To celebrate National Vegetarian Week 2014, The Tofu Diaries has invited fellow bloggers to get involved and share! Today’s guest blog is from Rachel whose work helps to support young vegetarians in their journey towards a meat-free lifestyle. As someone who made the decision to give up meat very young I wish Rachel’s book ‘The Smart Girl’s Guide to Going Vegetarian’ had been around back then! She is here to tell us more about why she chose to focus on teenagers, the concerns they may have, and how parents can support their children in their choices.
Hi, everyone!
As a US-based registered dietitian nutritionist and author of The Smart Girl’s Guide to Going Vegetarian, I’m excited to help my UK friends celebrate National Vegetarian Week.
The Smart Girl’s Guide to Going Vegetarian and the corresponding blog smartgirlveg.com are both written directly for the teenage vegetarian. Why did I choose to focus on teenagers? A few reasons:
1. Anecdotal evidence suggests that teenagers are the group most likely to experiment with vegetarianism. I have found that at least ¾ of the vegetarians I meet first went veg (or began their journey to veg) when they were teenagers. What’s more, I also meet a good number of adults who tell me that they’re not vegetarian now, but they were for a brief while in high school or college. Ask around and I suspect you’ll find the same (and if any scientist out there wants to conduct actual research on this topic, I’d love to hear the results).
2. Teenagers who go veg have special needs above and beyond those of adults who give up meat. More on that later.
3. I spent my teenage years transitioning from a meat-eating diet to a vegetarian one. That experience set me on a path to pursue nutrition as a career, and to develop a passion for educating and assisting teenagers who are in transition mode when it comes to their health. Long story short: I was a cruddy vegetarian, and it took me years to figure out that being healthy was more about what I was adding to my diet than it was what I was removing from it. I aspire to save others from the same trouble.
You may be wondering what’s so special about a teen gone veg. Here are some of the unique concerns for a younger person:
Control. Most teenagers are living at home with their parents; others in eat at a school cafeteria. Limiting your diet is one thing. Limiting your diet when you’re not the one doing the grocery shopping? Totally different.
Doubt. A teenager who decides to give up meat is much more likely to hear “oh, it’s just a phase” than an adult making the same choices. Many adults also jump to the conclusion that a teenager who eliminates meat from her diet may be dabbling in disordered eating behavior. There is some research suggesting that young women who have had an eating disorder are more likely to have been vegetarian at one point or another, however giving up meat is not indicative of disordered eating (that said, adults should always be aware of red flags for disordered eating in teens, which giving up meat in conjunction with several other characteristics can be considered. Read more about this in The Smart Girl’s Guide to Going Vegetarian).
Nutrition. All vegetarians should take care to get proper nutrition (including protein, zinc, B12 and more), however teen girls in particular have the added challenge of getting enough iron. Most teenage girls, vegetarian or not, don’t get an adequate amount of the nutrient, and since meat is one of the easiest ways to get iron into your diet, it can be hard for vegetarians to meet their daily needs.
Of course, with a little guidance, support, and good food, any of these hurdles can be easily overcome. If a teenager in your life is choosing to go veg on some level—whether they’re testing the waters by giving up red meat, going vegan, or anything in between—be sure to take their decision seriously and use the transition as an opportunity to bond. Share great blogs like this one, ogle beautiful vegetarian food on Pinterest and Instagram, tweet your ideas for Meat Free Monday (UK) or Meatless Monday (US), take your teen grocery shopping with you and, of course, sit down to delicious, health-enhancing meat-free meals together. You will both be nourished and nurtured from the experience.
Did any Tofu Diaries readers first go veg as a teenager? If so, please share your experience! How did you handle challenges when it came to control, doubt, and nutrition?
Thanks so much to Rachel for sharing some insights into her work and helping along the next generation of veggies. Be sure to check out her and follow her blog for more!
I went vegetarian when I was 12, but I was lucky enough to have a vegetarian mum – I can imagine it’s a whole lot harder to convince meat eating parents!
Absolutely, that must have made a world of difference! Out of curiousity, did your mum cook meat for the rest of the family even though she didn’t eat it herself?
She does, its just her and my little brother now through.
Thanks for the response, @chemily. I really respect your mum for allowing you to make the decision for yourself. I think it can be hard for parents to sit back and let their children figure out what feels right for them—so many parents just want their children to do as they do. Yay for your mum being so open minded!
It’s the best thing – I think if I’d been pushed into it, I would have resisted being vegetarian.
I also went vegetarian around age 12 or 13 – and had to try multiple times before I could keep it up! Although my mum approves from a moral perspective now, back then she didn’t really want me going vegetarian. So although she didn’t stop me, she didn’t go out of her way to be helpful either – especially not when she and my sister wafted the chicken they were eating in my face! As for going vegan, I could only manage that once moving out. Truth be told, I hadn’t ever tried to previously, but if I had, it would have made both my and my mum’s life difficult.
I think its really important to give teenagers the help they need – my younger sister has two vegan friends, one who has a miserable time of it and another who she suspects doesn’t get adequate nutrition, so I think its a really good thing what you’re doing. There’s one other issue I feel I should point out though, and that is the issue of gender. There appear to be a great many more female vegans/vegetarians than there are male, probably because of the notion that vegetarianism is for the “weak” or the “sensitive.” (This logic is deeply flawed, as of course it takes a lot more strength to actually see and acknowledge the truth of the meat industry and take a stand against it than to sit and do nothing. But I digress.) Have you noticed how few male food bloggers there are?
My point is – and please don’t take this as an attack on what you’re doing, I think its great, the title just drew my attention to a bigger overall issue – that marketing vegan products/help guides/websites specifically at females actually alienates 50% of the population. If a teenage boy sees the “Smart Girl Guide To Vegetarianism” chances are the view that vegetarianism is “for girls” and “unmanly” is only going to be reinforced… I think it would be fair to say that in terms of social pressures, teenage boys have a harder time going vegetarian/vegan, but receive less support from the vegetarian community. And they need it every bit as much.
Just some food for though. :p
You definitely make some really valuable points here Shonalika! Your experience sounds quite similar to mine. It is so hard to know what you’re doing from a nutrition point of view when you get started so young so I can see why your sister’s friends struggle – the internet must be a huge helping hand these days though alongside books like Rachel’s (that makes two things I wish I’d had when first becoming veggie!)
I do agree with what you say about gendering resources like this as it is does seem there are far fewer male vegetarians. There is a logic in focusing on female teenagers as they do have some different concerns from a nutritional point of view, however gender-neutral or even resources aimed specifically at male teenagers would in a sense fill an even vaster “gap in the market” as far as this information goes. Maybe a sequal should be on the cards!?
Thanks for sharing your thoughts :)
*thought. xD
Thanks so much for your thoughts, @Shonalika. I couldn’t agree with you more. My publisher ultimately made the decision to gear the book toward girls in order to speak more directly to the majority of our audience. I do like to point out to young men that once you get past the cover, the book is pretty much gender neutral (but yes, it would take a strong young man to read beyond that cover!). I’m actually meeting more and more teen male vegans recently, due in part to the popularity of vegan athletes like Brendan Brazier and Matt Frazier who blogs at http://www.nomeatathlete.com—they see vegetarianism as anything but “weak”! I’d love to write the male-focused sequel.