid-70s. She did so for reasons of ethics as well as health, but primarily ethics, and our household was littered with pamphlets depicting the conditions at slaughterhouses and etc. She belongs to about 100 animal rights and environmental organizations, and we were taught from an early age that meat was “disgusting” and “bad” and “horrible” and “cruel.” I retain some of that now, 30+ years later. I automatically look for labels on products hoping to see “Not Tested on Animals” or glance at ingredients to see whether something is made with lard or rennet. Following is a sort of list of the problems I see with raising a child in this way, and the experiences I had both as a child and in present-day situations–yes, I’m still vegetarian, having never intentionally eaten anything animal-based except dairy products and an occasional marshmallow.
First, though we KNEW our mom was right and she had/has an enormous heart and eating animals was “wrong,” we were the only ones who understood. Even our dad didn’t give up meat, and none of our friends or teachers or supervisors or coaches or camp counselors believed it was a good thing to be raised without meat. Not even our pediatrician approved. We were immediately “different” and always had to ask for special accommodations at such normal events as birthday parties or summer camp. We were immediately looked at as “weird kids” or “kids who needed special attention.” That’s rough to go through, especially when kids will pick on other kids for something as inane as the color of your backpack. Couple that with the fact that the vast majority of the world doesn’t understand vegetarianism and either serves you a giant salad or a turkey dog (i.e., meat instead of meat)… it makes life slightly miserable.
Second, though some people might do it “right,” my amazing and wonderful mom really didn’t. I didn’t know it at the time, but today I understand that raising a child on a diet of vegetables, peanut butter, tofu and pasta isn’t the best idea. My brother and I have had some serious health issues, and we learned to replace some missing nutrients, but I’ve always had low blood sugar/low iron and a high level of fatigue. Today I eat more varied foods, but my usual dinner still consists of carbohydrates with a sauce. That may be my own fault, or my mother’s, or both, but I feel the effects.
Third, beyond the initial social awkwardness that comes with being “weird,” there are later relationship issues. I’ve lived with two people and neither were vegetarian. I don’t have the same ethical conviction that my mother does, because frankly, if I did, I’d have difficulty maintaining many close friendships with good people who eat meat. We’d almost always have to make two dinners or avoid restaurants that one of us loved because the other either couldn’t or wouldn’t eat there (example: I can’t eat at a steakhouse, he refuses to eat at my favorite veg place). I can’t bring my current fiance to dinner at my mom’s because she absolutely won’t cook meat and he doesn’t like pasta or tofu, and if we take her out or order dinner, she can’t abide having meat near her. I got used to having it around. I get sad or angry glances from her when she realizes there’s lunch meat in my fridge. The guilt from her is overwhelming, and I hear from him every day that a) I’m unhealthy, b) we need to get me eating meat before I get pregnant and c) it’s unfair for him to have to change his eating/cooking habits–and he’s a great cook–when I won’t change mine. We’ve agreed to the two-dinners thing, but god, is it hard. And it puts a lot of pressure on the relationship.
Long story short: I’m certain I wouldn’t have been a vegetarian if I hadn’t been raised this way despite being an avid animal rights activist myself, but now that I’m old enough to choose I feel like I don’t have a choice any longer. I’m sure I’ve had chicken broth or fish in something sometime at some restaurant in my life. I’m sure I might be able to slowly transition to not being vegetarian if it came to it. But as long as my mother is alive, I’m going to feel guilty for even considering tasting a piece of meat–it means that much to her, and I love her dearly. I’m struggling to be healthier, taking supplements and exercising more, but I’m still lethargic and frankly have no idea how to eat better (and my fiance won’t touch “fake food,” which makes it all the more difficult). I’m going to say that raising a child vegetarian is a very, very bad idea, if only for the sake of their sanity both during childhood and down the road.