Vegan diet not the cause of infant’s death
May 23rd, 2007 by admin
By now you’ve probably seen the headlines, including an op ed in yesterday’s New York Times, categorizing vegan diets as unhealthy. The stories stem from an irresponsible decision by a couple to provide their infant with a diet of soy milk and apple juice. While the headlines highlight the couple’s adherence to a vegan diet, the stories fail to report that every vegan advocacy group writing on the topic encourages breast feeding and clearly warn against solely giving infants soy milk or rice milk (soy milk is different from soy-based infant formulas which have been around for years and used without apparent problems). This couple’s failure to adequately nourish their child has nothing to do with veganism.
Here are some good references for raising healthy vegan children:
- Pregnancy, Infants, & Children (Vegan Outreach)
- Vegetarian Diets: Advantages for Children (Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine)
- Vegetarian Kids & Teens (Vegetarian Resource Group)