Thumb through virtually any womans health fitness or fashion magazine and you will find an article touting a vegetarian diet. What isnt being conveyed to the reader is the damaging effect a total vegetarian lifestyle has on children, even those in the womb. A famous study in Cambridge involving nearly 8,000 British subjects determined that children born to vegetarian mothers were five time more likely to be born with birth defects than those who included meat in their diets. Five times! What loving parent would ever put their child at even twice the risk. Swedish scientist also reported that children who were not given animal products including dairy and eggs were deficient in levels of riboflavin, vitamin B-12, vitamin D, calcium and selenium, important physical and mental building blocks . Childhood obesity is constantly in the spotlight as it should be, yet at the other end of the spectrum we have parents forcing vegetarian diets on young children, it is time they were held accountable as well.