Autism and depression are now on Beyonce

As the father of three young daughters, I am asking Beyonce` to seriously reconsider her misguided notions about diet because young ladies are watching.

With her recent announcement focusing on a vegan diet and even launching a vegan meal delivery service, I believe she needs to consider the science behind how this could make her responsible for increasing autism and depression.

Autism is on the rise in this country. Because junk science led so many parents to opt out of vaccinating their children for fear of autism, we now have a bigger problem with diseases that were once basically eradicated. That is why we cannot take issues like this lightly.

Dr. Arthur Beaudet, chair of molecular and human genetics at BCM and a physician at Texas Children's Hospital, is the senior author of the report that appears online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The findings suggest dietary intake of red meat, especially among very young children, could reduce the chance of developing autism.

Meat eaters receive about 75% of their carnitine from their diet; however, dietary carnitine levels are low in vegetarians and particularly in vegans. In most people, levels of carnitine are balanced by the body's ability to manufacture its own carnitine in the liver, kidney and brain, starting with a modified form of the amino acid lysine.

Link for more details to Increasing meat consumption may reduce autism in kids

If you compare the graph to increased autism to these two graphs showing the reduced consumption of milk and meat over that time period, it certainly gives one cause for concern that our diet is likely leading to increased autism.

In addition, we know that 20% of teens will experience teen depression before they reach adulthood.  Do you want your daughters to have to fight depression in addition to all the challenges teenagers have to deal with already?

Many recent peer reviewed studies have proven that vegan and vegetarian diets are associated with an elevated risk of depression.

Vegetarian diet and mental disorders: results from a representative community survey. link

Large Study Finds Vegetarians Have Poorer Health, Lower Quality of Life Than Meat-Eaters link

You're a Vegetarian. Have You Lost Your Mind? link

I would also urge you , as a parent, to check out NinaTeicholz nine years of research into the misleading information that has been dispersed about fat in the diet at www.thebigfatsurprise.com.

I am asking all parents, grandparents and supporters of teenagers, particularly girls, to stand with me in asking Beyonce to use her public status for the good of our youth rather than placing their health and their lives in danger to promote the most recent Hollywood diet fad. I realize Beyonce may not be concerned at all about our daughters, but surely she wants to do the right thing for her own little girl!