teen has decided to be vegan

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Vegan diets are fantastic for your heart health and other issues as you age. Adopting a largely vegan diet often eradicates ED in middle aged men who are eating the standard American diet heavy in animal products.

Check out cookbooks from Moosewood Collective and the Esselstyns - Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease Cookbook and Plantstrong, also you can find a bunch online at plantstrong.com

One of my favorite cooking sites in Spainonafork.com - the recipes are largely vegan if you omit the garnish of cheese, but you can easily add protein to them if you are cooking for vegan and non vegan family members

Consider embracing your daughter’s diet and seeing if it isn’t something you can all learn to love. I never thought I could, but I’ve been working the transition for a few months now (I had a freezer full of meat to use up but have been making more and more meatless and dairy free dishes, and my body is beginning to tell me it prefers to not consume the animal products, I definitely feel ickier after a meal with animal products than after a vegan meal. I don’t use any UPFs, so my vegan meals are all fresh whole foods and my body loves them.

I don’t have kids myself, but I do feel good about reducing consumption of animal products given the impact on the environment.

Hope you find some things you like to make and eat - we can ALL benefit from eating more plants, even if we don’t manage full vegan. Bless your daughter for having the desire, I bet she loves animals and has a compassionate heart.

m

Lol this isn’t true. A lot of people develop horrible health issues after eating vegan for a decade or more. Humans evolved to eat meat.

+1

Soy is not good for you. Legumes are highly inflammatory for many. Protein is needed in a healthy diet, so without those two sources it is extremely difficult to get any/enough protein

Source?

It turns frogs gay

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I know this is maybe not fair, but I also worry that for some teens, the restrictive nature of veganism can be a component of (or lead to) disordered eating. To be clear, I'm not saying that is true for all or most vegans. Just that the restrictive nature of the diet has some parallels.

Hi OP!

Agree. There is a major health risk here. Could you get one of her pediatricians to help talk her out of this?

Hopefully this is just a silly phase she will grow out of soon. Hang in there.

With any luck we can burn the planet up in a few years so no one has to be vegan or anything else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I know this is maybe not fair, but I also worry that for some teens, the restrictive nature of veganism can be a component of (or lead to) disordered eating. To be clear, I'm not saying that is true for all or most vegans. Just that the restrictive nature of the diet has some parallels.

Hi OP!

Agree. There is a major health risk here. Could you get one of her pediatricians to help talk her out of this?

Hopefully this is just a silly phase she will grow out of soon. Hang in there.

With any luck we can burn the planet up in a few years so no one has to be vegan or anything else.

Good point!

Also LOL to a “major health risk” in switching from the standard American diet. By all means go ask some overweight pediatrician with absolutely zero knowledge of nutrition to talk your daughter out of a plant-based diet.

[Anonymous]

Can you work with your daughter to make and freeze big batches of vegan food that can be frozen in single servings to break out on nights when you're having some sort of nonvegan dinner?

[Anonymous]

You can still cook what you want, just have lots of sides, a big salad, and some protein for her. She can have tofu on top of a nightly salad with lots of veggies. And she can help prepare it!

[Anonymous]

Our pediatrician advised against vegan diets for our tween daughter. Not necessarily because it's a bad diet, but that it is *practically* speaking, very hard for a busy kid with existing food allergies (allergic to nuts) to consume enough iron and certain B vitamins to eat well. I'm also concerned psychologically about associating stressful decisions with eating. When a girl is vegan, every meal out with friends, in the dining hall, at social functions becomes a potentially stressful eating situation where certain foods become "taboo" and DD might choose to go without a meal than to eat something with egg, butter, honey, etc.
Those who are dismissive of vegan diets among girls and their correlation with eating disorders are either unaware or willfully ignorant of the research out there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our pediatrician advised against vegan diets for our tween daughter. Not necessarily because it's a bad diet, but that it is *practically* speaking, very hard for a busy kid with existing food allergies (allergic to nuts) to consume enough iron and certain B vitamins to eat well. I'm also concerned psychologically about associating stressful decisions with eating. When a girl is vegan, every meal out with friends, in the dining hall, at social functions becomes a potentially stressful eating situation where certain foods become "taboo" and DD might choose to go without a meal than to eat something with egg, butter, honey, etc.
Those who are dismissive of vegan diets among girls and their correlation with eating disorders are either unaware or willfully ignorant of the research out there.

Most colleges today have vegan food. And, you take a B supplement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our pediatrician advised against vegan diets for our tween daughter. Not necessarily because it's a bad diet, but that it is *practically* speaking, very hard for a busy kid with existing food allergies (allergic to nuts) to consume enough iron and certain B vitamins to eat well. I'm also concerned psychologically about associating stressful decisions with eating. When a girl is vegan, every meal out with friends, in the dining hall, at social functions becomes a potentially stressful eating situation where certain foods become "taboo" and DD might choose to go without a meal than to eat something with egg, butter, honey, etc.
Those who are dismissive of vegan diets among girls and their correlation with eating disorders are either unaware or willfully ignorant of the research out there.

Most colleges today have vegan food. And, you take a B supplement.

Vegan diets are not recommending for growing children. And any diet to relies on supplements to maintain adequate health for otherwise normal human beings should be met with skepticism.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0929693X19301368
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10408398.2018.1437024

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our pediatrician advised against vegan diets for our tween daughter. Not necessarily because it's a bad diet, but that it is *practically* speaking, very hard for a busy kid with existing food allergies (allergic to nuts) to consume enough iron and certain B vitamins to eat well. I'm also concerned psychologically about associating stressful decisions with eating. When a girl is vegan, every meal out with friends, in the dining hall, at social functions becomes a potentially stressful eating situation where certain foods become "taboo" and DD might choose to go without a meal than to eat something with egg, butter, honey, etc.
Those who are dismissive of vegan diets among girls and their correlation with eating disorders are either unaware or willfully ignorant of the research out there.

Someone with nut allergies would definately have a difficult time on a vegan diet. Vegetarian diets are obviously very healthy if you cook real food and not processed/packaged substitutes. But you must ensure you are getting enough nutrients and iron and B vitamins are difficult to get on a normal vegan diet. I'd encourage my kid to do vegetarian and if they really wanted to go vegan we would meet with a nutritionist and do blood draws every 2 months to check on iron and B vitamin levels. Basically have a discussion that they can only be vegan if they are healthy, which means tracking food choices and making sure you get enough iron and b vitamins, if not, then you need to add back in some items to keep your body healthy and growing

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our pediatrician advised against vegan diets for our tween daughter. Not necessarily because it's a bad diet, but that it is *practically* speaking, very hard for a busy kid with existing food allergies (allergic to nuts) to consume enough iron and certain B vitamins to eat well. I'm also concerned psychologically about associating stressful decisions with eating. When a girl is vegan, every meal out with friends, in the dining hall, at social functions becomes a potentially stressful eating situation where certain foods become "taboo" and DD might choose to go without a meal than to eat something with egg, butter, honey, etc.
Those who are dismissive of vegan diets among girls and their correlation with eating disorders are either unaware or willfully ignorant of the research out there.

Most colleges today have vegan food. And, you take a B supplement.

Vegan diets are not recommending for growing children. And any diet to relies on supplements to maintain adequate health for otherwise normal human beings should be met with skepticism.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0929693X19301368
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10408398.2018.1437024

+1000

You should not need to take supplements to maintain adequate health. That is why vegan diets are not typically healthy for growing kids. It's difficult to get all the nutrients you need. So do a modified vegetarian diet and figure out what else you need to add in to be healthy. I'd have my kid meet with a registered dietician if they truly wanted to be vegan, and do monthly/bi monthly blood tests to ensure they are getting/absorbing the adequate nutrition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why were vegan dinners off the menu in the first place?
Life is long. Expand your palate and your repertoire. Learning is good for you.

Oh come on, vegans are annoying AF and everyone knows this. I wouldn’t indulge that shit.

[Anonymous]

My 13-year-old announced that she wanted to be vegan and I asked her to start as a pescatarian. I know her eating habits and she does not have an expansive palate nor is she an adventurous eater.

It ended up that she was great at eating beans and carbs but it was a struggle to get a variety of vegetables into her. I also never felt like she was getting enough calories. She gave up on a trip about a year later and life is much easier.

[Anonymous]

Why does she want to be vegan vs vegetarian?

Start there. While there's nothing wrong with being a vegan often times a sudden interest in veganism can mean eating disorder in teens.


If that all checks out. make 2 or 3 vegan meals a week to be supportive your family might gain some new favorites.. The rest of the week make foods that can easily be converted to vegan. If you're making something give her a heads up so she can make an alternative keep some things on hand so she can do this. Have her help with meal prep on vegan nights . All your kids should take a turn helping in the kitchen, life skill and it's fun as well as a chance to bond.
You may also want to meet with a nutritionist or get some books to help guide in adequate nutrition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our pediatrician advised against vegan diets for our tween daughter. Not necessarily because it's a bad diet, but that it is *practically* speaking, very hard for a busy kid with existing food allergies (allergic to nuts) to consume enough iron and certain B vitamins to eat well. I'm also concerned psychologically about associating stressful decisions with eating. When a girl is vegan, every meal out with friends, in the dining hall, at social functions becomes a potentially stressful eating situation where certain foods become "taboo" and DD might choose to go without a meal than to eat something with egg, butter, honey, etc.
Those who are dismissive of vegan diets among girls and their correlation with eating disorders are either unaware or willfully ignorant of the research out there.

Agree completely with your pediatrician here. It is a terrible idea, health-wise, for OP’s DD to harm her health at this stage trying to go vegan.

Science is real, people. Listen to your child’s doctor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our pediatrician advised against vegan diets for our tween daughter. Not necessarily because it's a bad diet, but that it is *practically* speaking, very hard for a busy kid with existing food allergies (allergic to nuts) to consume enough iron and certain B vitamins to eat well. I'm also concerned psychologically about associating stressful decisions with eating. When a girl is vegan, every meal out with friends, in the dining hall, at social functions becomes a potentially stressful eating situation where certain foods become "taboo" and DD might choose to go without a meal than to eat something with egg, butter, honey, etc.
Those who are dismissive of vegan diets among girls and their correlation with eating disorders are either unaware or willfully ignorant of the research out there.

Most colleges today have vegan food. And, you take a B supplement.

Vegan diets are not recommending for growing children. And any diet to relies on supplements to maintain adequate health for otherwise normal human beings should be met with skepticism.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0929693X19301368
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10408398.2018.1437024

Hmmm… so what do you think about breastfed babies needing vitamin D supplements?