Raw Food Diets Dangerous for Children?

The New York Times published an article this week about the dangers of putting children on a raw food diet.Here are some highlights:

"Many doctors are cautioning against the trend. A child’s digestive system may not be able “to pull the nutrients out of raw foods as effectively as an adult’s,” said Dr. Benjamin Kligler, a family practitioner with the Center for Health and Healing in Manhattan.

Over the last year, Dr. TJ Gold, a pediatrician in Park Slope, Brooklyn, with a strong focus on nutrition, has seen about five families who are feeding their children, including toddlers, raw diets. Some of the children were severely anemic, she said, and the parents were supplementing the diets with vitamin B12.

“If you have to supplement something for children in order to do it, is that really the right diet for them?” Dr. Gold said."

I'm a firm believer in bio-individuality, and therefore don't think it is necessarily the best decision to impose a special diet on children. Just because you are a vegan/vegetarian/raw foodist doesn't mean your child has to be.

I try to eat at least 51% of my foods raw, and don't eat meat. But when I have kids will I make my kiddos do the same? NO. I will encourage them to listen to their bodies and eat what they crave (as long as it is not refined sugar, GMO, factory farmed meat, or processed junk that is ).

Are you a parent? What is your opinion on diets and children? I would love to hear from you.