They Say: One in Two Hundred Kids are Vegetarian
Think your kid is just being picky when she turns up her nose at your perfectly cooked hamburgers? Think again.
News out of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) say vegetarianism is taking hold in American kids. Based on surveys in a study of alternative medicine from 2007, the CDC estimates one in two hundred kids are opting out on meat.
The information comes from interviews with nine thousand parents and other adults speaking on behalf of kids. Breaking down the ages of the kids the study dealt with, teens – who usually have more control over their diet – are considered even more likely to be vegetarian. The CDC says the one in two hundred number can be multiplied by four to six if you’re talking specifically about teens.
As a complete vegetarian since I was a junior in high school (with attempts to go vegetarian before that, foiled by my parents, of course), I’m not really surprised to see the spike as kids get older. As a vegetarian parent, married to a meat-eater, I initially struggled with the decision of whether or not to let my child eat meat. But watching other parents deal with picky eaters, I worried that it would be more difficult to ensure she was getting enough of the “good stuff” if we limited her diet to non-meat products. My concern for her overall nutrition won out – she eats meat . . . and veggie burgers. My hope is that one day she’ll opt to follow my ways, and by then it will be easier to convince her of the importance of getting the proper nutrients (and she’ll be put on the same regimen of vitamins that I take to keep my body in check).
But I realize I’m still in the minority as a parent. The majority of parents I encounter who are not already in a fully vegetarian household have told me unequivocally that they want their kids to eat meat. My own parents still think I’m nuts. So I’m speaking from experience when I say it’s a tough road for a lot of kids – they want to cut out meat, but their parents, their friends and their school lunch program make it tough.
It’s only as a teenager, that becoming a vegetarian becomes a true option for these kids – because parents who eat meat often pooh pooh their choices when they’re younger. They (we) are often written off as picky eaters, with parents forcing kids to eat meat simply because that’s the way everyone else does things.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. If anything, if these kids are truly trying vegetarianism because they want to embrace a fad, having their parents embrace it with them (at least having their parents support their choices – what they eat themselves be darned) might make them go back the other way. For the rest of these kids, learning good nutrition needs to start in the home, and that means having parents who become educated about how vegetarians remain a nutritious and balanced diet.
Image: The Age
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This is going to be decision for my husband and I to make in the coming years. I am an unrepentant omnivore, while he went vegetarian years ago only in recent years adding fish to his diet. I don’t mind if my kids want to go veg but I will be a lot less supportive if I get a lot of snooty anti-meat propaganda thrown at me. I respect others choices if they also respect mine. Still until they are I won’t consider them vegetarians until they are old enough to say so.
My husband is an occasional meat eater, while I and our 15-month-old son stick to fish only for our meat. I have found that so far, knock wood, it’s been very easy to feed our baby a complete and healthy diet. It helps that he adores tofu.
Kaz,
I think it’s better to say that you’re raising your kids as vegetarians, which is great, but toddlers don’t usually make those sort of decisions on their own until later. It’s the same mistake as people saying their young children are Christians, when the truth is that they are children of Christian parents. If they had been born into another faith, they would be raised in that faith, or meal plan.
My wife is a “fishitarian”, while I’m an omnivore. My 2 year old daughter has compromised and will eat chicken, but not beef. The more amazing part is that she hates mac & cheese, but loves spicy Indian and Thai food. It’s hard to feed her when we leave the city and visit grandma and grandpa in the woods of central Idaho.
Both our kids (4 1/2, 15 months) are vegetarian. My wife and I both are, and our daughter seems to eat a great variety of good foods compared to a lot of other kids her age that I’ve seen…
My 6-year-old stepdaughter has declared an ethical objection to fish (which she did eat occasionally, in stick/nugget form) and we suspect she’ll probably go completely vegetarian within a few years.
We’re both omnivores here but we’ll support her if she wants to go veg for ethical reasons, and she agrees to eat healthily and try new foods. (In other words, if she claims vegetarianism because she thinks she can have a steady diet of cheese pizza and boxed mac-and-cheese, we will be markedly less supportive.)
I have 3 year old twin girls. One of them has always refused meat. It’s not that big of a deal since the family only eats meat once or twice a week. On those nights I make sure the sides are fairly hearty and the meat not neccesarily the main thing. My philosophy is to present them with nutritious choices and they let them eat what they want of it. Both girls eat well and a pretty good variety for 3 year olds. The vegetarian would never make it as a vegan though as she lives for cheese.
Thanks for that info, Alice. My daughter won’t touch meat and my husband was just asking if we should start feeding her that soy stuff shaped into patties, etc.
I think the biggest challenge is getting children to appreciate fresh food–the taste, smell and texture of food can be so wonderful to children.
In my opinion, children need to learn to understand where food comes from, to say grace before meals, to enjoy foods and flavors, and to know when they’re hungry (and full). Everything else is secondary. Don’t you agree?
Taz Tagore
Parenting Expert, Author of Labor of Love blog
Forgot to post a link for you.
http://www.soyonlineservice.co.nz/
Being vegetarian is a healthy lifestyle except for the over consumption of soy products. Soy, epecially when not eaten as tofu, is not healthy. Every Asian I know says they eat quite a bit of tofu and drink soy milk as a treat sometimes. But that is a much different form from the soy protein thingies the megacorporations churn out of their factories. It is the same stuff they force feed cows, chicken and hogs. So we avoid all soy except for a bit of tofu and never eat meat fed soy products. My daughter eats no meat but wont touch soy and is very healthy.