Pebble wrote:
Quote:

bodhipooh wrote:
While I do agree that a vegetarian diet can be good for some adults, this article bothered me for two reasons:
- the vegan diet was implemended because TWO kids were following that diet at home and the director decided to force all other kids to follow the same diet so the kids wouldn't feel excluded. While reasonable accommodations of others is an admirable thing, I don't agree that an entire group should have to accommodate the CHOICE of a very small minority.
- the statement that data is scarce on impact of a vegan diet on kids is misleading, at best. It has been shown in many, many studies that developing brains need fats to develop appropriately, something often missing from vegan diets, plus they also tend to lack certain minerals (which was mentioned in their article) and those are serious concerns and challenges for the diet of growing kids.

I just wanted to nitpick over your line that vegan diets do not contain fats. That?s beyond absurd. Considering the use of salad as a common meal lands oil as a constant condiment which is the healthy type of fat we all need. This is better than the egg or dairy based fat that is not as healthy for us. Additionally, vegan diets contain a lot of nuts which are high in the type of fat that the human body needs as well. Overall, vegan diets contain more positive fat than non-vegan diets which use cheese, milk, eggs, etc, as fats.

I don?t subscribe to a vegan diet and I can?t see myself ever going in that direction. I just wanted to correct this very odd misconception that you seem to have.

Quote:

HamiltonParker wrote:
We're vegetarians and our child attended - but the vegan thing kinda had us shaking our heads - there's a big difference between regular veg-heads and vegans.
Any, mostly a positive experience, however kiddo at -O- prepared food there and arrived home cranky and h-angry (!) every single day. At the age of two she wasn't eating hot soup, roasted veggies and such. We repeatedly asked if we could pack our own food - a request that was denied.
She was given a bowl of Cherrio-style oats to eat at lunch time, as were all of the other kids who refused to eat the fare served there.

I think this is the bigger concern? Cranky kids just can?t be pleasant to deal with.

bodhipooh wrote:
While I do agree that a vegetarian diet can be good for some adults, this article bothered me for two reasons:
- the vegan diet was implemended because TWO kids were following that diet at home and the director decided to force all other kids to follow the same diet so the kids wouldn't feel excluded. While reasonable accommodations of others is an admirable thing, I don't agree that an entire group should have to accommodate the CHOICE of a very small minority.
- the statement that data is scarce on impact of a vegan diet on kids is misleading, at best. It has been shown in many, many studies that developing brains need fats to develop appropriately, something often missing from vegan diets, plus they also tend to lack certain minerals (which was mentioned in their article) and those are serious concerns and challenges for the diet of growing kids.

HamiltonParker wrote:
We're vegetarians and our child attended - but the vegan thing kinda had us shaking our heads - there's a big difference between regular veg-heads and vegans.
Any, mostly a positive experience, however kiddo at -O- prepared food there and arrived home cranky and h-angry (!) every single day. At the age of two she wasn't eating hot soup, roasted veggies and such. We repeatedly asked if we could pack our own food - a request that was denied.
She was given a bowl of Cherrio-style oats to eat at lunch time, as were all of the other kids who refused to eat the fare served there.