Is Vegetarianism Right for Kids?
How to keep your child healthy on a meat-free diet.
by Jeanne Sager
November 12, 2009
It wasn't the fear of sustaining her daughter on a vegan diet that gave Monica Engebretson pause; it was wondering whether it would raise some eyebrows as Engebretson and her husband waded through the process of adopting Xela.
"The only real concern I had was that our diet choice would be scrutinized by our social worker and possibly jeopardize or complicate the adoption, but it wasn't and didn't," the Sacramento mom recalled.
Engebretson is fast discovering that raising a vegetarian child isn't merely an offshoot of her own twenty-one-year history of not eating meat but a national trend. A study by the CDC released last year showed one out of every two hundred kids in America follows a vegetarian diet. If you're talking specifically about teenagers, the CDC says multiply that number by anywhere from four to six.
America's Most Vegetarian-Friendly Cities
The folks at Go Veg scoured the nation; here are their picks:
Large Cities
1. Portland, Oregon
2. Seattle, Washington
3. San Francisco, California
4. New York, New York
5. Atlanta, Geogia
6. Washington, D.C.
7. Minneapolis, Minnesota
8. Austin, TX
9. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
10. Chicago, Illinois
Continued on next page...
In the era of The Omnivore's Dilemma and Food, Inc., more parents in 2009 are putting meats on par with high fructose corn syrup.
The correlation is fair, says Dr. Joanna Dolgoff, a specialist in child and adolescent weight management. Meats are notoriously high in saturated fats, so a diet devoid of burgers and steaks is tantamount to a lower risk factor for elevated cholesterol levels. Replacing the meats and high-fat animal products with whole grains, legumes, vegetables, nuts and fruits may also decrease the risk of elevated blood cholesterol levels, high blood pressure, obesity and other diseases such as heart disease, stroke, cancer and diabetes.
"The challenges are getting enough protein, B vitamins, reducing the amount of processed foods and unhealthy carbohydrates consumed and overall not getting a well-balanced diet," says Dolgoff.
Studies on the affects of a vegetarian diet for children have varied widely. A 1980 study in Boston tried to pose a link between children abstaining from meat and higher intelligence, but it was largely discounted as correlation rather than causation because the families studied were found to have higher education levels than the average American family. Others have posited vegetarian children fall lower on the percentile charts then their peers in terms of height and weight. The former can be true — if kids aren't getting appropriate nutrition. Vegans are at a higher risk for iron deficiencies, and the high fiber diets of vegetarian kids have to be carefully balanced to ensure children aren't filling themselves on fiber and missing out on proteins, calcium and other vitamins.
©2009 Jeanne Sager and Babble
About the Author
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Jeanne Sager is a freelance writer and photographer living in upstate New York with her husband and daughter, Jillian. She maintains a blog of her award-winning columns at jeannesager.blogspot.com. |
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