Schools Going Vegan across the U.S.
Vegetarian diets have been considered healthy in the past few decades, but studies in recent years have questioned the validity of dairy & egg products being healthy as well. With constant influx of undercover investigations appearing on facebook, youtube, and Netflix documentaries, more and more Americans are becoming aware of what really goes on in factory farms and food processing plants. With heart disease & cancer being the leading causes of death in the United States, people are making the connection between diet and health. Schools Going Vegan is the new trend, and as a vegan and vegetarian trainer I am happy to share this!
A child’s brain doubles in size it’s first year, and reaches 80% of it’s adult volume by age 3 (1). Learning begins at birth, and Children develops 85% of it’s core structure by age 3 (2). This is a strong indicator that what children are fed at a young age will determine their eating habits later in life. Childhood Type II Diabetes has been on the rise, affecting 208,000 U.S. citizens under age 20 and continues to grow (3). Millions of Americans have gone vegan, started feeding their kids vegan meals at home, and many others have started making healthier choices by switching from cow’s milk to dairy-free products or cutting red meat from their diet. The demand for vegan products is higher than ever, and now schools going vegan & daycares are creating plant-based menus for kids!
The trend started with the nation’s first vegetarian public elementary school in May 2014 at Public School 244 in Queens, NY (4). Locally, you might be able to find an In-home Daycare now offering a fully plant-based menu. Some private daycares, such as Bright Horizons, will allow parents to pack vegan lunches for their children, although most facilities are nut-free. In public daycares, your child’s pediatrician most likely needs to provide a note recommending soy milk otherwise will be required to serve cow’s milk. In May of this year, Dr. Barnard of PCRM announced that vegan lunches are coming to all L.A. Unified School District schools! It’s amazing, all of these schools going vegan!
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Resources: 1. http://www.urbanchildinstitute.org/why-0-3/baby-and-brain
2. http://www.finebynine.org/uploaded/file/Briefing%20Paper%201.pdf
3. http://www.diabetes.org/diabetes-basics/statistics/
4. http://school-stories.org/2014/05/inside-the-nations-first-vegetarian-public-school/
5. http://www.thelittlelearnersgroup.com/