ABSTRACT
In recent decades, the vegetarian dietary option has been increasing in the general population, in cluding the pediatric age group. This has led to numerous questions regarding the benefits and risks that may arise from its implementation. Food restriction implies the potential deficiency of several nutrients, establishing some of them as critical for this period of development and rapid growth, so the safety of vegetarian diets has not been fully established worldwide. The main critical nutrients are iron, zinc, calcium, vitamin B12, and omega-3 fatty acids. The groups most at risk of nutritional deficiencies are infants, adolescents, more restrictive vegetarian options, and those who do not have adequate professional nutritional counseling. Therefore, vegetarian diets should be strictly supervi sed. Scientific societies such as the American, Canadian, Italian, and British nutrition societies recog nize vegetarian diets as healthy in the pediatric age as long as they are supervised by qualified health professionals. However, there are others that do not support it as the French one, while the Spanish one supports it with restrictions in the infant period. The objective of this publication is to describe potential nutritional deficiencies and to provide recommendations to follow a balanced and safe ve getarian diet in the pediatric population according to the available information, paying attention to the limitations that we may have in the implementation of this diet in our population, especially in critical stages such as infants and adolescents.
