VEGGIE CHICK!

You've chosen to raise your children on the meat-eater's diet because it seems to offer the most variety. While you serve them burgers and sausages,  which are full of iron after all, and pour them glasses of milk, essential for calcium, you spare a thought for their veggie and vegan friends who are forced to eat nothing but vegetables. When they've done, you let them loose on the chocolate biscuits and clear up their plates, comforting yourself with the thought that your children will be the healthiest in the end, won't they? Actually, they won't!

Your children's diets, like those of most children in the UK, are based on animal fat and extremely unhealthy. Meat is almost pure animal fat and despite their different names, cheese, butter, chocolate, yoghurt and other dairy products are just animal fat. Then there's wheat, the other food which accounts for the majority of what meat-eaters eat and is also extremely unhealthy. Whether you give them rolls, buns, baps, pasta, pasties, pies, or 'baked goods' you're still giving them the same thing- wheat. Over time this diet will have a tremendous impact on their health as it has on the health of the children who took part in the 'National Diet and Nutrition Survey' which took place in 2000. Read on to find out more.

The 'National Diet and Nutrition Survey' which took place in 2000 aimed to discover the truth about what Britain's children were eating and how it was affecting them. Several thousand children from across the nation, aged between 4 and 18, were surveyed and the results, published in June of that year, were rather grim. The survey found that:

• Protein intake was considerably too high for all ages.
• Sugar intake, including honey, was too high for all ages.
• Fibre intake was below a healthy level for all ages.
• A third of those surveyed did not have a daily bowel movement
• Over 90% of those surveyed were eating too much animal fat.
• Cholesterol levels were high (sometimes too high) in 10% of those surveyed.
• 1 in 5 of the older girls were grossly deficient in vitamins A and B2.
• 2% of those surveyed had no beta-carotene (disease-busting form of vitamin A). 
• Folate levels were too low in approximately 4% of those surveyed.
• Most vutamin C was obtained from fruit juice and soft drinks (not fresh fruit).
• ½ the older girls were grossly deficient in iron and magnesium.
• 9% of the older girls had iron-deficiency anaemia.
• Calcium intake was too low in the over 11's surveyed.
• Zinc intake was too low in all ages.
• Over ½ of those surveyed consumed too much salt.

Veggie children are healthier and that's a fact! There isn't anything you can get from a meat-eater's diet that you can't get from plant sources which are lower in fat and calories and don't contribute to high cholesterol. Veggie (and vegan) children can obtain all they need from the following sources:

Carbohydrates- wholegrain bread and cereals, pasta, rice, lentils and oats (flapjacks).
Fibre-all fruits, vegetables, beans and pulses as well as wholegrain bread, cereals, pasta and oats.
Protein- beans and pulses, pasta, soya products, wholegrain bread and nuts, particularly almonds.
Fat- nuts, seedsand vegetable oils (used to cook most crisps!) and linseed oil.
Calcium- tofu, soya products, tahini (sesame seed paste) and dried fruits
Iodine- seaweed, carrageenan, green vegetables, marmite and vegetable stock.
Iron- beans and pulses, green vegetables, wholegrain bread and cereal, dried fruits
Zinc- beans and pulses, wholegrain bread and cereal, nuts and seeds

Providing your child eats a variety of these foods on a regular basis, they will be healthier and therefore happier than their meat-eating peers. Dairy products and eggs are not necessary for good health either but you may wish to include them if raising a vegan child seems a bit too extreme for you.

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