Youths Go Vegetarian, Sometimes Alone
Hayden Kline, 14, of Montclair, became vegetarian earlier this year and he remembers exactly when. “Right after the SuperBowl,” says Hayden, “the second of February.” He also knows exactly why. “I ate a bunch of ribs that day, and then I felt kinda sick because I remembered a video I saw online about how ribs were made.” That overdose, along with the nightmare video clip, were enough to convert him to a diet that excludes all animal meat.
Hayden isn’t alone among youth who decide one sunshiny day, often against the rest of their family’s inclination, and for similar ethical, environmental or other reasons, to swear off meat altogether, often fish too, which Hayden incidentally never developed a taste for.
For the rest of his family who aren’t vegetarian, his choice sometimes poses a challenge.
“It’s hard,” says his mother Christina Kline, in terms of meal planning. “To have three boys
and a husband from the Midwest, and I used to take roasting chicken for granted.”
Jake Isenberg, 19, a Montclair youth who’s just finished his first year of, suitably enough, Environmental Studies at a college in upstate New York, turned vegetarian when he went away to school in the fall.
“There was a lot of bad-quality meat that didn’t make me feel good,” he says. This spurred him to wind down his meat intake, with a tangible outcome.
“I definitely felt I had more energy throughout the day (with a vegetarian diet),” says Jake, whose father also turned vegetarian recently and whose 15-year-old sister is vegan, even as his mother, “a healthy eater,” consumes chicken and fish.
While going vegetarian seems a sensible choice, given all the medical advice to
avoid excessive amounts of red meat and saturated fat for heart-health reasons, and to limit the intake of some fish because of the mercury content, there are some concerns about a teen vegetarian diet. Are they getting enough protein or calcium, for example?
Many youths, or their parents, like Christina, do the research. “We spoke to a pediatrian about nutrition,” she says. “Hayden needs lots of fuel, he’s a big kid; 5 foot 11 with size 12 feet.”
Thankfully, he seems to get enough of the growth food. “He loves edamame, tofu, cheese and any kind of peanut butter, eggs and any expensive fake-meat products,” says Christina.
Anyone going vegetarian needs to analyze their meal plans to see if they’re getting
sufficient protein, calcium, vitamin B12, iron and zinc. Here’s the Mayo Clinic’s advice on how to ensure enough of these nutrients are in your diet.
Despite the shopping and cooking challenges posed by her son’s decision, Christina isn’t complaining. “He’s a great kid and I admire him,” she says. “I’m proud that he knows what he wants to do.”
Anyone fretting about red meat consumption and the risk of heart disease may find this study of value. It found there were 24 percent fewer deaths among vegetarians than non-vegetarians from ischemic heart disease, that is, when blood flow is restricted to a part of the body. The mortality rate dropped further the younger the vegetarian.
Fish eaters are also on the right path. Your heart disease mortality risk is 34 percent lower than for non-vegetarians, the same as for lactoovovegetarians who include milk products and eggs in their diet. But it’s interesting to note there were no big differences in mortality between the two groups from stomach, colorectal, lung, breast or prostate cancer.
Vegetarians with a taste for the exotic may be grateful for Montclair’s Veggie Heaven, part of a chain where anyone experiencing meat-withdrawal symptoms will be rewarded with guilt-free, convincing veggies in disguise. I (dare I say it) am a meat eater myself, but find some of VH’s soy-based faux meat more tender and often tastier than the real deal.
There’s also Bloomfield Avenue’s former Udupi Village, which, along with its delicious masala dosas, recently moved to Parsippany and has been renamed Mysore Woodlands.
Do you know a youngster who, independently of his/her family, has gone vegetarian? Talk to us. Are they blooming and growing, why did they abandon meat, how complex are the family meal plans?
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