• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

Michael Pollan, author of the best-seller The Omnivore’s Dilemma, wrote the book In Defense of Food with this mantra in mind: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” Does that sound like a mostly vegan diet? Seems that vegan families already practice the healthy habits others are finally coming to accept as truth.

Vegan Is as Vegan Does

In addition to what your child eats, what she wears, where she lives, and what she plays with may also impact her health. For many families, promoting health through a vegan lifestyle extends beyond food into clothing, home cleaning supplies, and toys.

The “vegan” label doesn’t always equal “organic,” but it often does. Finding and buying products that are animal-product-free and not tested on animals may be worth the extra trouble and price for the reduced chemical exposure. Nixing chemicals used in leather treatment, wool, and other animal products; ensuring that your household cleaners are as natural as possible; and buying toys that haven’t been treated with harmful coatings—especially for the babies and toddlers, explorers who love to chew on their toys—can also improve your child’s chances of growing up healthy.

The man-made chemical compound known as PCB (polychlorinated biphenyls) has been proven to affect the human endocrine system, especially in unborn babies and children. PCBs manufacturing are now banned, but it can still be found in some old toys and old appliances as well as floating around in our environment via meat, water, and even soil because of its long residual life. Be sure your child washes her hands thoroughly before eating, and try to keep your little one’s hands out of her mouth.

That’s So Vegan

For you iPhone users, the Vegetarian SmartList ($24.99) is an incredible app that catalogues 4,399 foods, drugs, personal care items, cleaning supplies, and more to uncover hidden animal products in these everyday necessities of life.

A nasty neighbor to PCB is BPA (bisphenol A), used in plastic baby bottles and sippy cups. Use glass or any bottle or cup with a recycling number higher than #5 to be safe.

Edible Ethics

One of the less-tangible, but perhaps no less important, health benefits of vegan eating for kids is the mental health boost that comes from living a life of thoughtful eating. There’s a disconnect that kids are required to adapt to as a result of naturally loving animals but also being required to eat them. Kids are told by authority figures in our culture that it’s okay to kill and eat some animals but make pets out of others. This kind of confusion in thought and reason is one that may carry over into other aspects of their lives.

Kids tend to naturally be sensitive, honest, and logical. And when they sense disconnects like “we don’t eat our dog but you can eat that cow,” they’re likely to point it out. In his book The World Peace Diet, vegan activist Will Tuttle contends that parents who teach their kids it’s fine to eat certain animals causes a “forced unawareness,” which “becomes a sort of armor, dulling the mind and deadening the vital spiritual spark within us ….” On the flip side, supporting your child’s natural emotions and logical reasoning is good brain food.

For vegan parents, encouraging kids to listen to and think critically about one of their most basic feelings (love of animals), and how it relates to one of their most basic choices (what they eat), is a gift. Veganism is a healthy way for kids to grow in body, mind, and spirit.

The Least You Need to Know

◆ A vegan diet can combat some of the most common modern diet-related childhood illnesses, including type 2 diabetes, cancer, and obesity.

◆ Until kids are teens, parents are the gatekeepers for the kinds of foods that dominate children’s lives.

◆ Beyond food, health-promoting vegan choices include clothing, household cleaners, and toys.

◆ With the right motivation and education, vegan diets can contribute to a lifetime of better physical, mental, and spiritual health for your child.

Chapter 2

Are You Vegan Enough?