A Large Number of Young People Believe Being Vegetarian Is The Way To Go

by Robert Wilkinson

Just in, a first-time government survey finds at least 1 in 200 children in America are vegetarian, and as many as 1 in 35 for teens. If true, then maybe a whole new mindset is evolving regarding life, health, and how to sustain ourselves while lessening the suffering here on Earth.

Apparently teens are getting turned off to killing animals via You Tube videos, and are showing signs of being a powerful social conscience with implications for the future of our world. It would be interesting if this were going on at other points in our world as well.

Given that we're all learning to take care of our physical bodies and the rest of our human equipment, if there is an increase in the number of vegetarians of all stripes in our world, this will bring forth new understandings of how the biochemestry of our bodies work. That in turn will foster newer, broader understanding of how we can live nutritously in much different ways than we do now.

The article states that the estimate "comes from a recent federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study of alternative medicine based on a survey of thousands of Americans in 2007. Information on children's diet habits was gleaned from about 9,000 parents and other adults speaking on the behalf of those under 18."

We can infer that this means that mainly parents reported these stats, and yet the article seems to paint another parallel movement among teens who are averse to hurting animals. Check it out. From SF Gate:

First US count finds 1 in 200 kids are vegetarian.

Copyright © 2009 Robert Wilkinson

Comments

[donna]

I find this incredibly interesting, and know more than one child vegan myself. I agree that it is a telling statistic, but I also want to point out the implied responsibility this poses to parents of vegan kids. A true vegan won't eat eggs or milk, any kind of animal product, and as we know, kids need protein to grow and develop. Parents of vegan kids need to supplement their child's diet with great care to ensure they get everything they need for healthy growth.

D~

[Damien]

I basically only eat seafood these days and I was raised on all types of animal flesh.

[Kezz]

This post is wonderful news and has made my day!

It's true that we need protein, but as a vegan, I can tell you it's really not as hard as all that to get sufficient amounts. All life forms, including plants, are made of proteins. If you have a range of legumes, nuts, soy, fruit, vegetables (ie. just a varied diet), you'll find that you make your RDI quite easily. Most meat eaters consume about twice the required levels of protein, which can cause kidney malfunction amongst many other nasties.

B12 on the other hand, it a little harder and really of more concern than protein. B12 is only created by micro organisms, which are mostly washed off the vegetables that we buy from the supermarket. Farmed animals tend to live in filthy conditions and get fed grains etc that have B12 on them, so meat eaters get B12 by eating the animals that ate the B12.

I personally get my B12 from a single vitamin tablet once a day. You can get it from fortified foods, but I find a tablet to be easier. If you don't want to take too many vitamin tablet, you can just take one high content B12 tablet a week.

As far as everything else goes, a little research on the exact RDI of various nutrients and the amounts you find in various plant based foods, will soon show you it's much easier than people imagine to be extremely healthy on a vegan diet. You virtually eliminate saturated fats and cholesterol by default, and you have almost zero chance of being overweight or obese. Not to mention, there are no niggling little voices in the back of your head prodding you about how comfortable you really are with where your food comes from. Vegan all the way!

[Robert]

Hi Donna - As a veg-head since 1973, I agree that educating oneself in proper nutrition and a degree of biochemistry is necessary if we're not to wind up deficient in important nutrients. I'm not a vegan, though once upon a time I was. If a person goes that route, education is very much needed. There are many combinations of nuts, grains, and vegetables that yield complete proteins that don't involve animal products. Also getting the correct vitamins, minerals, and micronutrients are important so we don't need as much protein as we are told we need.

Hi Damien - I also was raised on regular flesh as a child, and continued to make meat a part of my diet until 1973, when I literally almost died of food poisoning due to tainted meat. Glad you're restricting your meat intake to fish, since just about all of the rest of the public meat supply is horribly contaminated. Even fish must be examined carefully, since some retain more heavy metals than others.

Hi Kezz - Glad you like this post. I thought it an important trend which will ultimately change many things in our society very much for the better. You're absolutely right that we can combine non-meat sources and achieve all the protein we need. This is where studying food combining is very important for us veg-heads, as well as everyone else. Yes, B-12 is important. It supposedly can be gotten through eating Comfrey, but some don't like the prickles! I gather that yeast, tempeh, and some other fermented foods can also be vegetable sources for this, though I agree it's much easier to take a B-complex pill. Thanks for all your valuable insights about healthy vegetarianism.