Vegetarian nutrition

lyttlewon

Why wouldn't the fifteen year old help cook? My twelve year old cooked Tortilla Soup for dinner on Monday, and it was vegan. She found the recipe herself, and all I did was help her season it.

DaddieCat

I agree that there is a considerable amount of myth being discussed and perpetuated here, and I do understand both sides. It can be difficult for a parent to prepare food for a vegan lifestyle, just ask my mom on any holiday gathering. More often than not, I just bring my own food (enough to share with everyone) and I end up going home with empty dishes, so it's not a big deal for me.

As for dealing with your kids/grandkids and it falling on you to prepare meals... well, that sounds like a perfect opportunity to begin some life lessons in how to cook, prepare meals, and plan adequate balanced nutrition. I come from a very large family and at various times we all had differing diets. My mother responded well by catering to our desires, but also encouraged us to begin supporting ourselves. I've been cooking since I was 5 for these reasons... and I'm a firm believer that it's never too early to learn these skills which I see as lacking in most under 30 people I know. (I'm surprised by how few people love to cook and the reason given is often that parents would not allow them to cook, encourage them to cook, or were often too wrapped up in getting a meal prepared and served that they completely neglected to pass that skill along... please not that I'm not saying that you do this, just citing examples from my experience)

I'm a bit old fashioned when it comes to passing along skills since I see so many of them dying in this generation and I firmly believe that passing along the skills of meal planning and preparing is something that you can do as a parent to bond with your children, teach them valuable life lessons that enrich their life, as well as take some of the burden off of yourself if you have them prepare a meal one night a week or something like that.

That said, it's not hard to get protein and nutrients in abundance as @lyttlewon says. There are entire cultures that do it on a regular basis.

Now, it's no one here's job or responsibility to tell you how to raise your children/grandchildren and please don't take what I'm saying as that.

I'm just offering up insight based on my own experience for you to take as you will. It's perfectly ok to be a dietary conservative... but it might bear considering that the values you pass on are the values that will be held as truth by those who look up to you and respect you, wouldn't it be better to pass on the values of thinking, planning and working for yourself, your goals, and your beliefs as opposed to a rote, dogged, conservatism simply because that's the framed worldview that you were taught? I believe that worldviews are fluid and will change as time goes on for each and every individual, not to mention a society, that's how social justice changes occur.

Again, nothing in here is meant to be insulting, just personal insight offered up as food for thought.

jgnatca

I completely agree that it's a great thing to pass on nutrition and cooking skills to our children, and going plant based can be a good opportunity for this.

Also as a supportive grandma, if I cook too much I pass the spare over to my daughter's family, and it's usually a plant-based stew of some kind.

janejellyroll

jgnatca wrote: »

What I've seen around here, however, is when a teen decides to go "vegan" it falls on the cook to cater to it. This typically means mom is browsing the meat substitute aisles and the kid is surviving off tofu hot-dogs.

My granddaughter did at least do some homework before she embarked on her ten day vegan exercise. I suspect as a typical fifteen year old, she soon found out it's a lot of work.

I wouldn't expect any parent to cook to order, including parents of vegans.

stealthq

lyttlewon wrote: »

jgnatca wrote: »

Based on the college kid questions we get on here, I think there are many young people woefully ill-informed on what constitutes a balanced diet. Also, teenagers are congenitally suited to risk-taking.

It is HARDER to get enough protein, B-vitamins, and calcium on a vegan diet. And this, when our young people are going through their biggest growth spurt. Based on my teeth, I know I am most suited to an omnivorous diet. I'm a dietary conservative. I admit it.

You are perpetuating a lot of myths here. Many people do not find it difficult to be vegetarian. I work for an India based company, and the vast majority of my Indian coworkers are vegetarians. They have zero problems eating enough plant based protein. The IBM programmers who come over from the East bring their own lentils in their luggage. There are a lot of people in the world who are meat free without effort.

The difference is that a rather large portion of India's population is vegetarian and has been for a very long time. Even non-vegetarians in India tend to eat more vegetarian dishes than is common in most Western cultures. People in India grow up with an understanding of how to eat properly as a vegetarian, and with a plethora of vegetarian options at home and when eating out because of that.

That doesn't happen in countries where that isn't the case. If your family and/or friends are not vegetarian (and doing it 'right'), and you grow up in America, Canada, England, etc you are probably not going to know how to eat as a vegetarian without putting some significant work in to figure it out. Work that many teenagers won't do because they don't think it's all that important.

amberlyda1

lyttlewon wrote: »

Why wouldn't the fifteen year old help cook? My twelve year old cooked Tortilla Soup for dinner on Monday, and it was vegan. She found the recipe herself, and all I did was help her season it.

if you were asking for me and my teenager...she does cook her own vegetarian meals if I am not making a dinner with the meat cooked separate. Even at that I insist she is getting enough protein for dinner, because she is getting back from practice or her own training runs. I just guide her in a healthy direction, help her find recipes. plan ahead etc. Ill buy her veggie hot dogs and stuff if we are planning on having bbq; but I want her to know how to cook from scratch, and eat healthy when she is on her own someday.