A study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition provides new data on a little-studied issue: how plant-based diets affect the health of children.
Recent years have seen an increase in interest in plant-based diets. One of the reasons people switch to a vegetarian or vegan diet is to take care of their health. Many nutrition guides recommend eating plant-based foods as much as possible.
The effects of plant-based diets have been studied primarily in adults. Vegetarianism and veganism are known to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, but increase the likelihood of fractures, since plant foods contain little calcium. However, not enough is known about the side effects that eliminating entire food groups from the diet can have on children.
The new study involved 187 healthy children aged 5 to 10 years. Of these, 60 were vegetarians, 50 were vegans, and 70 ate all types of food (control group). All of them followed the indicated diets for more than one year. To clarify the nature of nutrition for two weeks, the parents recorded in detail what the children eat.
The study showed that children who ate only plant foods had significantly better indicators of cardiovascular health (body weight, lipid and blood glucose levels, and others). Specifically, a vegan diet was associated with a 25% reduction in low-density lipoprotein (“bad” cholesterol) levels in the blood compared to meat-eaters.
At the same time, unexpectedly for scientists, in children who were on a vegetarian diet, the profile of cardiovascular health was close to that of children who ate all types of food. Compared to vegans, they had higher levels of fasting glucose, very-low-density lipoprotein and triglycerides in their blood.
“At first we were surprised at the cardiovascular health profile of vegetarian children, but their dietary data showed that they were eating processed vegetarian foods, in which fiber and sugar levels are not as healthy as those found in vegan diets. We see that just eating plant-based foods is not enough, we still have to choose healthy foods,” said Małgorzata Desmond, professor at University College London and the Memorial Institute for Child Health in Warsaw, co-author of the study.
Vegan children were on average 3 centimeters shorter than children with other types of nutrition, they were more likely to lack vitamin B12, their bone mineral content was 4-6 % below.
Scientists note that the vegan diet has less vitamins B12 and D, as well as calcium. This may explain the discovered features of their development. However, the authors of the study believe that these shortcomings can be compensated for by the rational use of nutritional supplements with these substances.
The authors write that it is currently unknown whether the described problems (vitamin deficiencies or more, lower bone mineral density and short stature) will persist into adulthood and whether they will have an impact on health in future. More research is needed to determine if a vegan diet is really the cause.