vegetarian? healthy life style?

Question

Hi, um, I'm 13 and I've been a vegetarian for... about 6 months, after reading, Fast Food Nation. It was so sad, that book made me cry and turned me into a vegetarian. My mom was all for it when it first began, but now she would rather me eat meat. She says I dont have a balanced diet anymore. Does anyone have any recipe ideas, cook books, and exspecially resturants (we go out alot) that serve vegetarian meals or something?

Answer 1

As long as you're getting enough protein from beans, eggs, and milk, a vegetarian lifestyle can be healthy. If you're not eating enough of those foods, your mother is right.

Answer 2

Okay. I'm 15 and I have been first a vegetarian and then a vegan since I was 12. I know that if you just cut out meat and don't make up for it with anything else then it is unhealthy, but if you do it right (and it isn't hard) then it is healthier. Plenty of beans and dairy is great and you can NEVER go wrong with soy burgers. As for resturants, Chilis has a guiltless black bean burger and at any mexican resturant you can get a cheese enchalata or burritos or anything. If you look then you can find something for you at any resturant. If you go to any book store I can almost guarantee that there will be a vegetarian cookbook. You could also try sitting your mom down and explaining to her that it means a lot to you. Trust me it doesn't hurt to have people on your side.

Answer 3

It is definitely NOT to live a healthier lifestyle and anyone who says that is kidding themselves. Being a vegetarian can be very unhealthy if not done properly. Also, vegetarians also tend to consume more carbs than they used to when they ate meat. This makes you gain weight. I do personally think it's wrong to eat animals, but that's just my opinion and it's why I am a vegetarian. I am not disgusted with people who eat meat though, it's a part of life. I became a vegetarian because it didn't taste good to me anymore. And then once I began thinking about it more and more, I realized that I didn't feel right eating animals.

Answer 4

I'm 12 years old and I Still have the same problem , There all for it at first because the think it's just a phase. As much as hurts you GOT to learn how to ignore her sometimes. It's your life and no one else can live it but you. If you want my advice keep it up, and buy " The Teen's Vegetarian Cookbook '' it's by: Judy Krizmanic.
I got it at Borders for $10 ( Which is pretty cheap for a cookbook).
GOOD LUCK!

P.S Vegetarians are proven to live longer than meat-eaters

Answer 5

Try "Vegetarianism for Dummies" and some of the Moosewood Rest. Cookbooks. Go to the library and get some books about being a vegetarian. Just do some research and you'll be fine.

Answer 6

A vegetarian diet is the healthiest way to be as long as you're eating enough of the right foods. It might be that you're not eating enough protein, so you need to increase your intake of beans, lentils, chickpeas, soya products, nuts and seeds. If you are ok with eating eggs and cheese then increase your intake of those too, although not overdoing the cheese as it;s high in fat. Find natural soya yoghurt and eat large quantities of that everyday with fruit to sweeten, as that is very healthy and will boost your protein intake.
Does your mum make standard meat meals such as chilli con carni, shepherds pie, spaghetti bolognaise? If she does can you ask her to make those meals but substituting lentils and/or beans for the meat, or even soya mince? Vegetarian minces are available in most supermarkets in UK so I'm assuming they are everywhere else too. These meals are good and filling and you won't miss the meat at all.
Make sure you keep eating lots of grains too, such as rice, pasta, oats, as they will fill you up and compliment the beans/lentils you're eating to gve you an adequate supply of protein.
Another good tip is to mix chopped nuts and seeds with your breakfast cereal to boost your protein intake. If you eat porridge, mores the better as that is very filling especially with nuts, seeds and fruit.
I hope this helps. You don't have to go back to eating meat, just show your mum you can eat enough of the right foods and you'll be fine. I would suggest taking a good vegetarian multivitmain though just due to the fact you're 13 and you're still growing. You don;t really need a supplement with a good balanced veggie diet, but it's good to have it as a backup if you're not too sure what you should be eating.

Answer 7

I am an vegetarian from the last 25 yrs and i am perfectly healthy
not eating non vegetarian food does not mean at all that you will have to eat an unbalanced and incomplete diet. We mainly get proteins from all the flesh , this can be replaced by pulses which are rich in protein you can also eat tofu and soya beans to fill up for this protein.

Answer 8

If a vegetarian diet is very carefully planned it can be AS healthy as a good meat eating diet. I think there are a couple of benefits, but they come from eating a wide range of fruit and veg and being health conscious as vegetarians have to be, not omitting meat, and thus those benefits can be go without actually going veggie. Needless to say a uncarefully planned vegetarian, or especially vegan, diet can lack many essential nutrients and be very bad for your health.

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.
Lets not forget either that protein, while it is found in plants, is better quality in animal products.

Klutzy girl, veggies aren't proven to live longer, stop reading PETA's website. There is some evidence that vegans live longer and are at less risk from cancer and heart disease; however those studies show only a reasonably small difference, much less than what PETA would say, and none of those studies have yet managed to identify meat as the only variable. Veggies are less likely to smoke, drink or eat junk food, and eat a wider range of fruit and veg, making the test results inaccurate and unreliable. It's worth noting the best studies, taking those variables best into account, have shown meat eaters either aren't at any more risk/a negligible risk of diseases or are at less risk.

Joey K, I hope you realise that the risk of colon cancer for veggies isn't much less, and that's including the aforementoned extra variables, so to say veggies outright don't get it is a terrible fallacy.

Answer 9

You can't live on a vegetarian diet unless you follow certain very strict rules. It's not a life sustaining diet without those rules. Also, you ability to tolerate junk foods drops to zero (you simply do not have the surplus of nutrients to get away with it). That means things like potato chips have no place in a vegetarian diet. You must be STRICT in what you eat....period. If you still want this type of diet, there are many fine books out on exactly what to eat. However, understand a few things.

1. Books like Fast Food Nation are propaganda put out by people who are card carrying communists and other psychos. These people do very bad things, the very least of which is to lie to you about anything and everything. I can not think of a worse reason to go vegetarian than listening to these people. They hate you and want to hurt you, is the bottom line. Avoid them like the plague they are.

2. Vegetarianism is of suspect health benefit. It's healthiness is solely determined by the fact that you have to be so strict, simply to live on that type of diet. In other words, vegetarianism is not healthy because of what you eat but because of what the diet forces you not to eat. And I'm not talking about meat (which is very healthy to eat). I'm talking about processed and refined foods. You cannot eat processed foods anymore. No breads, no flour, no sugar, no vegetable oils. Certainly no junk foods. These are the things that make the difference between a healthy and a not healthy diet. However, being equally as strict but also eating meat is a superior diet. How can you tell? A vegetarian who has to stop eating, won't live long. A person on a balanced diet can live for quite some time under the same circumstances. Vegetarians live on the cusp of starvation because the diet is poor in certain vital nutrients. They can't build up a reserve. Worse, it is very easy for a vegetarian to suffer chronic diseases of nutrient definciency if he isn't being strict enough (this is the majority of "vegetarians" by the way). A balanced diet does not have those problems.

3. What are your reasons to go vegetarian? Your reasons will determine how successful you are. Excellent reasons.....religious. Certain religions are vegetarian. Probably the best reason to be vegetarian. Habit....you come from a family of vegetarians. You like the foods that vegetarians eat.....very helpful. Cultural....asians, for example, vegetarianism is much more common. Many people in the community are vegetarian and correct knowledge on what to eat is widespread.

Bad reasons to go vegetarian. Health concerns...tough to eat healthy on this type of diet and there are much better alternatives. You like cuddly, cute animals....prolly the worst reason. Humans are designed to eat meat....period. You read books like Fast Food Nation or pamphlets from PETA. These are very bad people, How bad:

http://www.petakillsanimals.com/

Answer 10

i've been a vegetarian for 2 1/2 years now my parents and i eat separately so it easier but when we eat out its always a big problem so i just get a salad or pizza with out meat


im 13 too