Yes.
As the American Dietetic Association and Dieticians of Canada said: 'Well-planned vegan and other types of vegetarian diets are appropriate for all stages of the life cycle, including during pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood and adolescence.
' Well planned, that's the important bit.
Any diet has to be well planned to enhance and maintain good health.
A diet consisting entirely of whiskey and chocolate could be considered vegan but it wouldn't be well planned and certainly wouldn't be healthy.
To be healthy, a diet must include a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and pulses.
To this can be added grains although a few people have an intolerance to the gluten contained in many grains.
For the majority who don't have an intolerance, grains are a valuable source of protein, vitamins, minerals and fibre.
A vegan diet can supply every essential nutrient.
There are no problems with lack of iron or calcium from a vegan diet as it contains all you need.
Protein is found in abundance in plant-based diets It is true that plants don't supply us with vitamin B12 but that can be found in many fortified vegan foods.
We need such a minuscule amount of B12 that no vegan need go without.
Many or most meat eaters have to rely on supplementation to get their B12 because the animals they eat must be given cobalt supplements to ensure the bacteria in their guts can manufacture the vitamin.
This is because many soils are deficient in cobalt.
Vegan diets confer many health benefits: vegans are less likely than meat eaters to suffer from heart disease and many forms of cancer.
If you are worried about your cholesterol levels you could take medication to control it, with all the risks involved in using pharmaceutical drugs, or you could adopt a vegan diet.
There is no cholesterol in plant food.
The only cholesterol in vegans' bodies is what they make for themselves in their livers.
The range of foods that make up the vegan diet is truly amazing.
There are dishes that will delight the most jaded of palates.
Dishes that will have you saying to yourself: 'Surely, this can't be vegan?' You will be astounded and you will be delighted.
You will be convinced that the vegan diet can provide everything you need and everything you want.
And it can.
When I became vegan I wasn't absolutely sure that it would be healthy.
I'd been lacto-ovo vegetarian (consuming dairy products and eggs) for five years at that time but I had believed the propaganda that we need animal products for optimal health, so I hesitated in phasing out the milk, cheese and eggs.
I was actually vegan for about two years before I officially admitted that I was vegan.
That would have allowed me to go back to dairy and eggs without having to admit I was wrong if my health had suffered.
But I thrived.
I've been vegan for thirty years and I am strong, fit, healthy and full of energy.
It's so much easier being vegan now with a mind boggling range of food, both the healthy kind and the less healthy, comfort/indulgence kind.
Veganism is far more than just a healthy way of life.
Apart from sparing millions of other animals the need to be slaughtered to feed us, it is also better for the whole planet.
An enormous amount of land is required for farm animal grazing and to grow food to feed to them.
A tiny fraction of this land would be all that is needed to feed humans on a vegan diet.
Millions of acres of virgin forests, including the mighty Amazon Forest, are being cut down to provide short-lived grazing areas for cattle and to grow soya beans and other crops to feed them.
As well as destroying rich habitats, this destruction adds to climate change.
Farm animals consume vast amounts of water - when many humans around the world don't have access to clean water.
The farm animals also produce millions of gallons of slurry which pollutes water sources.
Farm animals are responsible for much climate change due to their production of methane, carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide - all dangerous greenhouse gasses.
The fertilizers and pesticides for growing farm animal food, and the transport and manufacture of these chemicals also add to the acceleration of climate change by polluting and poisoning the soil, water and air.
When countries like India and China begin to increase their consumption of meat and milk the situation will become much worse.
If you want to do your bit to reduce climate change, if you want to help to conserve natural habitats, if you want to live a life that doesn't require the exploitation of sentient creatures, the answer is simple: adopt the vegan way of life.
It's never been easier.
And for the planet, it's never been more urgent.
As the American Dietetic Association and Dieticians of Canada said: 'Well-planned vegan and other types of vegetarian diets are appropriate for all stages of the life cycle, including during pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood and adolescence.
' Well planned, that's the important bit.
Any diet has to be well planned to enhance and maintain good health.
A diet consisting entirely of whiskey and chocolate could be considered vegan but it wouldn't be well planned and certainly wouldn't be healthy.
To be healthy, a diet must include a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and pulses.
To this can be added grains although a few people have an intolerance to the gluten contained in many grains.
For the majority who don't have an intolerance, grains are a valuable source of protein, vitamins, minerals and fibre.
A vegan diet can supply every essential nutrient.
There are no problems with lack of iron or calcium from a vegan diet as it contains all you need.
Protein is found in abundance in plant-based diets It is true that plants don't supply us with vitamin B12 but that can be found in many fortified vegan foods.
We need such a minuscule amount of B12 that no vegan need go without.
Many or most meat eaters have to rely on supplementation to get their B12 because the animals they eat must be given cobalt supplements to ensure the bacteria in their guts can manufacture the vitamin.
This is because many soils are deficient in cobalt.
Vegan diets confer many health benefits: vegans are less likely than meat eaters to suffer from heart disease and many forms of cancer.
If you are worried about your cholesterol levels you could take medication to control it, with all the risks involved in using pharmaceutical drugs, or you could adopt a vegan diet.
There is no cholesterol in plant food.
The only cholesterol in vegans' bodies is what they make for themselves in their livers.
The range of foods that make up the vegan diet is truly amazing.
There are dishes that will delight the most jaded of palates.
Dishes that will have you saying to yourself: 'Surely, this can't be vegan?' You will be astounded and you will be delighted.
You will be convinced that the vegan diet can provide everything you need and everything you want.
And it can.
When I became vegan I wasn't absolutely sure that it would be healthy.
I'd been lacto-ovo vegetarian (consuming dairy products and eggs) for five years at that time but I had believed the propaganda that we need animal products for optimal health, so I hesitated in phasing out the milk, cheese and eggs.
I was actually vegan for about two years before I officially admitted that I was vegan.
That would have allowed me to go back to dairy and eggs without having to admit I was wrong if my health had suffered.
But I thrived.
I've been vegan for thirty years and I am strong, fit, healthy and full of energy.
It's so much easier being vegan now with a mind boggling range of food, both the healthy kind and the less healthy, comfort/indulgence kind.
Veganism is far more than just a healthy way of life.
Apart from sparing millions of other animals the need to be slaughtered to feed us, it is also better for the whole planet.
An enormous amount of land is required for farm animal grazing and to grow food to feed to them.
A tiny fraction of this land would be all that is needed to feed humans on a vegan diet.
Millions of acres of virgin forests, including the mighty Amazon Forest, are being cut down to provide short-lived grazing areas for cattle and to grow soya beans and other crops to feed them.
As well as destroying rich habitats, this destruction adds to climate change.
Farm animals consume vast amounts of water - when many humans around the world don't have access to clean water.
The farm animals also produce millions of gallons of slurry which pollutes water sources.
Farm animals are responsible for much climate change due to their production of methane, carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide - all dangerous greenhouse gasses.
The fertilizers and pesticides for growing farm animal food, and the transport and manufacture of these chemicals also add to the acceleration of climate change by polluting and poisoning the soil, water and air.
When countries like India and China begin to increase their consumption of meat and milk the situation will become much worse.
If you want to do your bit to reduce climate change, if you want to help to conserve natural habitats, if you want to live a life that doesn't require the exploitation of sentient creatures, the answer is simple: adopt the vegan way of life.
It's never been easier.
And for the planet, it's never been more urgent.
Source...