Nutrition Challenges and Opportunities When Shifting to Plant-Based Diets

There has been a significant increase in the number of people shifting towards plant-based dietary patterns over the past decade due to interest in protecting the health of the planet as well as improving human health. Studies have shown that vegetarian diets are associated with a lower prevalence of obesity in adults and children; therefore, moving towards a vegetarian diet in childhood may help prevent obesity later in life. The VeChi study in Germany found that on average vegetarian and vegan children grew equally well as omnivorous children. It is important to ensure that children following plant-based diets have adequate amounts of key nutrients, such as energy, fats, iron, calcium, iodine, vitamin B12, and omega-3 fats. In the VeChi studies, vegan children had the lowest intakes of calcium and iodine out of the three diet groups. The vegan children also had the lowest vitamin B12 intakes without supplements, but when supplements were taken into account, they had the highest vitamin B12 intakes. Iron intake in vegetarian children is consistently reported as higher than in omnivorous children. However, iron stores (indicated by low ferritin levels) tend to be lower in vegetarian compared to omnivorous children, due to decreased bioavailability of non-haem iron found in plant foods. When introducing solids, iron-rich foods should be offered early and paired with iron enhancers such as vitamin C and beta-carotene to improve iron absorption.