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Raw vegan children -- By Shazzie July 2008 I can keep quiet about this no longer. There has been the most huge cover up in the raw food movement spanning years which has damaged children the world over. Every person who has spoken out about this in the past has been publicly slammed by members of the raw food community and their research and experience has been dismissed. These are often people who are highly experienced in raw food nutrition, yet these raw foodists continually claim that those people must be doing something wrong. It couldn't possibly be the food because we've been told the raw vegan diet is perfect for everyone. Haven't we!? Worse than shunning genuine people with genuine experiences and genuine solutions is the lies that are being spread. For example, one mother experienced severe growth defects in her children on the raw vegan unsupplemented diet and resorted to dairy and meat. She now stands shoulder to shoulder with the other raw vegan dogmatists and writes on raw food forums pretending to be someone else! She says that she has been successful in raising her children raw vegan, yet she clearly hasn't. When questioned on these forums, no-one could produce a child who has been raised 100% raw vegan unsupplemented. In fact, all anyone could do was deflect the question and turn it into a flame and blame war. Why? Indoctrination and dogmatism. These people are so tied into a belief system that nothing, not even the visible deteriorating health of their child can bring them out of their hypnotic state. The truth is, though I'd love to see it, I have never once seen a 100% raw 100% vegan 100% unsupplemented child past breastfeeding age who has no tooth decay and is the correct weight and height for their age. Not one. Ever. Why? I don't know. On the other hand, I have, since 2001 seen countless raw vegan unsupplemented children spanning several countries with growth, teeth and mental disorders. Now, don't ask, because I will not name names, ever. I have cried at the child who was so retarded he barely moved (he since recovered on a cooked vegetarian diet, perhaps with some fish in the early stages). My heart has sank at the tiny girl on YouTube who has hardly any top teeth due to visible decay. My heart has wept when I've received letters from mothers who "just couldn't raise their children raw vegan", no matter how much they wanted to, even though they followed the advice of "experts" to the letter. And I've been puzzled as to why the raw food community covers these issues up time and time again. "Is it just me"? I've often wondered? But it isn't just me, as the letters I've recently received tell me. It is a cover up, and it's ugly because what is going on is... CHILD ABUSE Like you, I desperately wanted to see these shining examples of raw vegan unsupplemented children because I wanted Evie to be one. I wanted to raise her naturally and cruelty free. I'd been told it was possible. There were tales of this family, and that family, and the other family. But whenever I looked into it, they weren't all raw all vegan and not supplemented. Or if they were, they were too small, often with with tooth decay. I would never knowingly put Evie's health at risk. I always vowed that I'd continually assess her and make adjustments to her diet if necessary. I decided long ago to give her a small amount of supplementation daily. That way maybe she could still be raw and still be vegan yet also be the correct size, with good teeth and and a high IQ. As Evie grew and became less dependant on my breast milk, I knew I had to research the precise missing links in raw vegan infant health. I would be doing her and my readers a terrible disservice if I didn't. First, I had to question my own belief system. At the time of writing I've been an ethical vegan for over 21 years and into raw food for over 8 years. I have a huge amount of experience with raw and vegan diets. I spend my life living, breathing and researching it. I've been taking small amounts of supplements on and off myself as long as I've been vegan. I had to keep reminding myself that a vegan diet isn't natural and therefore should be supplemented. Then I had to question the sanity of those who dismissed the experience of others. The blatant lies and cover-ups are likely due to the left brain being too dominant in these people. While I feel physically sick that this still happens, I refuse to judge or condemn them. They need love, just like the rest of us. They need to be made to feel safe and secure so they can be truthful and get the help they need for their children without risk of attack. Next I had to research childhood nutrition in depth, from all angles. I had to understand it as a whole, and then work out where the pieces of the jigsaw were missing for raw vegans. As a result, I've worked out a way of making the raw vegan diet successful for growing children. Their needs are specific, and quite different to the needs of adults, so our experiences don't equal their experiences on raw vegan foods. This is all in my forthcoming book, Evie's Kitchen, but I don't want you to have to buy something that could be crucial to your child's health, so I've outlined those jigsaw pieces below. Finally, I had to apply my findings to Evie, cross my fingers tight and hope that it worked. The truth is I won't know for a while yet as she still has breastmilk reserves. I'm currently weaning her off my milk, and she will stop on her fourth birthday (05 August 2008). After that, she will be on just raw vegan foods and supplements. If her growth or teeth suffer, I will make adjustments. My vegan choice is not Evie's, and I will only keep her vegan if she continues to flourish. I will not lie about any future choices I make for her, I will not cover it up, and I will not damage my child. This, I promise her and you. I'm brave enough to face the flames of the forums (I actually laugh at the highly incorrect assumptions they make about me) and the army of raw vegans who insist they are right, regardless of their lack of experience in this matter. I make absolutely no apologies for raising this issue. I will continue to raise it until we get a generation of healthy raw vegan children. Believe me, I will not make this convenient for the hardline raw vegans out there and scuttle off under a stone, feeling like a failure. They've done that to enough mothers, but they cannot do it to me -- I have no fear. None. Nothing they can say can hurt me because I know I'm fully living my truth You can be brave enough, too. If your raw vegan child has suffered as a result of miseducation and lies, you may be able to reverse the damage with supplementation or dietary shifts. Seek help from a natural medical practitioner, and I wish you luck. Some day, your story may help other raw vegan parents and children. We need to all remain positive about this situation, it's a great learning opportunity. Please remember A healthy raw vegan child should not be smaller or lighter than other children. Of course all children vary in size, but frail, bird-like and too small is a warning sign. A healthy raw vegan child should not have tooth decay. A healthy raw vegan child should not have sunken cheeks or a strange shaped face. A healthy raw vegan child should be sociable, intelligent and happy. A healthy raw vegan child should not have to suffer permanent physical damage because of indoctrinated dogma and lies. That being the case, please, for the sake of all the future raw kids, let's stop these lies now! They benefit absolutely no-one and they lead to CHILD ABUSE! Junk food children are suffering throughout the western world -- if we claim to have more knowledge about health than the average person, then our children should be more healthy than the average person. Poor growth and rotten teeth in a child is not detox, wheatgrass deficiency, emotional parental energetic genetic issues or anything else, it is malnutrition, and that is CHILD ABUSE. So what supplements could make a difference? If you want more information on the missing elements, you can hear a radio interview I did on this subject. It's all in there, free of charge to you right now. You don't have to wait for Evie's Kitchen to be published to ensure you have a healthy raw vegan child. It is my wish right now for every raw vegan child to be fully radiant, happy and healthy. And I still feel that it's possible, but only with supplementation. In summary, Evie's supplementation consists of: Soya lecithin for choline Viridian Vitamin D (sun exposure may be enough, depending on skin colour and location). Vitamin K2 from Mercola.com (we can't synthesise enough K2 and it's essential for bones and teeth). Ortho Bone Vegan (contains K2, but not enough, B12 and essential bone health co-factors). Vegan DHA (long-chain fatty acid, essential for brain growth, especially up to two years of age). Ionic iron (not always necessary to supplement but may be worthwhile up to five years due to faddy eating). Everything else is ABUNDANT in the kind of raw vegan diet Evie has. She has about a pint of green juice a day, lots of seeds (and their mylks), lots of nutrient-dense food such as berries and coconut as well as small amounts of ecstatic foods such as maca, AFA algae, seaweeds, mesquite, purple corn, Incan berries and goji berries. I cannot stress highly enough that I love raw vegan foods Raw food gave me my life back, and I'm eternally grateful to it. I love being a vegan and hope I will be one for the rest of my life. However, it's not natural to be a vegan. Even "vegan" animals such as horses eat lots of insects, unlike us. If you want your child to be raw vegan and unsupplemented, tread very carefully, keep checking growth and teeth and find a good role model. I don't know of one. If you want your child to be raw vegan with a few small supplements, you now know what to look for. Finally, every child has different needs and preferences. If possible, get your child tested for deficiencies to see if there is anything else you need to add in. For example, iodine is necessary for growth and IQ, and we get ours from kelp, you may need to supplement. Here's to your child's health and the blossoming of honesty in the worldwide raw food community. Love Update, August 1st 2008 I've had so many letters of support for speaking out about this essential issue. We haven't been able to answer all of them but we have read them, and thank everyone who has contacted us about this. I have felt an enormous sense of relief since writing this article, and am happy that it's already having such a positive effect on raw families everywhere. I'd just like to answer the most common questions that we've had, so you have my "official" view on some things: Q: What about Storm and Jinjee's children, and Doug and Roz's child? A: I've already stated that I won't discuss individual cases. However, for clarity I want to say this: I fully appreciate the presence of these two loving raw families. Storm and Jinjee's family eat honey and bee pollen, so they are not vegan. Bee pollen has bee legs in it. Honey is an animal product. I'm not judging them eating it, I'm saying that they are not vegan and my issue is with raw *vegan* children. Doug and Roz's child is still very young. I would expect, given their values, that she is still breastfed. As I've already stated, most deficiencies show after breastfeeding has stopped unless the mother is highly deficient and can't produce good quality milk. I would imagine Roz's milk is good. Even if these children were all raw, all vegan, past breastfeeding age and fully healthy with no cavities and the correct height and weight for their age, this would only be a handful of children from extremely experienced raw parents. It is nothing compared to the countless children I've seen suffer due to misguided ideals about raw vegan diets. It is not worth risking the long term health of your child when there is no need. Q: Are you not a vegan any more? A: Yes, I am. Believe me, I've gone round in circles in my head about this whole issue! I've been a vegan 21 years, veggie for 2 years before that. I feel like I'm at a stage in my life where I couldn't go back to eating animal products. It feels wrong for me on so many levels. However, I'm not a growing child, and I supplement regularly. I'm super healthy, and have no need to look outside my diet and supplements for health. Q: Is Evie not a vegan any more? A: Yes, she is still vegan. A growing child has different needs to me, and I'm not going to risk Evie's health for my ethics. As she's about to stop breastfeeding, I've discussed raw organic goat's milk with her. She said if she feels she needs it, she'll try it. When I first mentioned it, she said "No, that's for baby goats", because that's what I've been telling her about milk all these years! Milk is species specific, and I don't think it's natural, but the other option would be to eat insects and small things that we could catch. Neither is ideal for me, so I'm hoping her excellent diet and supplements keep her healthy, then she can remain vegan. I'll be keeping an eye on her development, and will quickly make changes if there is any decline in her health. Q: Why has no-one else mentioned vitamin K2? Is it the same as vitamin K, because that's abundant in green leafy vegetables. A: I've been researching Evie's Kitchen for about four years. It took me a long time to work out this small but hugely important missing link in vegan bone health. I've not seen it in any other vegan literature ever in my life. Vitamin K1 is abundant in leafy greens. As raw vegans who eat lots of greens and green juices, we get plenty. We then synthesise vitamin K2 in the gut from vitamin K1. This is the element that works with vitamins A and D to help bone minerals deposit themselves in the right place. If there's not enough vitamins A, D or K2, then bone and tooth problems will occur.It doesn't matter if you take in tonnes of minerals, if you don't have the fat soluble vitamins to help them find their homes, they won't work at all. Animals are very good at converting vitamin K1 to K2. Humans are very bad at it, and it appears our daily upper limit of conversion is less than the amount we need for good bone health. It's abundant in the milk and organ meat of grass-fed animals. This is why goat's milk works, even though it's not natural to take the milk of another animal. Thought vitamin K2 is a fat soluble vitamin, it's not stored for more than a few days in the body, so we need regular small amounts of vitamin K2 for perfect bone health. We can either choose to have it from animal products or as a supplement. If we don't have it, we will not remain in optimal health. If growing children don't have it, they won't grow correctly. A breastfed child will get it from the mother (from what she's eaten, taken as a supplement or converted). If the mother doesn't replace what the child takes, her teeth and bones may suffer. When the child stops breastfeeding s/he needs to get K2 from elsewhere. I've been giving Evie Ortho Bone Vegan (which contains K2) for a long time, long before I understood the importance of vitamin K2. I'm so thankful of that. Her health and size are perfect. Q: Is there anything else I can do to ensure good bone and teeth health for my child? A: Lots of green juices, herbs in food, superfoods, wild foods and sea vegetables. I would never attempt to raise a raw vegan child without supplements, and I also have them. The least you need to take is Ortho Bone Vegan (2-4 caps a day for a child, sprinkled into food and drinks, 12 caps per adult per day). This particular supplement covers all bases, and is a great safety net, but it's no replacement for nutrient dense raw organic or wild food. If you are breastfeeding, this food and supplement advice applies to you at least up until you stop breastfeeding, but beyond that if possible. A: Why should we believe what you say when you won't tell us who these children are? I can't tell you who these children are. It's not fair on the families involved. You wouldn't want that for your child, would you? I have no reason to make all this up. I've got better things to do with my time, believe me! If you don't believe what I'm saying, and choose to raise your raw vegan child without supplements, then you will always remember that you saw this information. If your child doesn't thrive, then you can quickly change your belief system and adjust your child's nutritional intake. I hope, in writing this, that no more raw vegan children suffer with deficiencies. Now we know how to prevent it, there's no need at all. That's my only wish, in this whole situation. Thanks once again to everyone who contacted us. I hope these answers help. Love

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