Vegan Diets Result in Nutritional Deficiencies
We have written previously about the dangers of a vegan diet for children.
The nutritional deficiencies inherent to vegan diets make them particularly harmful during the most critical years of human growth and development. Vegan diets are lacking in protein, essential fatty acids, iron, zinc, vitamin D, calcium, iodine, and vitamin B12. Research by Dr. Pascal Müller, published by the National Academy of Medicine states: “Deficiencies in these nutrients can lead to severe and sometimes irreversible developmental disorders.” Dr. Müller specializes in pediatric gastroenterology and nutrition in Switzerland.
When these nutrients are available in plant-based foods, their chemical make-up is such that they are not as easily utilized by the human body as those same nutrients from animal products. Meat, for example, has iron that is absorbed three to ten times more readily than iron from spinach.
It Isn’t About Health
It is incredibly alarming that the vegan agenda is being forced into schools, and more specifically, school lunch programs, by animal and environmental extremists. Groups like HSUS and PETA have boasted about convincing schools to reduce overall meat purchases for lunch programs, and a number of schools have adopted “Meatless Mondays.” The Meatless Monday website fallaciously proclaims: “It’s good for you, and good for the planet.” The problem with that statement is there are a significant number of studies that have debunked both statements. New York City is at the forefront of the movement pushing vegan meals into schools. This is being thrusted in under the guise of improving health, but nothing could be further from the truth.
The Animal Agriculture Alliance stated:
“Meatless Monday is not a grassroots effort to celebrate healthy eating. It’s a well-funded, radical campaign pushing an extreme animal rights and environmental agenda by promoting false claims about animal agriculture.”
Hypocritical “Vegan” Mayor Initiates Harmful Program
Newly elected New York City Mayor, Eric Adams, has historically been very vocal about his own vegan diet, and is now using his office to force it on New York City students. However, an incredible level of hypocrisy was recently revealed with Adams’ admission that he does sometimes eat fish. Even though Adams doesn’t entirely “practice what he preaches,” he doubled down on the Meatless Mondays initiated in New York City by former mayor, Bill De Blasio. In early February 2022, Adams started Vegan Fridays in the city’s school lunch programs. The New York City school district is the largest in the United States, with well over a million students of which 73% are categorized as “economically disadvantaged.”
Those students who struggle with food insecurity at home will now face increased – and entirely unnecessary – nutritionally deficient meals at school. Some suggest that students who wish to enjoy animal products in their mid-day meal can just pack their own lunches. However, for the economically disadvantaged, this is frequently not an option. For many students, school meals offer the only opportunity they have to eat all day. Even worse, doing this on a Friday will affect those who have little to no food to eat on the weekends even more.
Eating Meat Contributes to Academic Success
The overall physical well-being of children is not the only thing that suffers due to a lack of meat and dairy in their diet. In Kenya, a clinical trial was conducted on 555 students. It found that meat consumption directly affects academic performance, activity levels, leadership behaviors, and initiative in a positive way. At the very least it is counterintuitive to purposely enact measures like Meatless Monday and Vegan Friday in schools where the central goal is optimal academic achievement.
Officials with Agendas Undermine Freedoms
Sadly, Eric Adams is only one of many public officials across the nation who subscribe to animal and environmental extremist ideology in one way or another. Other recent highly publicized examples of extremists in positions of power are LA City Council member Bob Blumenfield and now-resigned Colorado state board veterinarian Ellen Kessler.
The placement, whether by appointment or election, of individuals like Adams, Blumenfield, and Kessler into office are all part and parcel of the overall extremist movement that is at work to very deliberately undermine our food security and freedoms.
In an era when some of the most bold and dramatic forms of personal expression are widely accepted and even encouraged, the idea that anyone would try to control the very basic of human freedom of choosing what to eat is absurd.
To intentionally sabotage the nutrition of American school children is nothing short of sinister.
Links:
Parents Beware Vegan Diets Are Not Suitable for Children HERE
Kessler Resigns from Colorado State Veterinary Medical Board HERE
HSUS Tentacles HERE
Food Deserts – Scarcity in the Land of Plenty HERE
Scientific Response to Radical Veganism HERE
Ingredients in Many Vegan Foods HERE
PETA Targeting Children’s Education HERE
PETA and HSUS Influencing Children HERE
