Should I become Vegitarian?!
Should I become Vegitarian?
I am turning 11 in one month, and I think I should become vegitarian. I do not think that it's right to slaughter animals just to eat. I know, you probably think i'm young, but I know all about it, and you wouldnt slaughter your dog or cat, would you? I am not dissing meat eaters, but you know?! I think people should be able to choose what they want to eat, as long as it includes dairy, fiber, and protein. Meat is protein, but so are my many, MANY protein bars, and my soymilk protein shakes (not lactose... just healthy) will fill in. Anyways. I think I should become a vegitarian! And I eat really healthy 4 an 11 year old.
Answers:
11 is young but if you are determined work with your parents and Dr to be sure you are getting all the elements you need to grow properly - protein and fats are essential to a tween-teen body and improper balance can stunt your growth and cause severe depression as well as potential brain damage, I may sound extreme but diet plays a key role in physical and mental heath. There is an excellent site for tasty recipes at:Vegweb:http://vegweb.com/ Good Luck and take care!
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then try it out for a while then if you decide you would rather not give up meat then dont... but if you really wanna try then do... its not a life changing experience... unless you make it one... so try it out for a while and if you just cant do it then give it up
Being a vegetarian is a GREAT idea you will be much more healthy. And it's very wrong to slaughter all the defenseless animals when we have so many other things to eat. Here is my theory Half the time with meat the animal was abused leaving bad energy, now when you eat this food with the bad energy it makes you more angry. But I'm a sort of spiritual person
becoming a vegetarian strictly speaking is bad for you, however with the right diet it could fine. Dairy fibber and protein are only a few things you need in a diet. If you become a vegetarian talk to a dietitian he/she will make sure you get a balanced diet (this message is brought to you by someone who really likes to eat meat)
It's Ok to be a vegetarian as long as you substitute your protein intake in a satisfactory manner. You are still growing so you have to be really careful to get a balanced diet. You mention protein bars and soy milk as protein substitutes; you may also want to consider pulses as a good healthy form of protein. Barilla have a new high protein pasta that is called Barilla Plus which is also high in fibre. Because you are growing, I would be weary of eliminating milk-based products as they are a great source of calcium. Make sure that you eat plenty of Broccoli and Spinach which are also great sources of calcium. A rule of thumb is, the darker green the vegetable, the more nutrients it contains. Make sure that you mum agrees with your new nutritional regimen before emabrking on vegetarianism. If she doesn't cook the right things, you will not get the nutrition you need.
I think that is true but meat is good.I dint think about it that way.When I'm eating i dint really think about it but now that u put that way it is wrong but u get to food plus over in Mexico that's all u relay eat so i relay dint have a choice because theirs not much of that in Mexico
NO!!!!! you should not become a vegitarian a girl your age needs to eat protein for muscle strength and you don't eat cats or dogs protein bars and shakes are a lot different than protein from meat also in the mean its not just about the protein theres other vitamins and minerals that you would be depriving your body of.....but the decision is not up to me...its up to you
Its tough to stop suddenly but you may reduce a bit by bit
remember practice makes it all
way to go! :)
that's really good that you're thinking about it. go for it.
dont believe others saying vegetarianism is bad for you. it really isn't. it's much better to be a vegetarian for you than eating meat.
you should research and maybe get your parent/s to help you work out what you need.
instead of protein shakes, you can easily eat foods that contain protein. its a common misconception that meat is the only source of protein, but there's so much out there! also, many people often overestimate how much protein you actually need. too much animal protein can be bad for you too, causing kidney stones and other things.
some good source of vegetarian protein are legumes, nuts, seeds, and beans, like kidney beans and especially soy beans. tofu is a really good source. and yummy if made right.
you could go to your doctor to get a blood test to also see how your iron levels are. iron can be found in lots of foods too, like green leafy vegetables, peas and wholegrains, enriched cereals and legumes.
when eating things with iron, its also a good idea to consume something with Vitamin C, which helps you absorb the iron. so have an orange/orange juice.
be sure that you eat well. if you're just going to eat the same meals minus the meat, you wont be very healthy. so if you eat meat and 2 veg and just get rid of the meat, that isn't very good for you.
also, younger people think that being vegetarian means you just eat pasta and bread, but you need to eat lots of fruits and veggies.
hope that helps you :)
Go For It!! I'm trying to become a vegetarian myself and I'm 13. I don't think its right to slaughter animals!! wish you luck!
If you want to - I was about the same age as you when I started - I think it's just a time you do a lot of thinking :)
x
That is excellent. i stopped eating red meat when I was twelve & i haven't gone back.
Research it as well as you can. Both to reenforce what you are doing to yourself, and also to defend it to others.
Other people will feel guilty about feeling meat, & will attack you for not doing so.
Also, many people are misinformed on the health issues, & how healthy eating a vegetarian diet is, if done correctly. If you are well informed you can rebut their comments. Doctors tend to warn you of the health issues rather than tell you of the benefits, because many people don't eat correctly when they become vegetarian. You seem to be on the right track with thinking of supplements. You can't just eat what you did before minus meat, you have to make sure all your nutrients are in there.
goveg.com has some excellent recipes. I have eaten so many new foods since becoming vegetarian and am so much healthier for it.
Leafy greens are good to keep up your iron levels.
Good luck! you'll feel so much healthier!
There are many benefits to a diet containing meat. Many vegetarians claim that meat is unhealthy. This is a blatant fallacy.
It is well established that eating meat improves the quality of nutrition, strengthens the immune system, promotes normal growth and development, is beneficial for day-to-day health, energy and well-being, and helps ensure optimal learning and academic performance.
A long term study found that children who eat more meat are less likely to have deficiencies than those who eat little or no meat. Kids who don’t eat meat ― and especially if they restrict other foods, as many girls are doing ― are more likely to feel tired, apathetic, unable to concentrate, are sick more often, more frequently depressed, and are the most likely to be malnourished and have stunted growth. Meat and other animal-source foods are the building blocks of healthy growth that have made America’s and Europe's youngsters among the tallest, strongest and healthiest in the world.
Meat is an important source of quality nutrients, heme iron, protein, zinc and B-complex vitamins. It provides high-quality protein important for kids’ healthy growth and development.
The iron in meat (heme iron) is of high quality and well absorbed by the body, unlike nonheme iron from plants which is not well absorbed. More than 90 percent of iron consumed may be wasted when taken without some heme iron from animal sources. Substances found to inhibit nonheme iron absorption include phytates in cereals, nuts and legumes, and polyphenolics in vegetables. Symptoms of iron deficiency include fatigue, headache, irritability and decreased work performance. For young children, it can lead to impairment in general intelligence, language, motor performance and school readiness. Girls especially need iron after puberty due to blood losses, or if pregnant. Yet studies show 75 percent of teenage girls get less iron than recommended.
Meat, poultry and eggs are also good sources of absorbable zinc, a trace mineral vital for strengthening the immune system and normal growth. Deficiencies link to decreased attention, poorer problem solving and short-term memory, weakened immune system, and the inability to fight infection. While nuts and legumes contain zinc, plant fibre contains phytates that bind it into a nonabsorbable compound.
Found almost exclusively in animal products, Vitamin B12 is necessary for forming new cells. A deficiency can cause anaemia and permanent nerve damage and paralysis. The Vitimin B12 in plants isn't even bioavailable, meaning our body can't use it.
Why not buy food supplements to replace missing vitamins and minerals? Some people believe they can fill those gaps with pills, but they may be fooling themselves. Research consistently shows that real foods in a balanced diet are far superior to trying to make up deficiencies with supplements.
Well, I became vegetarian right around the age of 12. The only thing to watch out for is to make sure you are doing it in a healthy way so you are still getting all the nutrition you should.
If you're serious about this, just do some research on it, I think it's a fine idea.
Good luck!
Eat what you like, but eat healthy diets & I think Vegetrian diet is healthy than the non vegetarian.
Honestly its up to you and your parents, but truly I think you should wait at least untill your a teenager, or maybe older so that you can be fully commited. I didnt become vegetarian untill I became 15, when I tried it in middle school it was much to hard. But it could always be diffrent for you!
MYTH: "Humans were designed to eat meat."
FACT: Although humans are capable of digesting meat, human anatomy clearly favors a diet of plant foods. Our digestive systems are similar to those of the other plant-eaters and totally unlike those of carnivores. The argument that humans are carnivores because we possess "canine" teeth ignores the fact that other plant-eaters have "canine" teeth, and that ONLY plant-eaters have molar teeth. Finally, if humans were designed to eat meat, we wouldn't suffer from heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and osteoporosis from doing so. [more on this topic]
MYTH: "Vegetarians get little protein."
FACT: Plant foods offer abundant protein. Vegetables are around 23% protein on average, beans 28%, grains 13%, and even fruit has 5.5%. For comparison, human breast milk is only 5% (designed for the time in our lives when our protein needs are as high as they'll ever be). The US Recommended Daily Allowance is 8%, and the World Health Organization recommends 4.5%. [more on this topic, inc. chart]
MYTH: "Beans are a good source of protein."
FACT: There is no such thing as a special "source of protein" because all foods -- even plants -- have plentiful protein. You might as well say "Food is a good source of protein". In any event, beans (28%) don't average much more protein per calorie than common vegetables (23%). [more on this topic, inc. chart]
MYTH: "Meat protein is better than plant protein. You have to combine plant foods to make the protein just as good."
FACT: This myth was popularized in the 1971 book Diet for a Small Planet and has no basis in fact. The author of the book admitted nearly twenty years ago that she made a mistake (in the 1982 edition of the same book). [more on this topic]
MYTH: "Milk is necessary for strong bones."
FACT: McDougall: "Where does a cow or an elephant get the calcium needed to grow its huge bones? From plants, of course. Only plants. … People in Asia and Africa who consume no milk products after they're weaned from their mother's breast grow perfectly healthy skeletons in the normal size for their race. A consistent conclusion published in the scientific literature is clear: Calcium deficiency of dietary origin is unknown in humans. Dairy products contain large amounts of animal proteins. This excess protein removes calcium from the body by way of the kidneys. Knowing the physiological effects on calcium metabolism of eating excess protein explains why societies with the highest intakes of meat and dairy products--the United States, England, Israel, Finland, and Sweden--also show the highest rates of osteoporosis, the disease of bone-thinning."
Improving Personal Health
It's no secret that compared to average meat-eaters, vegetarians generally live longer, are less likely to be overweight, suffer far fewer incidences of cancer and heart disease, and have more energy. These facts have been consistently borne out by decades of scientific research. The largest epidemiological study ever conducted (the China-Oxford-Cornell study) concluded that those eating the amount of animal foods in a typical American diet have seventeen times the death rate from heart disease, and, for women, five times the rate of breast cancer, than those who get 5% or less of their protein from animal foods. (See the references at the end of this article.)
Meat contains 14 times the amount of pesticides as plant foods, since pesticides get concentrated as they move up through the food chain, and since they're more easily stored in fatty tissues. In 1980, six years after the pesticide dieldrin was banned, the USDA destroyed two million packages of frozen turkey products contaminated with dieldrin. (And such contamination can routinely occur without detection.) In 1974, the FDA found dieldrin in 85% of all dairy products and 99.5% of the American people. The EPA discovered that the breast milk of vegetarian women contained far lower levels of pesticides than that of average Americans. A study reported in the New England Journal of Medicine found that "The highest levels of contamination in the breast milk of the vegetarians was lower than the lowest level of contamination…(in) non-vegetarian women… The mean vegetarian levels were only 1-2% as high as the average levels in the U.S."
the best advice I can give you is to try it out.By going vegan it really changed my eating habits.I used to drink soda(and not enough water) and eat tons of processed foods.Now I eat way healthier than I used and I am in great shape.Don't listen to anyone who tells you you have to eat meat to be healthy.Just make sure if you go vegetarian don't live off of junkfoods,eatveggies and fruits,try and stay from alot of processed foods and I'm sure you'll feel great.
Sounds like a good idea, but talk to your parents about this first...
Also, protein bars and shakes aren't the only way to get protein. You can still get it from dairy products, wholegrain breads and cereals, soy products, tofu, etc.
Good luck!
good choice! you should definitely go for it, i've been a vegetarian since i was about 4. just make sure you tell your parents and doctor so they can buy the right food for you and make sure you're still getting the right nutrients. but don't be too worried, i hardly ever get sick. also check out www.goveg.com, they have some really helpful info for people just starting to be vegetarians. good luck! =)