Growth and Development of Vegetarian Raised Children Essay

Growth and Development of Vegetarian Raised Children - Essay Example The study shows that there are controversial results, as to the benefits of vegetarian raised children. For example, in the so-called Farm Study (a vegetarian commune in Tennessee) O’Connell and cool. found that the body height of children up to 10 years of age, raised in a vegetarian commune, was consistently below the US reference values. Because of the scarcity of data on physical growth, pubertal development and physical fitness of vegetarian children, adolescents and young adults, we designed a study to assess the average daily dietary intakes of food energy in a total of 82 children (Group A: 6-10 year-old girls and 6-12 year-old boys), adolescents (Group B: 10-16 year-old girls and 12-18 year-old boys), and young adults (Group C: 16-30 year-old-girls and 18-30 year-old boys).† In contrast, in two studies in children of Seventh-Day Adventists (SDA) communities, who largely follow a vegetarian lifestyle, no significant differences in height were found, with the exception of SDA school boys who were significantly taller. After controlling for height differences, boys and girls in the SDA School were found to be leaner than their public school peers (Marcel, 1997). These studies show little significant benefits of vegetarian meals over nonvegetarian meals. However, when it comes to their learning responses in class, the SDA children were seen to perform better than the children from non-SDA homes. This was after considering more than 100 children both from SDA and not SDA families.