Strict vegetarians ‘are harming their children’

STRICT vegetarians who insist their children live by the maxim “meat is murder” are doing them permanent damage, a leading nutrition expert said yesterday.

Denying growing children animal products in their diet during the critical first few years of life was "unethical" and could do permanent damage, said Professor Lindsay Allen, from the University of California at Davis. She conducted a study which showed that adding just two spoonfuls of meat to the diet of poverty-stricken children in Africa transformed them both physically and mentally.

Over a period of two years the children almost doubled their muscle development, and showed dramatic improvements in mental skills. They also became more active, talkative and playful at school.