PUBLIC HEALTH
Veganism is a decisive choice for Swiss parents
Families who refuse to eat animal products can develop strategies to avoid the judgement of health experts. A study on veganism has proved that they’re even willing to accept additional burdens as a result.
Eating a purely vegan diet is complicated. That’s why mothers often stay at home in vegan families. | Image: iStockphoto
In Switzerland, health, nutrition and paediatric organisations speak in unison in warning against child veganism. However, when vegans become parents, they are unable to think about raising their children differently. This controversy and the consequences are set out by Edmée Ballif, an anthropologist and author of the first Swiss study on the topic.
Throughout her research, she gathered testimony from 17 vegan families to which she added data collected on local social media and Swiss association websites. “The first interesting and nevertheless concerning result is that vegan families put in place strategies to avoid being judged by health professionals”, she says. “It can be anything from changing to a paediatrician who is open to veganism to cutting themselves off completely from the medical profession”. It’s a surprising choice, given how central the concern of health is to vegan families.
In most Swiss families, individual child health and wellbeing are central, and guide parents in their educational choices. “For vegans, health is important, but it comes with other concerns: the well-being of animals and caring for the environment. This is a multi-species approach and it’s based on a non-traditional model”, she adds.
In a non-vegan society, the choice of vegan diets also implies extra work for the parents. “If they intend for their children to enter any form of care, they have to provide the meals”, says Ballif.
This is another consequence highlighted by the study: in roughly half of the families interviewed, one of the parents, usually the mother, had given up working to ensure the provision of food according to their diet. Being a vegan parent therefore has consequences on the labour market and potentially contributes to perpetuating socially defined gender roles.
