Pete Evans slams vegan parents after tragic case of malnourished baby girl: “This is so sad”
Celebrity chef Pete Evans has criticised those who force their children to follow a strict vegan diet, after a couple from Sydney were convicted over the malnourishment of their baby girl.
The parents were sentenced to 18 months prison yesterday, but still managed to escape time behind bars. Although, after police discovered their 20-month-old girl severely malnourished and suffering from rickets, their remaining children were taken away.
Her diet consisted of just oats, bread and a few mouthfuls of vegetables a day for months after the mother became “increasingly fixated” on veganism.
The young girl looked like a three-month old, weighing only 4.89kg. She was unable to crawl or sit up with help, had zero bone development and suffered from swollen legs due to fluid build-up.
But after switching up her diet in April 2018 and provided extra support, she began to grow and her teeth emerged.
The My Kitchen Rules judge had a few things to say about the incident, saying it was wrong for depriving a young child of meat.
“This is so, so sad,” said the paleo chef in a Facebook post.
“I will repeat it again and again. Humans are omnivores and we are designed to eat meat in our diet. Children should not be on a vegan plant-only diet.”
The 46-year-old pleaded with parents to “please use common sense”, especially when it came to their kids’ diets.
“If you choose to eat a plant-based diet as an adult then that is your choice and go for it … but please, please be wise with choices of what you feed your children.”
But not everyone was happy with the chef’s choice of words, saying it had nothing to do with veganism, and was simply due to neglect.
“The fact the diet was ‘vegan’ really has nothing to do with it. It was simply inadequate,” wrote one user.
“There are vegan diets of crap pizza, pasta and chips … and vegan diets of wholesome organic vegetables and produce. There is a HUGE difference,” said another.