Back Page: Hound - Between the lines in the past week's media

But why write to a newspaper?

Because the lad had been raised as a vegetarian, despite protests from a grandfather that this would stunt his growth. And that was topical last week, because Professor Lindsay Allen, from the University of California, had upset nutritionists on this side of the Atlantic by suggesting that non-meat eaters suffered mental and physical problems. She wound them up even more by saying that it was unethical to feed children a vegan diet, free from all animal sources.

What was odd was the lack of outcry about the ethics of the study. Professor Allen observed 544 children in Kenya whose diet was known to be lacking micronutrients. For two years a quarter of the group was given a daily supplement of two ounces of meat. Two other groups were given either a cup of milk a day or oil supplements containing the same amount of energy.