Vegan Nutrition with Marty Davey

Marty Davey is a Registered Dietitian and has a Masters degree in Food and Nutrition from Marywood University. In her first career incarnation, Marty worked in the entertainment field, mainly in film and television. During her first college career in the 1970's, Marty moved from her blue collar meat and potatoes diet to learning to eat a variety of beautifully meals set in a relaxed dinnertime while studying in France. She became a vegetarian in 1980 when she discovered that the French didn't want our meat products due to factory farming methods. She began studying nutrition while cleansing her diet to a totally plant-based lifestyle. After having her son, she embarked on becoming an RD.

Marty has taught nutrition and cooking classes for many years. She was the Program Coordinator of the SNAP! program at Marywood University. This was a family weight management program that focused on the family dynamic in dealing with weight issues for both parents and children. Currently, Marty is working on a book for elderly vegetarians/vegans discussing daily nutrition needs and including issues with acute and long term facility care when following a plant-based diet. A website is being built for Marty to further educate people about plant-based diets. She also has a private practice specializing in assisting clients transitioning from the conventional Western foods to a plant-based regime.

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My 21 month old is still drinking cows milk and we want to get her off of it since we are otherwise a vegan family and have been for a while now. Our problem is that we had tried soy milk after she was weaned at 12 months, because she had already been eating tofu and other soy products I was thinking it would be fine. But she vomited almost right away each day we tried it so after a few days I gave up and got her some organic cow milk since the doctor said she must have a soy allergy. So she was been drinking organic cows milk ever since which breaks my heart since we are not wanting animal products in our house or in our kids bodies. Did her reaction to soy milk mean she has a soy allergy even when she seems to eat soy foods with no issue since she started table foods at nine months? She still eats soy foods now but we have not tried soy milk since 12 months of age. Should I try soy milk again? Is rice milk safe for toddlers, should I try it instead?

Soy allergies can be seen in infants because the digestive tract isn?t developed enough to deal with the protein. According to the Mayo Clinic most soy allergies are outgrown by age three. So, your daughter may have no issue with soy milk at this time of her life. However, I am not a big fan of drinking soy milk. In my response to Are meat analogues an appropriate substitute for meat-based baby food?, I wrote about soy isolates. Soy milk and tofu should equal about 5% of your intake. This means 4 ounces of soymilk is fine for your daughter on a daily basis. I would use enriched rice milk for the rest of the time. Enriched rice milk has the same Vitamin D, B12, and Calcium amount as soy or cow milk, but without the added sugars as in soy, (rice is sweet enough by itself), or the added fats and other vegan issues attributed to cow milk. The one problem I have encountered with rice milk is that it does not have the protein content of the other aforementioned drinks. This was a special client with specific nutritional needs. For most kids this is not an issue. They get enough protein from other sources. Also, my son likes plain rice milk. Again, it doesn?t have the added sugars of the flavored milks and it doesn?t have the bean-y taste of plain soy. I use rice or soy in all types of cooking interchangeably with cow milk. The enriched rice milk should be fine, but remember she can also mix it up with some enriched nut milks for more taste experiences.?

Ask Marty your nutrition question here.

Disclaimer: The advice given here is for eductional purposes only. You should not use this information to diagnose or treat a health problem or disease without consulting with a qualified health care provider.

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