56 min
Is raising kids vegetarian safe and will they grow up small? Cook Culture
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- Food
I was raised as a vegetarian in the 80s and these same questions came up all the time: Where do you get protein? Where do you get iron? Are you not hungry? We have come a long way since then and a vegetarian or even a plant-based family is now considered 'normal' but this does not mean that these questions no longer come up.
We're raising our kids plant-based and do our best to feed them the most nutritionally complete diet we can. When the University of Toronto released a study on the long-term effects of feeding kids vegetarian/plant-based I was intrigued as I do my best but am I missing something? Here is the report: https://www.utoronto.ca/news/kids-vegetarian-diets-record-similar-growth-nutrition-measures-those-who-eat-meat-study
The report was quite clear but I did have some lingering questions. Fortunately, I was able to talk to someone with a unique perspective on the study. I sat down with Dr. Sanjiv Gandhi, who is the Chief of Pediatric Cardiovascular & Thoracic Surgery, BC Children’s Hospital. He works with a team of health professionals to care for the long-term health of children who need heart surgery. He has decades of first-hand experience witnessing the effects of a westernized diet on kids' coronary health.
I was excited to talk with him about the study and get his take on raising healthy vegetarian kids.
I was raised as a vegetarian in the 80s and these same questions came up all the time: Where do you get protein? Where do you get iron? Are you not hungry? We have come a long way since then and a vegetarian or even a plant-based family is now considered 'normal' but this does not mean that these questions no longer come up.
We're raising our kids plant-based and do our best to feed them the most nutritionally complete diet we can. When the University of Toronto released a study on the long-term effects of feeding kids vegetarian/plant-based I was intrigued as I do my best but am I missing something? Here is the report: https://www.utoronto.ca/news/kids-vegetarian-diets-record-similar-growth-nutrition-measures-those-who-eat-meat-study
The report was quite clear but I did have some lingering questions. Fortunately, I was able to talk to someone with a unique perspective on the study. I sat down with Dr. Sanjiv Gandhi, who is the Chief of Pediatric Cardiovascular & Thoracic Surgery, BC Children’s Hospital. He works with a team of health professionals to care for the long-term health of children who need heart surgery. He has decades of first-hand experience witnessing the effects of a westernized diet on kids' coronary health.
I was excited to talk with him about the study and get his take on raising healthy vegetarian kids.
56 min