Table of Contents
Foreword
A vegan meal is a real gift, providing health power that meaty, cheesy meals cannot match. Parents who serve vegan meals do their children an enormous favor, and children who are raised with a vegan menu gain tremendous advantages. Many years ago, researchers learned that vegetarian children reach the same height as nonvegetarian children. And they tend to be slightly leaner, less likely to carry that bit of chubbiness too many other children have these days. Studies also suggest that vegan children have higher IQs than their omnivorous classmates. And on average, they will live years longer. More importantly, when children learn about healthy vegan foods early in life, they are well prepared to avoid the health challenges that adults face.
The American Dietetic Association has reported that not only are plant-based diets acceptable for children; these diets provide real advantages. They report that, Well-planned vegetarian diets are appropriate for individuals during all stages of the life cycle, including pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, and adolescence, and for athletes . [A] vegetarian diet is associated with a lower risk of death from ischemic heart disease. Vegetarians also appear to have lower low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels, lower blood pressure, and lower rates of hypertension and type 2 diabetes than nonvegetarians. Furthermore, vegetarians tend to have a lower body mass index and lower overall cancer rates.
Serving healthful vegan meals is easy. After all, think how simple it is to cook a batch of oatmeal in the morning, or zap some veggie sausage links. How easy it is to pack a sandwich with veggie bologna slices that look and taste just like regular bologna, cook veggie dogs instead of regular hotdogs, or heat up baked beans without that hunk of pork. Whether youre cooking from scratch or using convenience foods, the vegan choices have the edge when it comes to health and are quick and easy enough for even the busiest parents.
Although you will learn much more about healthful nutrition in the pages that follow, let me say a word here about complete nutrition. A healthful menu is drawn from what are sometimes called the New Four Food Groupsvegetables, fruits, whole grains, and legumes. These staples translate into a bowl of hearty breakfast oatmeal or cold cereal with soy milk or rice milk. Lunch might be bean chili, a veggie hot dog with baked beans, or pasta salad with a green salad. Dinner could be a vegetable soup, spaghetti with tomato sauce, and steamed veggies, or one of a thousand other possibilities. These foods provide plenty of protein, even without careful combining (or complementing) of food groups. Any normal variety of plant foods, consumed over the course of a day, provides the complete protein a growing child needs. Youll find plenty of calcium and iron in green vegetables and beans, as well as in fortified foods, for those who want them.
It is essential to provide a reliable source of vitamin B12, which should generally mean providing a multivitamin daily, although vitamin B12 is also found in fortified foods, such as vitamin-fortified soy milk and cereals. I recommend a daily multivitamin for all children, not only vegans.
To all parents who have chosen to provide vegan foods at home, let me say that your children are lucky to have you as their parents. Not every parent yet realizes what a difference it makes. When health authorities first recommended smoke-free environments for children, some parents were a bit slow to take the advice. When child-safety car seats became mandatory, it took some time before their benefits were widely appreciated. Ditto for bicycle helmets and athletic safety gear. But the data are now in, and we now know that taking a bit of extra care of our children can really pay off. Nowhere are the benefits more immediate or more powerful than in the contents of their plates.
Providing vegan meals for children is a huge favor. Your children will thank you, and so do I.
Dr. Neal Barnard
President of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine
Introduction
Raising vegan kids in a world full of cheeseburgers, ice cream, and pizza can seem like an impossibly daunting task. You can sometimes feel like youre fighting a losing battle. But take heart! Were here to tell you that its not only possible, its admirable.
Eating a vegan diet is a healthful choice for ourselves, for our children, and for the planet. According to Pediatrics in Reviewwidely viewed as the gold standard journal in up-to-date kids health informationMultiple experts have concluded independently that vegan diets can be followed safely by infants and children without compromise of nutrition or growth and with some notable health benefits. (Italics added.)
As adults, its not always easy to be a food contrarian, and it can be even more challenging for kids. But motivated, resourceful parents can find ways to make anything, including veganism, work to their childs advantage.
Different readers may come to this book for different reasons, but all with the common goal of helping the kids you love be healthy and happy eating vegan all the time, most of the time, or more often than not. How you came to that decision is as unique as your situation.
Perhaps youve been vegan since high school or college. Maybe youve been health conscious about your own vegan diet, or maybe not so much. But now, with a baby on the way or a little one ready to try solid foods, youre ready to step up your nutrition game. Yet, like most new parents, youre not exactly sure how to introduce your child to eating (in this case, vegan style), or exactly what she needs nutritionally to grow and thrive at different stages. Youll find all that in this book.
Did your school-age child announce she doesnt want to eat animal products anymore? Out of love for animals or a desire to help the environment, your child is proclaiming, No more meat! No more milk! No more eggs! The media devotes lots of coverage these days to the cruelty of factory farms, the positive work of animal compassion groups, and the environmental impact of animal products and veganism, so its no surprise kids are taking notice and declaring their change of heart at the dinner table. Find out how to support them, and why you may want to take the plunge, too.
Or maybe your child is becoming vegan by default as one among many in the ever-increasing number of kids with allergies or sensitivities to dairy, eggs, or the additives and hormones in meat.
If your entire family is starting out on the vegan road together, you need to be sure each family members needs are met. This isnt one-size-fits-all because kids at every stage of growth have unique sets of nutritional and social needs we parents need to tune in to.
Whatever your motivation, now that youre here youll:
Get the 411 on vitamins and calories
Find out how to talk to your childs doctor about vegan diets
Learn to make vegan pancakes, a delicious vegan birthday cake, and quick vegan snack bags
And more!
With tons of health, nutrition, kitchen, and social tips, and 35 kid-friendly vegan recipes, The Complete Idiots Guide to Vegan Eating for Kids helps you navigate your childs vegan food options and choices. By starting with a few simple nutrition guidelines and safeguards, adding some flexibility, throwing in a heaping spoonful of community and a dash of creativity, youve got the recipe for healthy, fun, vegan family living for you and your kids.
