Registered: May 2008
Posts: 8107
03-18-13 08:28 PM
Quote from lvivihor:
Hello NoDoji! It's pleasure to read your informative posts about plant based diet. I'm also on plant based diet for year now. We have 2-years old kid, who also do not eat meat, but i faced a lot of criticism from my parents, friends, local doctors and so on. The main arguments they have is that it is very dangerous not to eat meat and fish for so little kid, because his body is forming and he needs to eat meat, as meat is the best source of iron, B12 and other amino acids. I doubt if i have right balanced diet for my kid right now, cause if i'm wrong that can be irreversible process for kid healths. I even though to gave my son meat once a week. So i need your qualified advise about this. Can you point me out for good scientific source, or book about right plant based diet for little kids?
Thank you and waiting for your answers.
Plant-based diets provide very high quality nutrients. B12 can be got from many fortified sources or a supplement.
Meat is not necessarily the best source of iron. Meat contains heme iron, the absorption of which the body doesn't regulate. So its possible to get more iron than is needed and this is not healthful. Non-heme iron from plant sources is absorbed as needed. If you're low on iron, you'll absorb more, if you have enough or too much iron, you'll absorb less.
Here are my favorite resources for plant-based nutrition:
http://www.drmcdougall.com/free.html
http://nutritionfacts.org/
And here's my favorite book for kids:
http://www.amazon.com/Disease-Proof...t/dp/0312338082
