Cooking Vegetarian

Have Fun When Your Kids Shun Meat

April 3, 2008
By Andrea Farnum
Illustration by Magdalena Tworkowska

Share:

I grew up in a household where meat had the starring role in every meal. As an adult I continued the practice — except for pasta on Sundays, which could be served with or without meatballs.

Four years ago my cooking regime was thrown off-course when my then-13-year-old daughter announced that she had become a vegetarian and would eschew all meat, fish and poultry. While I wanted to support her new eating plan, I was worried about her nutritional needs — how would I fulfill them? What was a meat-and-potatoes mother to do?

Vegetarianism has gone mainstream. According to the Vegetarian Journal, more than 12 million people are vegetarians in the United States alone and 19,000 more make the switch to a meat-free diet every week. Many of these new vegetarians are being raised that way from birth or are teenagers opting for an Earth-friendly diet.

Having raised two now-grown children as vegetarians and having followed the diet herself since she was a teen, Ellen Robertson Jones, a chef, nutritionist and blogger, understands the importance of nutrition in a child vegetarian’s diet. “My boys were what I call ‘mono eaters,’” Jones says. “They’d find one thing that they liked and that was it. I think they ate spaghetti for dinner for weeks.”

Dealing with a picky eater can be a challenge even when your child is not a vegetarian. Parents must be creative, if not outright crafty. “If spaghetti was their current favorite, I would put anything I could think of in that sauce to enrich its nutritional value,” Jones says.

For Edye Sanford, a Baltimore clothing designer, it’s been relatively easy to raise her sons, Harry, 10, and Russell, 8, as vegetarians. “The diet is normal to them and they don’t see it as an inconvenience or a problem,” Sanford says. “The hardest thing to deal with is people who think it’s cute or funny to try to get them to eat meat.”

Sanford tries to keep her cooking kid-friendly. “We eat a lot of ethnic one-pot dishes,” she says. “But the kids love when I make tofu ‘fish sticks’ — it’s comfort food to them.”

After my child stopped eating meat, it took time for the rest of the family to adjust. “As a parent, the best thing for you to do is encourage them by learning about vegetarianism together,” Jones advises. “It can be a great bonding experience. Don’t make a big deal about it, though, or it will make them feel uncomfortable at the dinner table.”

Research is key, and vegetarians are as diverse as the reasons people become vegetarian in the first place.

According to the American Heart Association, vegetarian diets are healthful and nutrionally sound as long as they include essential nutrients. That means your child can’t just replace meat with processed carbohydrates.

The most important nutrient for your child’s growth is protein. Keep in mind that you can get protein from a nonmeat diet. Plant proteins alone can suffice. “I can’t say enough about beans and rice,” Jones says. “Together they make a complete protein that can be a cornerstone for some vegetarians.”

Other nutrients to include in your child’s diet are iron, vitamin B12, vitamin D, calcium and zinc. All are necessary for healthy growth and development. “Having your child become a vegetarian is a great opportunity to really educate yourself nutritionally,” Jones says. “You’d be surprise how many grains and vegetables contain protein.”

One note: Don’t be too quick to fill your grocery cart with frozen, manufactured soy products. Although good for a quick meal once in a while, soy is not recommended as the basis of a diet. “The very processed soy products have so many additives that the soy molecules change,” Jones says.

Whether your children were raised vegetarian or opt to become so on their own, kids are naturally bound to change and buck parental guidance. “Although I think that ultimately my kids will be vegetarians, I’m not deluded enough to think that they aren’t going to try meat,” Sanford says. “We all know about forbidden fruit, so to speak.”

VEGETARIANISM

Before embarking on a vegetarian diet, research the various types of vegetarianism to see what best fits your child’s — and family’s — needs. Consult your child’s pediatrician or a nutritionist for additional information.

Vegans

Hard-core vegetarians who eat only foods of plant origin. That means no meat, eggs, dairy products or honey. Vegans get most of their protein from soy foods, legumes, nuts and seitan (wheat gluten).

Fruitarians

Eat only fruit and fruitlike vegetables (tomatoes and cucumbers) supplemented by seeds and nuts.

Ovo-lacto vegetarians

These vegetarians do not eat meat, but their diet does include eggs and dairy products. This is the most common type of vegetarianism.

Lacto-vegetarians

Similar to the ovo-lactos, but they don’t eat eggs.

Pescetarians

Do not eat meat but do indulge in fish and seafood.

Semi-vegetarians, aka Flexitarians

These vegetarian sympathizers limit their intake of either certain types of meat or the amount of meat they eat. For example, they might eat no red meat but will eat fowl and fish. Or they might eat meat only once or twice a week. Flexitarians tend to choose the meat they eat carefully and often look for organically raised meats.

ANDRE FARNUM is a caterer, event planner and entertaining specialist with more than 20 years of culinary experience. Before turning to catering, Farnum worked for four years as a police officer in New York City. Visit her
website at www.kitchen-goddess.com.

Filed Under: Kitchen Goddess

Smart Woman Online

Navigation