Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
Josie Weitz
Professor Cassel
English 1201
17 April 2019
Vegetarianism in Children
Growing up, especially after turning 10, I always felt tired and run down. I felt like a lazy
kid but I didn’t want to be lazy, I just always needed to rest in order to feel better. My father was
in the military and was always being deployed while my mom was a busy nurse, so my dinners
were either fast food or some kind of quick dinner. Every meal I had consisted of meat, which I
hated the taste of. Finally, my mother had enough of my constant complaining and decided
maybe it was time for me to start a vegetarian diet. Months went by with this new and improved
diet and I started to transform into a completely different child. I became so much more active
and needed a lot less rest in order to go through my day. Ever since then I have been curious
about why other parents decide to influence the vegetarian lifestyle in their children.
Vegetarian diets have a common misconception that the people who do participate in this
diet are crazy animal rights activist, or that they try to push their diets upon other people. It is
also said that this diet leads to a tasteless life in the food world where there is no exploration of
new foods. In reality, vegetarianism is just a diet that generally excludes all meat, poultry, and
fish from a person’s diet but they are still able to eat dairy and eggs if they chose to. Although
vegetarians have to get their protein and other nutrients from other foods, they tend to get a bad
The reasoning for people becoming vegetarians can be very different from one another
but for some people, they become vegetarian for health benefits, their religion or culture
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excludes meat, people don’t like the taste/texture of meat or their overall love and respect for
animals. As of 2014, there are 375 million vegetarians worldwide, and the number is seemingly
increasing (Figus). As this number increases, some of these vegetarians are also having kids and
raising them to not eat meat as well. Limited diets for growing children often scares people and
makes them worry about children’s developmental growth and whether or not it hurts them in the
long run. Although there are many reasons and research on why children become vegetarian,
research has shown that there are no negative developmental effects on a child from this diet if it
Vegetarian children need to get a lot of vegetables and fruits in order to make up for
lacking meat in their diet so they tend to eat quite healthy and maintain thinner body weight. In
this growing and fast pace world, fast food especially is an easy way for parents to feed their
children quickly and not have to worry about cooking especially for their busy schedules. So,
children who are eating this fast food on a regular basis aren’t getting enough of the right
nutrients and become overweight or obese. Worldwide, around 340 million children who are the
ages of 5 through 18 are considered to be overweight or obese (Obesity and Overweight). Fast
food places tend to lack options for vegetarians, so children are very limited to not eating these
When doctors are explaining to parents about what their children should be eating, they
advise children to eat healthy which means more fruits and vegetables. Obesity and being
overweight puts people, especially children, at risk for many diseases and health problems, for
vegetarian children their risk is a lot lower because the main part of their diet is what a doctor
would recommend. According to the American Dietetic Association, vegetarian diets that are
maintained nutritionally accurate reduces the risk for type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and many
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cancers because these children have lower levels of cholesterol, saturated fats, and their blood
pressure is lower (To Meat or Not to Meat). Vegetarian diets or cutting down on meat is
extremely healthy especially for kids that are overweight and can be very beneficial for them in
the future.
Decreasing one’s meat consumption has become more known and recommended by
doctors. Meat, specifically red meats like pork and steak, has been starting to show significant
declines in people’s health. A study by Harvard Medical School was done with 121,000
participants that included men and women, where each of them submitted their diets every four
years. During the study over 24,000 people died and the risk of dying by eating meat every day
researches that meat should be limited, it should be important that children are including with
this diet as well. Harvard recommends to cut down on the consumption of meat and only adding
in some meals per week not only because it’s healthy for people but it is also healthy for our
overall world.
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This cartoon is a perfect example of the negative outlook on vegetarianism and shows
the great irony of it all. This cartoon represents vegetarians and the insults they receive because
of them eating differently from what's normal when in reality it can be better for people's health.
This really only relating to pathos because it brings humor about people to worry about how
vegetarians are not getting enough protein when in reality they should be worried about their
own health because they're so overweight or their diets are extremely unbalanced and unhealthy.
The irony is that the overweight people in the picture are worried about in shape people who just
don't eat meat rather than themselves because they eat in the “right way”.
actions are very environmentally damaging, so can people’s food consumptions. Havard states
“meat consumption is the second most environmentally expensive consumer activity, behind how
we transport ourselves from place to place. Making one pound of beef for the table creates 17
times more water pollution and 20 times more habitat alteration than making its caloric
equivalent in pasta” which helps explain how vegetarian diets can help relieve more
environmental issues (Robb-Nicholson). This is often why people start to consider this
vegetarian diet “healthy” because it is both beneficial to the body and to protect this world.
Obviously being vegetarian does not mean a person is going to save the world by cutting meat
out of their diet, but everyone who participates helps in a small but beneficial way.
Many parents are often worried about nutritional deficiencies because of children’s limits
in a vegetarian diet. Often this is because vegetarians become anemic from not getting the right
amount of iron that often is given whilst eating meat which is what affects their growth
negatively. According to Cedar Sinai, a medical center in California, if a child is anemic it can
cause poor growth rate, joint pain and swelling, and poor bone marrow. This is obviously very
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scary for a child to endure and something parents want to avoid if they can have any control over
Since every diet is different from person to person the percentage differences of
vegetarians and meat-eating diet of those who have an iron deficiency are hard to come up with.
Some studies have found 4.3 percent of vegetarian children had anemia while other studies have
shown that up to 71 percent do (Pawlak). But, throughout researching it is pretty consistent to see
that iron deficiency is more prevalent in vegetarians than it is among an omnivorous child, but
depending on their age. Through the ages of one and four children are growing at a rapid pace so
the child is taking up more nutrients, this is where anemic levels begin to develop. According to
the American Journal of Nutrition Intake, a study was done between this age and it was found
that there was a 6 to 21% difference in the iron deficiency levels of vegetarian children.
Vegetarian parents are extremely recommended by doctors to give their child supplements to
avoid anemia at all cost (Gibson). People do not like that fact that if a child’s diet is requiring
supplements then it not worth it and they should just allow them to eat meat.
Although this is true, if a vegetarian diet is well balanced, the risk for anemia is almost
immediately terminated. Diets can be well balanced through if supplement intake or buying
nutrient-rich foods that will benefit the child. After 11 years of age, the risk for iron deficiency
goes down and vegetarian iron levels grow similar to omnivorous children (Gibson). The term
supplements can scare parents because they want their child to get nutrition from actual food,
which is fair and not every child is in need of supplements. Balancing food consumption and
educating oneself of what foods are healthy and replace the right nutrition from meat for their
So what foods are beneficial and nutritious for vegetarian children? There are plenty of
foods that are both delicious and provide plenty of protein and vitamins that cover for meat.
According to the Better Health Channel, who writes health articles, food sources that cover for
protein can include “eggs, grains, legumes, pulses, and various soy foods (such as tofu, tempeh,
and seitan)” and have the same benefits as meat. In nearly each of a child’s meals, they need to
make sure to contain lentils, hummus/chickpeas, baked beans, kidney beans, an assortment of
nuts or nut butter, etc (Vegetarian Diets and Children). It is also important to make sure the child
is not consuming too much fiber because it often absorbs a child’s protein, zinc, iron, and
calcium which all the nutrients cause anemia (Vegetarian Diets and Children). Although this it
may seem easy, this diet can be pretty harmful if it isn’t well taken care of so it crucial to
The vegetarian diet is healthy and environmentally safe but it isn’t always easy to get kids
to eat or like vegetables. According to Jenny Rosenstrach and Andy Ward, a health and parenting
blog, for kids who don’t like vegetables or are very reluctant to them, it is important to start
meals off by not telling them what it is until they serve it, or else they tend to complain and
refuse to eat the food. They add how it is important, if your child is reluctant, to make this
process a slow one, not to fully go vegetarian but to incorporate it in more during the week
(Rosenstrach and Ward). Obviously, this diet should not be forced upon a child but it is okay to
try this diet out and see how the child responds. If the child is too picky and not gaining enough
Vegetarianism is often looked at wrongly without any research when this diet can be very
beneficial to a child’s health. Although there are some risks with this diet, if not balanced, the
benefits can be astounding. The negatives of this diet can be easily prevented with careful
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watching and this diet will have none to slim development difference to children who have meat
in their diet. If there’s any children out there like me and feel lazy, I hope one day they are given
the opportunity to try this diet and see how it affects them. Everyone’s body is different, so not
every diet works for everyone but it is great to see what the effects are and whether they are
beneficial. The word “diet” seems very weird for a child to even be categorized with if they are
not unhealthy but through this research process, it is seen that this diet can be truly beneficial.
Children deserve the best and the vegetarian diet has a lot of advantages and is something to be
Works Cited
April 2019.
Figus, Cinzia. “375 Million Vegetarians Worldwide. All the Reasons for a Green
Lifestyle.” EXPO, 27 Oct. 2014, 375 million vegetarians worldwide. All the reasons for a
Gibson, Rosalind S., et al. “Is Iron and Zinc Nutrition a Concern for Vegetarian Infants
10 April 2019
20 April 2019
Pawlak, Roman, and Kami Bell. “Iron Status of Vegetarian Children: A Review of
Literature.” Annals of Nutrition & Metabolism, vol. 70, no. 2, May 2017, pp. 88–99.
Robb-Nicholson, Celeste. “What's the Beef with Red Meat?” Harvard Health Publishing,
Rosenstrach, Jenny, and Andy Ward. “Look Kids, No Meat: How to Get Your Children to
Eat Vegetarian (or Not).” Bon Appetit, Bon Appétit, 23 June 2015,
"To meat or not to meat: is vegetarianism healthy for teens?" Current Events, a Weekly
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A193509659/OVIC?
“Vegetarian Diets and Children.” Better Health Channel, Department of Health & Human