VIJAYAWADA: A young traveller Mona Shah was horrified to see her BnB host in Stockholm restricting her three-year-old and five-year-old children from drinking milk or having that teeny weeny bite of a chocolate.
Reason? The family was of hardcore vegans. “I totally understand the 42-year-old mother’s concerns, but they are children and needed basic nutrition. She didn’t allow them to have chocolate for the child-labour involved in it which is appreciated.
I am vegetarian, too, but don’t starve myself from a blob of butter or a cube of cheese. And for God’s sake those two poor little kids were not at all lactose intolerant as the Swedish lady declared herself,” says the 24-year-old Jubilee Hills resident and travel enthusiast.
While Mona’s shock may be centred around the young ones being denied the food they deserve(d), the question remains if going to extremes can actually deprive even the body of an adult from certain nutrients.
While vegetarians don’t eat animal meat, they do consume related products like butter, cottage cheese, milk, ghee, honey etc which keep the nutrient balance in check. “When I gave up dairy, my immune system became better. But giving up dairy can deprive your body of calcium and magnesium,” says Nidarshana, a 28-year-old entrepreneur. She takes supplements. But not all are lucky like her. Bhanu Priya S, a 31-year-old mechanical engineer, who came to Hyderabad from Kochi eight years ago, turned vegetarian after she met her partner.
“Then I saw the cruelty against something as small as a honey bee or a silkworm and I stopped eating honey, and wearing silk. I turned vegan. But for the past one year my blood picture is in a bad state. I, as the reports confirm, have acute Calcium deficiency. My bones are getting weaker as I have given up on milk and eggs. The Vitamin D level also has gone down in my body,” she informs. She can’t take supplements on a continuous basis as her physician insists that it might damage her liver.
One of the most common deficiencies caused by zero intake of dairy products is Vitamin B12 and vitamin D. talking more about this Dr. Janaki B, an independent nutritionist, who runs the clinic ‘Diaita Eat Right’ in the city says, “Any kind of extreme diet creates nutrient deficiencies in the body. To replace the same a lot vegans/vegetarians increase their intake of certain vegetables and fruits. What many do not know is that too much of fibre which these items contain, takes away iron and calcium from the body resulting in Osteoporosis and anemia.”
But she’s talking about adults what about children forced to become vegans by their parents? “Vegan diet should be banned for children! No child should be forced to become one. The growing children and teenagers need their required share of a balanced nutritious diet. Otherwise, they can be at the risk of having fragile bone structure and muscle-related deficiencies,” she says. Adds Dr. Deepa Agarwal, a consultant nutritionist, “Becoming vegan is a huge change and can sometimes get more complicated. Such extreme diets pose potential interference with existing medical conditions such as osteoporosis or diabetes and hence can aggravate health conditions.”