STORY AT-A-GLANCE
- Children eating vegan diets faced an increased risk of nutritional deficiencies and lower bone mineral content (BMC), and were shorter by about 3.15 centimeters (1.2 inches) than omnivores
- Concerning nutrient deficiencies were also found in the vegan children fed a nutritionist-planned diet
- Nutrient deficiencies in vegan children included vitamin A insufficiency and “markedly low” levels of total, HDL and LDL cholesterol, essential amino acids and the omega-3 fat DHA
- One of the pitfalls of a vegan (or vegetarian) diet is that many people end up relying on ultraprocessed foods such soy infant formula, soy milk or fake meat products
- In most cases, infants and children do best with whole, animal foods in their diet to meet their complex nutritional needs
The debate over the healthiest diet for children is almost as controversial as the debate over plant- versus meat-based diets. And, no vegan parent wants to be told that feeding their baby a vegan diet is dangerous. However, it could, in fact, be damaging to children’s health.
While it’s true that most people, children included, could benefit from adding more whole foods to their diets — including certain plant-based foods — there are risks involved when you move from eating a diet rich in plant foods to one that is strictly plant-based.
While the U.K.’s National Health Service (NHS) compiled a guide to feed vegan infants and children ages 5 and under, it noted:1
“We are not recommending a vegan diet. It is important to note that meeting the nutritional requirements of babies and young children will be challenging on a vegan diet, and using fortified foods and some supplements will be essential. Animal sourced foods provide good sources of many nutrients to the diet.”
Vegan Children May Face Stunted Growth, Bone Problems
A study of Polish children between the ages of 5 and 10 years evaluated body composition, cardiovascular risk and micronutrient status of vegetarian and vegan children compared to omnivores.2
The study claimed vegan diets were associated with a healthier cardiovascular risk profile, but this was largely based on lower levels of LDL cholesterol — a flawed marker of heart health. The children eating vegan diets also faced an increased risk of nutritional deficiencies, lower bone mineral content (BMC) and were shorter by about 3.15 centimeters (1.2 inches). According to the study:3
“Our data suggest that restriction of animal-based foods could prevent children from achieving optimal height or bone mineral status and could lead to selected nutritional deficiencies. The shorter height of children consuming PBDs [plant-based diets] may have mixed implications for long-term health. Taller height is associated with higher social status, and this association may be causal rather than just an artifact of social correlates.”
The researchers called the lower bone mineral content among those eating a vegan diet “concerning,” since maximizing bone mineral content in childhood is recommended to reduce the risk of osteoporosis and fractures later in life:4
“We found that vegans have lower BMC even after accounting for smaller body and bone size. It does not seem optimal to enter adolescence, a phase when bone-specific nutrient needs are higher, with a BMC deficit already established. If such deficits are caused by a diet that persists into adolescence, this might increase the risk of adverse bone outcomes later in life.”
Vegans Faced Several Nutrient Deficiencies
The vegan children in the group were more likely to suffer from vitamin B12 deficiency, low HDL levels and lower vitamin D levels,5 each of which could have implications for their current and future health.
Vitamin B12, also known as cobalamin, is necessary for your body to make red blood cells as well as for proper nerve function and DNA synthesis. Without adequate levels, a number of physical symptoms, ranging from numbness to fatigue, can occur. Mental health can also suffer significantly, as vitamin B12 plays an important role in neurological function.
It’s been shown, for instance, that people with depression and high B12 levels have better responses to treatment,6 while up to 30% of patients hospitalized for depression may be B12 deficient.7
While choline, a B vitamin known for its role in brain development, wasn’t covered in the featured study, it’s another essential nutrient that humans must get from dietary or supplement sources. Animal foods are a major contributor of choline to the diet, and it’s difficult to get enough of this essential nutrient if you don’t consume them, particularly eggs, according to a study published in the journal Nutrients.8
Additionally, important nutrients such as carnitine, carnosine and creatine are also very low in a plant based diet and ideally need to be supplemented. In another example, researchers followed 40 children with a median age of 3.5 years who attended a Finnish daycare.9 There, they received nutritionist-planned vegan or omnivore meals designed to meet their nutritional needs.
However, even then, concerning nutrient deficiencies were found in the vegan children, including vitamin A insufficiency and “markedly low” levels of total, HDL and LDL cholesterol, essential amino acids and the omega-3 fat DHA. According to the researchers:10
“The markedly low cholesterol in vegan infants and children in our study raises the question of whether such levels are healthy, as cholesterol is essential for cellular growth, division, and development of physiological systems due to its major role in the synthesis of cell membranes, steroid hormones, bile acids, and brain myelin …
DHA and active vitamin A are both important for eyesight, and the low statuses of both in [vegan] children may raise a concern for the visual health.”
Recommendations for Soy Milk Put Children at Risk
NHS also states that, from the age of 1, “you can give your baby unsweetened, calcium-fortified, plant-based drinks (such as soya, oat and almond drinks) as part of a healthy balanced diet.”11,12
However, not only is most soy genetically engineered (GE) and sprayed with toxic pesticides and herbicides like Roundup, with its dangerous active ingredient glyphosate, but soy products contain phytoestrogens such as genistein, which may affect the development of the reproductive system.13
When it comes to soy formula, I believe it’s unsuitable for all children. But soy-based beverages should also be avoided later in childhood, and you’ll definitely want to steer clear of ultraprocessed foods like Soylent.
Soylent is a Silicon Valley creation, dreamed up by a group of software engineers14 with no education in nutrition or human biology. The primary premise behind Soylent is that you can drink your complete nutritional requirements and never have to eat real food again. But this GE concoction, which is heavily promoted as a panacea to fill in nutritional gaps in those following plant-based diets, will not propel you, or your children, to optimal health.
Its products contain ingredients like soy protein isolate, canola oil — a major dietary source of toxic linoleic acid — artificial flavors and the artificial sweetener Sucralose.15 Unfortunately, one of the pitfalls of a vegan (or vegetarian) diet is that many people end up relying on ultraprocessed foods such as this, mistakenly believing them to be healthy.
Fake, Plant-Based Meat, Dairy Aren’t Healthy Either
Raising children on a diet of plant-based “burgers” isn’t doing their health any favors either. Swapping traditional, whole foods grown by small farmers for mass-produced fake foods grown in a laboratory is, unfortunately, part and parcel of The Great Reset.
The EAT Forum, co-founded by the Wellcome Trust, developed a Planetary Health Diet that’s designed to be applied to the global population and entails cutting meat and dairy intake by up to 90%, replacing it largely with foods made in laboratories, along with cereals and oil.16
Sadly, this is not what you or your children need to thrive, but it’s being pushed as a healthy, green and sustainable alternative to animal foods. As such, lab-grown, animal-free milk proteins are becoming all the rage.
The process to make these concoctions is far from natural, but one company, Perfect Day, is trying to get around that, describing their process as involving “nature’s code,” which is another way of describing the DNA that they are manipulating.17
Coffee the Christian way: Promised Grounds
They use GE fungi microflora, which they go so far as to say “grazes” on plant-based inputs, hoping your mind’s eye will revert to a cow grazing in a field, rather than the tanks in which their GE fungi are actually grown.
It’s quite telling that, while the healthiest dairy products come from grass fed cows that are integrated into their surrounding environment, Perfect Day’s fake milk proteins can only be produced in a system that’s isolated from the outside world.18
In the foreword to Navdanya International’s report “False Solutions That Endanger Our Health and Damage the Planet,” Vandana Shiva also details how lab-grown foods are catastrophic for human health and the environment, as they are repeating the mistakes already made with industrial agriculture:19
“In response to the crises in our food system, we are witnessing the rise of technological solutions that aim to replace animal products and other food staples with lab-grown alternatives. Artificial food advocates are reiterating the old and failed rhetoric that industrial agriculture is essential to feed the world.
Real, nutrient-rich food is gradually disappearing, while the dominant industrial agricultural model is causing an increase in chronic diseases and exacerbating climate change. The notion that high-tech, “farm free” lab food is a viable solution to the food crisis is simply a continuation of the same mechanistic mindset which has brought us to where we are today — the idea that we are separate from and outside of nature.
Industrial food systems have reduced food to a commodity, to “stuff” that can then be constituted in the lab. In the process, both the planet’s health and our health have been nearly destroyed.”
Beware of Fake Breastmilk Dubbed Biomilq
Breastmilk is the healthiest food for babies, one that can’t be replicated in a lab. But that didn’t stop Bill Gates from announcing the startup company Biomilq in June 2020. It’s using biotechnology to create lab-made human milk for babies.
Using mammary epithelial cells placed in flasks with cell culture media, the cells grow and are placed in a bioreactor that the company says “recreates conditions similar to in the breast.”20 Another company, Helaina, aims to create glycoproteins “identical to those found in breast milk,”21 which can then be added to a variety of infant formulas. They may also be used in seniors’ nutrition and, eventually, all sorts of foods.
Many familiar globalists are invested in these faux dairy ventures. Biomilq investors, for example, include Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Richard Branson, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, Chinese business magnate Jack Ma, Michael Bloomberg and Salesforce Co-CEO Marc Benioff.22
The first Biomilq product is expected to be ready for the market within the next three to five years.23 Other animal-free milk products are expected to hit the shelves sometime between 2023 and 2024.24,25 That includes ice cream made with lab-grown dairy, slated to go into Ben & Jerry’s product line.26
But don’t be fooled. Fake meat and dairy cannot replace the complex mix of nutrients found in grass fed beef and dairy — or in human breastmilk — and it’s likely that consuming ultraprocessed meat and milk alternatives may lead to many of the same health issues that are caused by a processed food diet. So if you’re vegan, or raising vegan children, do not base your diet around these pseudofoods.
What’s the Healthiest Food for Babies?
Breastmilk is the healthiest food for babies, but if you’re a strict vegetarian or vegan, be sure you make a point to supplement where needed, including for choline, omega-3s, folate and vitamin B12. If you’re unable to breastfeed or obtain human breastmilk for your baby, I do not recommend using commercial infant formula — and especially not soy-based varieties.
Instead, you can find my preferred recipe for healthy homemade infant formula here. You’ll notice it’s not vegan — it’s filled with nutrient-rich animal foods, such as raw grass fed cow milk, organic cream and beef hydrolysate gelatin, along with some items that many vegans will be familiar with, such as nutritional yeast flakes and organic, virgin coconut oil.
In most cases, infants and children do best with whole, animal foods in their diet to meet their complex nutritional needs.
- 1 NHS, Eating well: vegan infants and under-5s, Page 5
- 2, 3, 4, 5 Am J Clin Nutr. 2021 Jun; 113(6): 1565–1577
- 6 Open Neurol J. 2013; 7: 44–48
- 7 Compr Psychiatry. 1997 Nov-Dec;38(6):305-14
- 8 Nutrients August 5, 2017
- 9 EMBO Mol Med. 2021 Feb 5; 13(2): e13492
- 10 EMBO Mol Med. 2021 Feb 5; 13(2): e13492., Discussion
- 11 NHS, Getting ready
- 12 Daily Mail January 16, 2023
- 13 Environmental Health Perspectives March 12017; 125(3)
- 14 Soylent, About
- 15 Soylent Powder, Cacao, Ingredient List
- 16 Eatforum.com The Planetary Health Diet
- 17 Perfect Day Foods, Nature’s Code
- 18 Perfect Day Foods, Fermentation Tanks
- 19 Children’s Health Defense April 5, 2022
- 20 BIOMILQ, Our Science
- 21 Food Navigator December 12, 2022
- 22 CNBC June 16, 2020
- 23 Alarabiya.net May 3, 2022
- 24 Startup Daily July 27, 2021
- 25 Sydney Spring Herald September 13, 2022
- 26 ZME Science December 9, 2022
Five Things New “Preppers” Forget When Getting Ready for Bad Times Ahead
The preparedness community is growing faster than it has in decades. Even during peak times such as Y2K, the economic downturn of 2008, and Covid, the vast majority of Americans made sure they had plenty of toilet paper but didn’t really stockpile anything else.
Things have changed. There’s a growing anxiety in this presidential election year that has prompted more Americans to get prepared for crazy events in the future. Some of it is being driven by fearmongers, but there are valid concerns with the economy, food supply, pharmaceuticals, the energy grid, and mass rioting that have pushed average Americans into “prepper” mode.
There are degrees of preparedness. One does not have to be a full-blown “doomsday prepper” living off-grid in a secure Montana bunker in order to be ahead of the curve. In many ways, preparedness isn’t about being able to perfectly handle every conceivable situation. It’s about being less dependent on government for as long as possible. Those who have proper “preps” will not be waiting for FEMA to distribute emergency supplies to the desperate masses.
Below are five things people new to preparedness (and sometimes even those with experience) often forget as they get ready. All five are common sense notions that do not rely on doomsday in order to be useful. It may be nice to own a tank during the apocalypse but there’s not much you can do with it until things get really crazy. The recommendations below can have places in the lives of average Americans whether doomsday comes or not.
Note: The information provided by this publication or any related communications is for informational purposes only and should not be considered as financial advice. We do not provide personalized investment, financial, or legal advice.
Secured Wealth
Whether in the bank or held in a retirement account, most Americans feel that their life’s savings is relatively secure. At least they did until the last couple of years when de-banking, geopolitical turmoil, and the threat of Central Bank Digital Currencies reared their ugly heads.
It behooves Americans to diversify their holdings. If there’s a triggering event or series of events that cripple the financial systems or devalue the U.S. Dollar, wealth can evaporate quickly. To hedge against potential turmoil, many Americans are looking in two directions: Crypto and physical precious metals.
There are huge advantages to cryptocurrencies, but there are also inherent risks because “virtual” money can become challenging to spend. Add in the push by central banks and governments to regulate or even replace cryptocurrencies with their own versions they control and the risks amplify. There’s nothing wrong with cryptocurrencies today but things can change rapidly.
As for physical precious metals, many Americans pay cash to keep plenty on hand in their safe. Rolling over or transferring retirement accounts into self-directed IRAs is also a popular option, but there are caveats. It can often take weeks or even months to get the gold and silver shipped if the owner chooses to close their account. This is why Genesis Gold Group stands out. Their relationship with the depositories allows for rapid closure and shipping, often in less than 10 days from the time the account holder makes their move. This can come in handy if things appear to be heading south.
Lots of Potable Water
One of the biggest shocks that hit new preppers is understanding how much potable water they need in order to survive. Experts claim one gallon of water per person per day is necessary. Even the most conservative estimates put it at over half-a-gallon. That means that for a family of four, they’ll need around 120 gallons of water to survive for a month if the taps turn off and the stores empty out.
Being near a fresh water source, whether it’s a river, lake, or well, is a best practice among experienced preppers. It’s necessary to have a water filter as well, even if the taps are still working. Many refuse to drink tap water even when there is no emergency. Berkey was our previous favorite but they’re under attack from regulators so the Alexapure systems are solid replacements.
For those in the city or away from fresh water sources, storage is the best option. This can be challenging because proper water storage containers take up a lot of room and are difficult to move if the need arises. For “bug in” situations, having a larger container that stores hundreds or even thousands of gallons is better than stacking 1-5 gallon containers. Unfortunately, they won’t be easily transportable and they can cost a lot to install.
Water is critical. If chaos erupts and water infrastructure is compromised, having a large backup supply can be lifesaving.
Pharmaceuticals and Medical Supplies
There are multiple threats specific to the medical supply chain. With Chinese and Indian imports accounting for over 90% of pharmaceutical ingredients in the United States, deteriorating relations could make it impossible to get the medicines and antibiotics many of us need.
Stocking up many prescription medications can be hard. Doctors generally do not like to prescribe large batches of drugs even if they are shelf-stable for extended periods of time. It is a best practice to ask your doctor if they can prescribe a larger amount. Today, some are sympathetic to concerns about pharmacies running out or becoming inaccessible. Tell them your concerns. It’s worth a shot. The worst they can do is say no.
If your doctor is unwilling to help you stock up on medicines, then Jase Medical is a good alternative. Through telehealth, they can prescribe daily meds or antibiotics that are shipped to your door. As proponents of medical freedom, they empathize with those who want to have enough medical supplies on hand in case things go wrong.
Energy Sources
The vast majority of Americans are locked into the grid. This has proven to be a massive liability when the grid goes down. Unfortunately, there are no inexpensive remedies.
Those living off-grid had to either spend a lot of money or effort (or both) to get their alternative energy sources like solar set up. For those who do not want to go so far, it’s still a best practice to have backup power sources. Diesel generators and portable solar panels are the two most popular, and while they’re not inexpensive they are not out of reach of most Americans who are concerned about being without power for extended periods of time.
Natural gas is another necessity for many, but that’s far more challenging to replace. Having alternatives for heating and cooking that can be powered if gas and electric grids go down is important. Have a backup for items that require power such as manual can openers. If you’re stuck eating canned foods for a while and all you have is an electric opener, you’ll have problems.
Don’t Forget the Protein
When most think about “prepping,” they think about their food supply. More Americans are turning to gardening and homesteading as ways to produce their own food. Others are working with local farmers and ranchers to purchase directly from the sources. This is a good idea whether doomsday comes or not, but it’s particularly important if the food supply chain is broken.
Most grocery stores have about one to two weeks worth of food, as do most American households. Grocers rely heavily on truckers to receive their ongoing shipments. In a crisis, the current process can fail. It behooves Americans for multiple reasons to localize their food purchases as much as possible.
Long-term storage is another popular option. Canned foods, MREs, and freeze dried meals are selling out quickly even as prices rise. But one component that is conspicuously absent in shelf-stable food is high-quality protein. Most survival food companies offer low quality “protein buckets” or cans of meat, but they are often barely edible.
Prepper All-Naturals offers premium cuts of steak that have been cooked sous vide and freeze dried to give them a 25-year shelf life. They offer Ribeye, NY Strip, and Tenderloin among others.
Having buckets of beans and rice is a good start, but keeping a solid supply of high-quality protein isn’t just healthier. It can help a family maintain normalcy through crises.
Prepare Without Fear
With all the challenges we face as Americans today, it can be emotionally draining. Citizens are scared and there’s nothing irrational about their concerns. Being prepared and making lifestyle changes to secure necessities can go a long way toward overcoming the fears that plague us. We should hope and pray for the best but prepare for the worst. And if the worst does come, then knowing we did what we could to be ready for it will help us face those challenges with confidence.
Plant based diets are way healthier. I’m a Rare patriot plant baser. I live in Hawaii and go to a seven Adventist church Hawaii is the longest living state. . The longest live group in the US are seven day Adventist Most are vegetarians. I look at other states and see fat slobs gorging on meat at every meal. I will out live everyone of those misguided eaters. All you have to do is supplement minerals such as magnesium and iron. Meat is being poisoned and contains parasites, the leading cause of CANCER! Look at the countries who live the longest. Such as okinawa Japan. They eat mostly veggies and fish. These factory meat farms are inhumane and cruel. Everyone should be forced to go work there for a month.
I have no problem with vegans. But I’ve seen too many examples of infants who cannot digest the right types of foods to maintain health.
I have PhD’s in Nutrition and dietetics. This is complete B.S..