Vegetarian diet 'can harm young children'

VEGETARIAN parents who deny growing children animal products in their diet during the critical first few years of life could be doing them permanent damage, a leading nutrition expert today claimed.

Professor Lindsay Allen, from the University of California at Davis, 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.

Speaking at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington DC, Prof Allen said: "Animal source foods have some nutrients which are not found anywhere else. If you’re talking about feeding young children I would go as far as to say it is unethical to withhold these foods during that period of life."