To hear the misnamed Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) tell it, serving meat, cheese or milk to children is virtually criminal. The group calls school lunches “weapons of mass destruction” for including meat and dairy, and its annual “report card” press release grades school cafeterias according to how vegetarian-friendly their meals are. This week, though, a prominent member of the medical establishment has joined the growing list of officials who have directly contradicted PCRM’s vegan gospel.
Professor Robert Pickard, the director-general of the British Nutrition Foundation, told an audience in New Zealand that children with diets low in meat and other animal products are often deficient in essential vitamins and minerals. Pickard noted that humans are natural carnivores because that’s “the ancestral position we’ve evolved to fulfill.” And to make up for the animal-based nutrients that they’re missing, “vegans have to be very knowledgeable. They need microbiological preparations and multi-vitamin tablets and that’s not good dietary practice.”
Pickard’s advice comes on the heels of the recently released dietary recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). As we’ve told you before, the AAP’s advice also directly contradicts the claims PCRM has made about animal products in children’s diets.
You’d think that “responsible” physicians advocating for a vegan diet would be sure to let kids and parents know about all the extra nutritional hoops they have to jump through to stay healthy. But given the track record and agenda of this particular group of “responsible” physicians, we’re not holding our breath.
