A study released in the journal Pediatrics has unveiled that children whose diet was vegetarian experience similar measures as those who chose to consume meat.
The research involved close to 9,000 children. The children were aged six months to eight years.
Researchers demonstrated that vegetarian diets led to similar growth and biochemical measures of nutrition as those who consumed non-vegetarian diets. The findings did note that the vegetarian diet increased the risk underweight status.
“Researchers found children who had a vegetarian diet had similar mean body mass index (BMI), height, iron, vitamin D, and cholesterol levels compared to those who consumed meat,” the study’s authors determined.
“The findings showed evidence that children with a vegetarian diet had almost two-fold higher odds of having underweight, which is defined as below the third percentile for BMI. There was no evidence of an association with overweight or obesity.”
The study was conducted by researchers at St. Michael’s Hospital.
