Do Vegetarians Need to Eat Smarter?

A recent study in the Netherlands claims children with vegetarian diets could be suffering in the classroom.

The researchers claim vegetarian diets are lacking in vitamin B12, which do not naturally occur in plants and vegetables. B12 plays an important part in brain function and toddlers raised on vegetarian diets could be slower to acquire basic motor skills. The study also claims in some extreme cases, children suffered from anaemia, slower growth and irritability.

Children whose diets were deficient in B12 were said to score "substantially lower on tests measuring spatial ability, short-term memory and fluid intelligence (the ability to solve complex problems...and learn".

Even where children supplemented their diets with B12 rich foods, or switched to meat later in life, there was still evidence of B12 deficiencies compared to children who had maintained a balanced diet throughout their lives.

Tuesday, 30 January 2001