Month: June 2007

The Danger of the One-Sided Debate

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An anti-vegan op-ed piece in the New York Times has received some fairly righteous debunking in an article by the Times’ Public Editor.

Rachelle Leesen, a clinical nutritionist at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, told me that Planck’s article “was extremely inflammatory and full of misinformation.” She and her colleague Brenda Waber pointed me to a 2003 paper by the American Dietetic Association, the nation’s largest organization for food and nutrition professionals. After reviewing the current science, the A.D.A., together with the Dietitians of Canada, declared, “Well-planned vegan and other types of vegetarian diets are appropriate for all stages of the life cycle, including during pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood and adolescence.”

Via [Taste Better].

Bumps and bruises are ‘good for children’

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Sane advice for parents from a British safety organization.

Peter Cornall, head of leisure safety at the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA), said: “We need to ask ourselves whether it is better for a child to break a wrist falling out of a tree, or to get a repetitive strain wrist injury at a young age from using a computer or video games console.

“Parents and children must not be frightened about venturing outside. When children spend time in the great outdoors, getting muddy, getting wet, getting stung by nettles, they learn important lessons – what hurts, what is slippery, what you can trip over or fall from. We need to try to break down the perceived safety barriers to playing outside.