Veggie Health for Kids
Every nutrient a child needs and how to get it.
A guide for parents showing why vegetarian/vegan diets are the healthiest option for children.

World turned upside down! / What You Need and Where You Get It / How Animal Products Affect Children / How Animal Products Affect Adults / Conclusions

Conclusions

The types of food that children and adults should be eating for life-long health are now abundantly clear. There is a wealth of scientific research - not least the China Health Study. It looked at the diets and health of people in 65 rural counties in China and was the largest and most comprehensive survey of diet, disease and death in the world. Carried out more than 10 years ago, the information it provided is still being unravelled. But already some things are clear - that the vegetarian and vegan diets advocated in this guide are exactly what people should be eating.

Overseer of the project is Professor Colin Campbell - Professor of Nutritional Biochemistry at Cornell University in the US and long-time senior science advisor to the American Institute for Cancer Research and the World Cancer Research Fund. Results are unambiguous - we are a vegetarian species whose risk of disease is increased by eating meat and animal products. And it’s not good enough simply to increase the amount of fruit and veg. you eat. As Professor Campbell says: “The closer one approaches a total plant food diet, the greater the health benefit...Animal foods, in general, are not really helpful and we need to get away from eating them.”

Vibrant, life-long health for children is dependent upon eating all the essential protective foods and rejecting all the harmful ones. Scientific evidence shows quite clearly what this means - plant-based not animal-based foods. And the time to start encouraging your children to adopt meat and dairy-free eating is now.

Referenced Health Report
A fully referenced and more detailed scientific report on which the information here is based, entitled Safeguarding Children’s Health: Defeating Disease Through Vegetarian/Vegan Diets is available from VVF. It costs £10 per copy (including p&p). Make cheques payable to VVF. Send your name, address, cheque and quantity required to the Vegetarian & Vegan Foundation, Top Suite, 8 York Court, Wilder Street, Bristol BS2 8QH. Or telephone your order on 0117 970 5190.

Vegetarian Diet - So Easy to Follow
This guide argues convincingly that meat and dairy are the worst foods to feed to children. But how do you go about changing your diet and excluding them? Never fear, help is at hand. The VVF and Viva! produce a range of guides designed to help fledging vegetarians along the road and makes the transition so simple. Nutrition in a Nutshell, The Healthiest Diet of All, The L-Plate Vegetarian, The L-Plate Vegan and the teenagers guide to vegetarian recipes - No Sweat Veggie Cooking - and the guide Martin Shaw Cooks Veggie - all come packed with useful information to help your family go veggie. Viva! also stocks a huge range of books on vegetarianism, including dozens of recipe books - from the cheap and cheerful to the indulgently delicious. VVF also produces a colourful magazine - veggiehealth - which keeps you up to date on all the latest scientific studies on veggie diets. Subscription is just £15 for three issues a year.

The message is clear - minus the meat, exclude the eggs, forget the fish and dump the dairy. Sup on soya, bang in the beans, lean on lentils, snack on seeds, cram in the carbs, feast on fruits, veg. out on veggies, nibble on nuts and graze on grains.

Base your own and your children's diet on foods from plants not food from animals and give all your family’s bodies the best life insurance they can get.