Children who eat a vegetarian diet are more likely to be underweight than their meat-eating peers. However, they grow just as fast as these and do not suffer from a lack of nutrients. This is reported by the team led by Jonathon Maguire from St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, Canada. in the journal »Pediatrics«.
The researchers studied nearly 9,000 children between the ages of six months and eight years, 250 of whom did not eat meat. Whether the children are vegetarian or vegan nourished, they did not differentiate further. Over a period of almost three years, the scientists recorded the height and weight of the children, as well as the iron, cholesterol and vitamin D levels in their blood. Analysis of the data showed that the vegetarian children were about the same height and weight as the meat-eating children. Maguire’s team was also unable to identify any nutrient deficiency. However, the research showed that vegetarians were twice as likely to become underweight. The scientists therefore recommend paying particular attention to a balanced diet for vegetarian minors.
However, the study has some weaknesses, explains Peter von Philipsborn from the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich in a press inquiry from the Science Media Center. Although the data showed that more vegetarian children were underweight than meat-eating children, the average body weight of the groups remained similar. “Since the number of underweight children in the study was very low overall, the apparent difference between the two groups may be due to a random effect.” The researchers did not take the possible random effect into account in their calculations at all, adds von Philipsborn.