Religious Variations in Vegetarian Diets and Impact on Health Status of Children

Religion has played an important role in shaping the dietary habits of the population in different parts of the world. Vegetarianism is strongly associated with a number of religions that originated in ancient India, which advocate nonviolence. Although vegetarian diet has been shown to be associated with several health benefits in traditionally meat eating societies, in predominantly vegetarian populations such as in India, vegetarian lifestyle may confer nutritional imbalances and consequent effects on long-term health in children. These effects may be due to maternal macro- and micronutrient deficiencies and excesses leading to compromised fetal growth. Impaired postnatal and childhood growth due to nutritional imbalances in the unsupplemented vegetarian diet may further exacerbate these effects. The future focus should be on devising religion- and culture-appropriate intervention methods to prevent the adverse effects of vegetarian diets on health in children.