Vegetarian Kids

If you are both a vegetarian and parent, you may have considered placing your children on a vegetarian diet. Not only would it save time and make planning meals easier, but for dietary or ethical reasons, you believe it is the best choice for your family.

Conversely, you might not be a vegetarian, but have a child who is going through a vegetarian "phase," where she refuses to eat meat, but doesn't eat enough healthy foods to compensate for the nutritional gap.

No matter what your reason, you may have pondered whether or not a vegetarian diet is a healthy and maintainable choice for your family. You might have read that placing a child on a vegetarian diet could potentially stunt their growth.

These concerns probably stopped you from putting your child on a vegetarian diet up to now.

All of these concerns have merit. Obviously, if a vegetarian diet is not well planned, it can create serious short and long term health problems, especially for children, who are still developing--and who don't yet have sufficient stores of vitamins.

If you aren't well prepared to put your children on a vegetarian diet, you definitely shouldn't. But, if you have done your due diligence and you are familiar with the nutrients vegetarians commonly lack, then you know that these problems can simply be overcome with some meal planning.

You're also aware that putting your child on a healthy vegetarian diet can dramatically improve her health in both the short and long term. It could also reduce her contact with animal products that have preservatives and additional hormones, both of which have been linked to developmental problems.

If you haven't researched vegetarian diets before, but you feel ready to start your child on one now, you should really begin by making sure that your meal plans increase the amounts of these nutrients (that vegetarians usually lack):

1. Protein: Ensure your child is eating enough protein by adding more sources, such as soy beans, wheat, isolated soy protein, and nuts.

2. Calcium: Make sure your child is consuming enough calcium by adding calcium-fortified processed foods and leafy green vegetables to his diet.

3. Iron: Make more iron part of your family's diet by increasing servings of tofu and cereals, pinto and soy beans.

4. Zinc: Increase zinc intake by adding servings of mushrooms, almonds and peanut butter.

If you plan to compensate for these frequent nutritional deficits, you can absolutely place your family on a vegetarian diet without the negative health consequences.

Disregard the mythology on vegetarian diets and focus instead on research and meal-planning.