"The Kind Diet" author says that veganism helps her son feel well so he acts well. (Photo: Getty Images)
Actress and author Alicia Silverstone says she doesn’t worry about her 8-year-old son giving her attitude. Nope.
“I’ve never had to raise my voice to Bear,” Silverstone, 42, told US Weekly. And listen up parents, because what she says next is as rare as a unicorn. “I can just say ‘no, thank you’ and we respect each other and listen to each other.”
Whaaaa?!
Silverstone, the author of “The Kind Diet,” says her secret is the vegan diet, which she’s adhered to for more than 20 years. (The vegan diet is plant-based, with no meat or animal products.)
“A lot of it is the parenting, but a lot of it is the food,” the “Clueless” actress said. “When your kid feels good, they act well.”
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Silverstone: Veganism shields against sickness
Silverstone has been bold in the past about saying Bear “never” takes medicine because the diet supercharges his immune system.
“He’s never had to take medicine in his life,” she told Page Six. “Two times in his life has he been like ‘Mommy, I don’t feel good,’ and it was only for a few hours and he was back running around.”
Bear is Silverstone’s son with Christopher Jarecki. The couple divorced in 2018 after almost 13 years together.
Is veganism healthier?
In May, Belgium’s Royal Academy of Medicine recommended that children, teens, pregnant and nursing women not follow a vegan diet. Researchers said a diet that excludes meat, eggs, dairy products and other animal-based products could result in nutritional deficiencies.
But U.S. doctors and nutrition experts criticized the report.
The Physicians Committee, a U.S. nonprofit of 12,000 doctors, and the authors of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics’ position paper on vegetarian diets, wrote the Belgian Academy that their conclusions were not based on scientific evidence and were misleading.
The AND paper said vegan diets are “appropriate, and they satisfy the nutrient needs and promote normal growth at all stages of the life cycle, including pregnancy and lactation, infancy, childhood, adolescence, older adulthood, and for athletes.”
Some American doctors disagreed with a Belgian study that found a vegan diet robbed children and pregnant women of important nutrients. (Photo: Getty Image)
While no major, long-term study on veganism and childhood health appears to exist, the proponents of veganism say research shows that children, teens and pregnant women who follow a vegetarian or vegan regimen often eat a more nutritious diet than their peers.
“It is clear that children in Europe, America and the world over are at increasingly high risk of health problems related to a diet heavy in meat and dairy products,” said Physicians Committee president Dr. Neal Barnard. “To deny children a healthier path is indefensible.”
Contributing: AP
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