Vegetarian: Now or later?

My suggestion would be to read all you can about veg*n nutrition and then make the change. That way, if your parents express concern about what you are eating, you will have the knowledge to give informed answers. I think some people make the mistake of switching without knowing enough and then don't stay veg*n because they think they weren't getting what they needed nutritionally, when really it was because they were eating junk. You can eat junk on any diet and not be well. And I personally don't put a lot of stock into what the American Dietetic Association has to say, but some people do, and they do state that people can be healthy on a vegetarian diet. The government food pyramid was recently revamped into a food "plate" as well and instead of listing meat has replaced that with "protein" as part of the plate. If you stick to whole foods and have processed foods only as treats, you can be very healthy, just do your research so you have the knowledge to make your parents feel at ease with your decision.

And kudos to you for considering it. Your body will thank you (as long as you make healthy choices), the planet will thank you, and the animals will thank you. Good luck! Feel free to ask me any questions, and search for vegn threads - there are several.

I, too, became a vegetarian in high school when I still lived with my parents. They weren't too pleased about it because I have other health issues, but they have eventually come around to it. I really suggest you go to google and look up "Protein Complementation". This is fancy talk for how we people who don't eat meat can very easily get all the protein we need in our diet! I'll give you some basics, here, this is the kind of information I teach my patients who need this information:

We need protein in our diets. More specifically, each of us needs amino acids in a specific ratio to each other. Our bodies can make about half of the needed amino acids given proper starting materials including a source of nitrogen (such as other amino acids). There are eight amino acids we can’t make, so they must be present in our diets in a specific ratio to each other.

Because of publicity from certain agricultural industries, many people in our culture have been taught to think that it is necessary to eat meat to get protein, but this is not true! Protein complementation is combining plant protein sources to achieve a better amino acid balance than either would have alone. Because of differences in amino acid make-up, when plant sources are combined, the strengths of one make up for the deficiencies in another. For example, many grains are notoriously low in lysine, but beans are high in lysine. On the other hand, beans are low in the sulfur-containing amino acids, while grains like wheat contain much of these. Thus, by eating beans and grains “together,” the strengths of one make up for the deficiencies of the other, making a source of complete protein.

If your parents worry about your nutrition, you should be able to explain these kinds of things to them to assuage their concerns. I would try having a serious conversation about your wishes and seeing how they react. You might be surprised! (:

Yesterday i went for a drive with them in the country, and we saw some cute furry cows, and i said "theres your hamburgers".. and they said "we prefer not to think about them like that" which i think is the point, people prefer not to think about what is really going on.

I believe, at least I have read, that combining foods at one meal to make a so-called "complete" protein has been proven not to be necessary, as long as your diet is varied. For instance, you can have beans at one meal and rice at another and you are still getting the amino acids necessary for your body, they need not be combined.

I should have been more specific -- I don't mean that one has to eat them at the same MEAL! (:

It's really not as hard as one might think.