Woman Raised Her Daughter On Foods Without Any Added Sugar Or Carbs, Now She's Unveiling The Impact

Cooper is a self-professed “health and wellness coach” and “gut health enthusiast” who has studied the effect that the foods we consume have on our all-around well-being. She even has a degree in agricultural science, which is a strand of biology focusing on the growth and treatment of plants for human consumption.

And Cooper had battled with health problems for years; food allergies in particular had long been an issue. Her diet was specifically tailored to accommodate her needs, then, with the Brisbane, Australia, native choosing to refrain from consuming gluten, dairy, and processed foods.

In 2010 Cooper discovered the Paleo diet. For those who don’t know, the Paleo diet is a healthy eating plan that’s all about avoiding added sugar, carbs, and additives. It’s a regimen that promotes eating more natural, unprocessed foods — much like ancient man did. It includes lots of fruit, vegetables, and organically reared meats.

“I just got sick of not feeling great,” Cooper explained to the Daily Mail in 2015. “That had become my normal, and [I decided] that it wasn’t going to be normal anymore.” Then, when her daughter arrived in 2014, Cooper decided her baby was going to eat the same way.

As well as breastfeeding Grace on a couple of occasions daily, Cooper also gave her little girl plates full of veggies along with servings of organic chicken. A Paleo diet steers completely clear of any dairy or grains and instead sticks entirely to the types of foods that “cavemen could scavenge for.”

All in all, what the infant consumed was miles away from the sugary treats kids usually like to eat. But Cooper in no way felt that she denied her daughter the indulgences other children may feast on daily. The health coach was adamant that Grace loved the diet.

When Grace was little, Cooper started sharing the choices that she made for her daughter’s meals on her Instagram page, @myfoodreligion. On the social media site, a young Grace could be seen happily chowing down on a single floret of broccoli, for instance. It’s food that might typically send children that young into meltdown. Not Grace.

Up until the age of one, babies will usually be fed foods designed specifically for the consumption of newborns. Cooper never saw that as a viable option for Grace, though. Instead, the new mom would give her daughter the food that she’d prepared herself, in accordance with Paleo diet guidelines and so free from unnatural processing, sugars, and preservatives. And that seems to still be the case today now that Grace is older.

It’s a choice that Cooper believes has had an incredible effect on her daughter’s well-being. How? Well, she claimed that when Grace was two, she’d only ever had one cold. And the wellness coach also felt that her child’s good health and seemingly strong immune system were thanks to the way her daughter eats.

“[Grace] spends a lot of time around other kids who are sick all the time,” Cooper explained to the Daily Mail when her daughter was still little. “[They] have snotty noses, coughs, colds. But she just doesn’t pick them up.” And the Paleo diet fan gave the credit for that success entirely to her daughter eating immune system-boosting fresh fruit and vegetables.

“It’s certainly not because I’m shielding her from [sick children],” Cooper added. “I absolutely think that a nutrient-dense diet is giving [Grace] a strong immune system.” And the mom felt so strongly about eating well that she even wrote her own recipe book based on health foods.

Cooper shed more light on the kinds of foods Grace was allowed to the Daily Mail back in 2015. “[What Grace eats now] is not weird, or anything that normal people wouldn’t eat. She loves it. I don’t feed her toast or cereal or anything like that. [But] I think, ‘That stuff is not going to kill her.’ If she eats a piece of bread, I’m not going to have a conniption fit.”

But even though Cooper has clearly put a lot of time and effort into preparing her daughter’s meals, she seems to be pretty easygoing about processed foods creeping into the little girl’s diet at some point in her life. After all, with kids comes the prospect of children’s birthday parties loaded with cake, potato chips, and sugary drinks — something Grace will be encountering more now that she’s older.

Cooper was prepared for when this inevitably happened, though. “I’m not going to not let her go to kids’ parties,” the fitness devotee said. “She’s going to go to kids’ parties and eat what’s there. I’m never going to go to Grace, ‘You can’t eat anything at this party. But I packed you some kale – here you go.’”

Instead, Cooper credits her daughter with the intelligence to choose the foods that are right for her. During the 2015 discussion, the wellness enthusiast added, “[Grace will] be old enough to know that she can choose whatever she wants to eat. She’ll probably come home jacked up on sugar and cake and say, ‘Mom, I don’t feel very well.’”

Cooper’s aim when Grace was little was that she’d grow to make her own connections between what she eats and how it makes her feel. The health devotee cited women in particular and their relationship to food and eating disorders, continuing, “[Grace will] also learn what makes her feel good and what doesn’t.”

Of course, not everyone is a fan of Cooper’s unorthodox methods of parenting. Dietitian Dr. Rosemary Stanton, for one, cautioned others to think before they choose to follow Cooper’s lead. “It’s not usually a good idea to put a child on such a restricted diet, particularly when there are no valid grounds for it,” she told the Daily Mail.

Instead, Dr. Stanton has advised that grains and legumes, such as alfalfa and chickpeas, ought to be part of Cooper’s child’s diet. But Cooper herself was baffled as to why her parenting methods were being questioned. After all, why was she being told that she may have been damaging her child’s health while other parents were regularly taking their kids to fast-food restaurants? Whatever the critics say, Grace certainly looks happy these days...

Even though Grace is older now, it seems she’s still very happy to eat the healthy foods that her mom swears by. And she appears to be getting more involved in the cooking process, too. The duo often film and share videos of them creating delicious snacks for Cooper’s Instagram followers to also try. And Grace seems just as enthusiastic as her mom about the natural foods they’re using.

The packed lunches that Cooper makes for Grace to take to school are enough to make anyone’s mouth water. One day, Grace had tuna sushi, veggies, olives, crackers, and a protein ball. “The key I have found when it comes to lunchboxes is variety,” Cooper wrote in the Instagram caption. And in that respect, this lunch certainly doesn't disappoint.

From looking at Cooper’s Instagram, it’s clear she’s keen to make sure daughter Grace doesn’t feel as though she’s missing out on the snacks her friends are probably allowed. The mom managed to find a great nasty ingredient-free alternative for ice pops, for example. But will there be an alternative for everything Grace wants to try, that is the question? Or will Grace be happy eating like her mom forever? The big smile on her chops suggests the answer may be yes. But there are some parents out there who feel the vegan diet is much better for kids than Paleo.

Are they right? Just what are the effects of the vegan diet on kids? Well, a physician called Dr. Jackie Busse is sure that there are plenty of pros to kids living vegan. She told The Beet in 2020 that she’d seen patients with diabetes able to quit their meds thanks to their giving up meat. She also claimed that the diet helped lower patients’ blood pressures and clear up a host of other problems. So far, so good.

Busse said research has shown that vegan kids eat more minerals and vitamins than those who eat meat, too. Vegan children also get enough calories and protein from their plant-based food. They don’t take in as much cholesterol or saturated fat, either. And these aren’t the only benefits to children’s health that Busse talked about.

A vegan diet can be beneficial in controlling blood sugar levels and cutting the risk of diabetes. The diet may even help improve the health of people’s hearts — but the science is not conclusive here. Adults could use it to lose weight as well. And the upsides of the diet keep coming.

Veganism might also help reduce the symptoms of arthritis and Alzheimer’s – although these are rarely issues for children. So yes, there are pluses. But you definitely can’t just put your kids on a diet of veggies and seeds and expect no more health worries.

What are the concerns? It’s certainly possible the diet could cause kids to be deficient in nutrients such as vitamin D, iron, omega-3 fatty acids – and even more besides. So parents need to take a close look at the things their kids may not get enough of on a vegan diet. Take iron, for example.

You need iron to make red blood cells – and going short can cause issues. This could include tiredness, weakness, and mental problems such as poor concentration. But Dr. Busse told The Beet that iron deficiency is no more likely for vegan kids than for any other. But parents will need to make sure their kids get enough iron-rich grub.

How do you do this? Beans, lentils, leafy veg, wholemeal bread, and nuts are all good choices. Fortified milks and breakfast cereals are great as well. And you can boost a child’s iron intake by combining these with a source of vitamin C – say, an orange. But having an iron deficiency is only one concern with a vegan diet.

Another nutrient that can be found lacking in vegan diets is vitamin D. You need this stuff to absorb calcium. That’s a vital mineral for healthy bones and teeth – and therefore essential for children. Mind you, the best way to boost your vitamin D levels is to get outside. And there’s an important reason why kids should do this.

If you don’t get enough vitamin D, you can have insufficient minerals in your bones. For children, this could result in rickets. That is a condition in which kids can develop knock knees or bowed legs. And as you can’t get much vitamin D in vegan diets, you have to take extra steps to guard your kids’ health.

Look out for fortified foods – particularly vitamin-boosted plant milks and cereals. Supplements could be the way to go, too. The U.K. health department actually suggests that all kids in their early years should be taking vitamin supplements – regardless of their diet. And that brings us to the problems with calcium.

Calcium is another crucial mineral, as we’ve heard. It helps keep your bones strong and has important functions in other parts of the body. And because you gain about nine-tenths of your bone mass in your first 16 years, kids really need to get enough calcium. If their calcium levels get low, it can have serious consequences.

When calcium in the body is low, bones release the mineral into the bloodstream to help out elsewhere. So if you are consistently short of calcium, your bones won’t be able to keep enough of it for themselves. Your bones will then become more thin and porous – and more likely to fracture. This could be bad news for vegans.

Why? Because dairy is a great source of calcium. But – don’t worry – there are alternates. You can try fortified plant-based milks and cereals as well as soy yogurt. Some spreads are good, too, as are almonds and leafy greens. It’s all in the planning! And the same goes for omega-3 fatty acids.

They don’t sound appealing, but omega-3 fatty acids are essential to wellbeing. The three that we particularly need help to keep our brains, hearts, and eyes working well. Pretty essential, right? Unfortunately, though, vegan diets are only really a source of one fatty acid. So how will your kids get the other two essential components?

These other two fatty acids are usually derived from fish – which is obviously a no-go for vegans. Yet the fatty acids are actually made by microalgae that the fish eat. Why is this helpful? Because you can get supplements made directly from this algae. But there is another essential nutrient missing from vegan diets.

If you’ve researched veganism, you’ve probably heard about vitamin B12. You cannot make red blood cells without this vitamin – but it’s made by bacteria that live in animal intestines. This makes animal products the best source of it. But we’re here to say that while meat may be its best source of vitamin B12, it’s not the only one.

You can get vitamin B12 from fortified plant milk and some soy products. You can also find it in boosted breakfast cereals and sometimes in yeast extracts. To make sure your child has enough, just give them a mixture of these items – or have them take supplements. This is really important because a B12 deficiency can be very detrimental to your little one.

In the United States, about 6 percent of the population has a deficiency of vitamin B12. The symptoms can include fatigue, low energy, weak muscles, and memory issues. And that’s not all. If you’re low in vitamin B12 for long enough, you could damage nerves for good or suffer depression or coordination disorders. That is not good for your child.

What do you need to look out for? If your child complains of tingly or numb hands or feet – or they can’t keep their balance – they might have low stores of vitamin B12. This can be a sign of pernicious anemia, which can be extremely dangerous or even fatal. But a deficiency of vitamin B12 can be treated.

If your child has the condition, they might need tablets or injections of the substance hydroxocobalamin. These should fix the vitamin B12 deficiency and then supplements can keep it from recurring. But for vegans, a vitamin B12 supplement is the best way to avoid deficiency in the first place. So… Can children be healthy on a vegan diet?

After all, the deficiencies we’ve discussed aren’t necessarily always an outcome of a vegan lifestyle. But what is the scientific conclusion? A 2021 study looked at this question with a two-year study of Polish children between the ages of five and ten. And the findings will certainly give you something to think about.

The vegan kids did have a lower risk of developing cardiovascular diseases. They had 25 percent less of the unhealthy kind of cholesterol. But the news wasn’t all good for the plant-based foodies. The study found that vegans were at greater risk of having nutritional deficiencies. But that wasn’t all that was missing for the vegan kids.

Interestingly, the vegan children studied had 5 percent fewer bone minerals and were more than an inch shorter on average than the meat-eaters. That’s worrying because it means the vegans were failing to add bone density at a crucial stage of their development. There was also a difference between the vegan and vegetarian subjects.

In the study, vegetarian kids weren’t quite as deficient in nutrients as vegans. On the other hand, they didn’t have as healthy a cardiovascular risk profile. The study’s authors said that this was down to their eating higher amounts of processed foods. But what was the research’s ultimate conclusion?

The authors said that parents need to ensure their kids get plenty of protein from nuts, lentils, and beans, along with calcium from fortified plant milks. Dr. Busse also told The Beet that kids needed plenty of food that was rich in nutrients. She said, “It’s important to make every bite count.”

Infants require a lot more fat than adults do, Busse said. So parents need to make sure meals include healthy fats such as those from olive oil, nuts, and avocado. Vegan kids should also be eating specially chosen sources of omega-3 fatty acids daily – or take supplements. But Busse’s conclusion was that this is true for any child.

If a kid eats a junk-food diet, it doesn’t matter at all if it’s vegan or meat-based. A vegan junk-food diet is still a junk-food diet! So the best way to keep a kid healthy, whether they are vegan or not, is to focus on whole foods that aren’t processed.