Food consumption, growth, and development of Dutch children fed on alternative diets

A review of four studies examining food consumption growth and development of Dutch children fed on alternative diets is given. A literature study indicated that regarding child nutrition the three important movements in the Netherlands are the ecological movement, the anthroposophics, and the macrobiotics. A study on food consumption, height, and weight in preschool children fed these diets showed that the group of macrobiotic children were most at risk. Antropometric data collected in a cross-sectional study with 300 macrobiotic-fed children aged 0-8 y showed that the growth curves for boys and girls deviated from the Dutch standard curves after approximately 5 mo of age. There was no catch-up growth. In a selected sample of this latter group (43 children aged 4-6 y) mental development was measured by the Snijders-Oomen-Nonverbal intelligence test. The results of this test did not indicate an abnormal mental development for this age group of macrobiotic children.