12-year-old vegan has the spine of an 80-year-old

But don't you recall the Biblical history of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego? The King's men ate meat and drank wine while these three chosen by God ate vegetables, and after ten days, who was stronger? From a Reformed perspective, even though I really enjoy your column, I have to say you seem perilously close to contradicting Scripture by reporting the "facts" here.

Well, there IS another source for Vitamin D, you know. Sunlight.

And there's 250K vegans in the UK. If the problem was with the vegan diet, then all their kids were suffering various forms of bone problems. Because the lack of animal sources for various vitamins would be identical for all of them, even if the specifics of the diet varied, and that is the part that makes it 'vegan'.

I'm an omnivore, myself, same as most, and I can say that I've also seen kids with various deficiencies whose parents practice that diet too. That has to do with either some problem with the parent, or their ignorance about dietary needs than a specifically 'vegan' diet, or all vegans would have that problem.

After all, we all need vitamin D, lack of Vitamin D has the same effect on everyone. If the only sources available are animal, and all vegans refrain from ALL food from animal sources, they should ALL have Vitamin D deficiency, with all the problems that entails.

Since there's hundreds of thousands of them in the UK alone, and there have been, what did the article say? Oh yeah.. two cases, I'd say that the problem lies elsewhere.

The point of my post wasn't to knock vegans putting their kids on the diet but that if they do, they bear the responsibility for ensuring they have a well-balanced diet otherwise it's child abuse.

As a vegan of only 2 weeks, I must make the comment that yes everyone's diet should be varied, but veganism has nothing to do with ill-health. A lack of meat, dairy and egg can even be more beneficial to the body than eating it regularly as long as each person is sensible...but it goes without saying that if a person rejects medical advice they will get ill.
It's not about being a meat-eater or being a vegan or vege, it's about common sense.

And, DC, eliciting the teaching was the point of my post. Thank you for recognizing this. I have nowhere claimed to be Reformed, but I welcome a Biblical, or at least consistent, spiritual commentary on this topic.

Would anyone be interested in my perspective as a chemist? Not an MD, RD, or health practitioner, just as someone who works out some of the mechanics of formulating pharmaceuticals for a living? I have co-authored with some well known MDs and RDs and have published on osteoporosis medications.

For people who eat meat and dairy, the problems are typically (1) the gut can only absorb about 1/3 to 1/2 of the daily needs of calcium from any one meal and (2) the hormones that activate the transportation of calcium into bones depend on vitamin K. Don't eat your green veggies at least once or twice a week (and preferably with some kind of oil, since vitamin K is fat-soluble), and you tend to have problems with bone mass as you get older. Calcium isn't enough, phosphate isn't a problem if you eat meat, vitamin K and vitamin D are the limiting reagents, if you'll forgive my expressing the process from my own professional perspective.

For children not given meat and dairy, bone health is, again, possible, because it is possible to get calcium from plant sources. Here the problem typically is phytate in other plant foods blocking the absorption of the calcium. Anything especially fibrous or rich in tannins interferes with mineral elements, but vitamins, other than D, usually aren't the problem.

I commend anyone who pursues a vegan diet on moral principle, Biblical or otherwise. It just requires a lot more planning to make sure kids get nutrients. I have on a couple of occasions, by the way, consulted to doctors on formulating supplements for kids with kwashiokor and rickets--in Atlanta.

Now, I'll leave to those who tell me I just don't understand to translate this into spiritual terms.