Am I too young to be a vegetarian?!
Am I too young to be a vegetarian?
I'm 16 years old and I don't like to eat meat or any other food that has come from an animal. When I look at it on the plate or in the box it looks gross to me and I always imagine that it used to be part of a moving, living animal, and that just creeps me out. I talked to my mom about being a vegetarian but she is against it. She told me that I need meat, chicken, beef, etc to grow and maintain a healthy body.
So, is that true? Am I too young to be a vegetarian?
Answers:
A vegetarian or even VEGAN diet, done PROPERLY, is appropriate for any phase of life including: infancy, childhood, adolescence, adulthood, even pregnancy and lactation (a woman breastfeeding her baby can safely be vegan)
As a growing adolescent, you DO have certain nutritional needs, and you need to do a bit of research and find out what those needs are. Then when you understand how much protien you need, then you can find out the best plant sources to get that protien. Soybeans, bTW.. have just as good of protien as meat. Beans and Rice, eaten together, make a complete protien equal or even superior to that found in meat.
To convince mom, just do the research, show her that, while you would like to give up meat, you know how get the proper nutrition from plant sources. Show her a bit of research into how meat animals are raised and treated, emphasizing that you share these things not to condem or convert her, but to explain to her why you really want to go vegetarian.
Your mom is fallen victim to what she was taught when she went to school, which is very outdated nutritional information. Most respected Dietitans now encourage eating LESS meat, and agree that a vegetarian diet is not only acceptable nutritionally, but has many benefits.
BTW.. I am 27 and very healthy, and haven't eaten a scrap of meat since I was TEN years old. The only thing different about me is that people constantly accuse me of looking like a teenager, and rarely believe me when I tell them how old I am. They usually guess 15-19, at this point.
But if you want to go vegetarian, keep in mind that you DO need to eat a balanced diet. Focus on a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, beans, whole grains, and nuts. Eat moderate amounts of vegetarian meat replacements, cheese, milk, eggs, if you want., but go easy on them to maximize the health benefits of a vegtarian diet. You won't do your health much of a favor by switching from a canivorous diet to a diet of white bread, deserts, pizza, and junk food. Not that you can't ever have those goodies, but like I said, the focus of your diet should be variety of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, and nuts.
Good luck.