Ellen Schwartz - Im a Vegetarian. Amazing Facts and Ideas for Healthy Vegetarians

Text copyright 2002 by Ellen Schwartz
Illustrations copyright 2002 by Farida Zaman

Published in Canada by Tundra Books,
75 Sherbourne Street, Toronto, Ontario M5A 2P9

Published in the United States by Tundra Books of Northern New York,
P.O. Box 1030, Plattsburgh, New York 12901

Library of Congress Control Number: 2001095376

All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system, without the prior written consent of the publisher or, in case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, a licence from the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency is an infringement of the copyright law.

National Library of Canada Cataloguing in Publication Data

Schwartz, Ellen, 1949
Im a vegetarian: amazing facts and ideas for healthy vegetarians

eISBN: 978-1-77049-060-4

1. Vegetarianism-Juvenile literature. I. Zaman, Farida II. Title.

TX392.S38 2002 613.262 C2001-903420-2

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program.

We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program for our publishing activities.

v3.1

The author would like to thank the following people:

For reviewing portions of the manuscript and providing feedback:
Elissa Greenfield, Jenna Greenfield, Laura Greenfield, Susan Hutcheon,
Reed Mangels and the Vegetarian Resource Group, Hannah Milstein,
Rachel Rosenberg, Merri Schwartz, Diane Stebner, Grant Stebner, and
especially, for her invaluable help, Brenda Davis.
For providing recipes: Amy Schwartz.
For research assistance: Bill Schwartz.
For the generous use of a place to write: James and Lynn Hill.
For interviews and quotations: Carolynne Burkholder, Brianna Graven,
Jesse Megan Gray, Leanne Humphrey, Liv Lundh, and Jesse Ross.
For permission to use quotations: the American Dietetic Association;
James Cromwell; Janet Rasmussen, Windstar Communications (for John
Denver); Alan Durning and the Worldwatch Institute (www.worldwatch.org);
Richard Melville Hall (commonly known as Moby); Paul Hawken; and
Frances Moore Lapp.

The author is indebted to the following sources of information:

Becoming Vegetarian by Vesanto Melina, Brenda Davis and Victoria Harrison.
Food: Feasts, Cooks and Kitchens by Richard Tames.
How Many Teens Are Vegetarian? How Many Kids Dont Eat Meat?
Vegetarian Journal, Volume XIX, Number 6, January/February 2001, page 10.
The Origins of Modern Vegetarianism from The New Vegetarians by Paul R.
Amato, and Sonia A. Partridge. From www.eatveg.com.
Our Food, Our Planet by EarthSave. From www.earthsave.bc.ca.
Spill the Beans and Pass the Peanuts: Legumes by Meredith Sayles Hughes.
A Teens Guide to Going Vegetarian by Judy Krizmanic.
Tomatoes, Potatoes, Corn and Beans by Sylvia A. Johnson.
Vegan Nutrition in Pregnancy and Childhood by Reed Mangels and Katie
Kavanagh-Prochaska and the Vegetarian Resource Group at www.vrg.org.
Vegetarian Nutrition for Teenagers from the Vegetarian Resource Group
at www.vrg.org.
Vegetarian Facts and Fiction by Carol Wiley. In Vegetarian Times.

For Merri and Amy
E.S.

For Layla and Gibran, with love.
Happy, healthy eating!
F.Z.

Contents

What do Julia Stiles, Leonardo da Vinci, and Moby have in common? How about Albert Einstein, Drew Barrymore, and David Bowie?

If you guessed theyre all vegetarians, youre right. And so are thousands of other celebrities actors and musicians, scientists and artists, athletes and inventors. And so are millions of ordinary people across North America and around the world.

In fact, vegetarianism is a growing worldwide trend. Just consider these facts:

• Approximately 13 million North Americans are vegetarians, and a million more join their ranks every year.

• Experts say kids in their teens are the fastest-growing group of vegetarians.

• More than one million North American kids in the 6 to 17 age bracket have said no to meat.

• Vegetarianism has gone mainstream. Compared to just a few years ago, there are more vegetarian restaurants, more meatless dishes on restaurant menus, and more vegetarian foods in grocery stores than ever before.

In the past, some people considered vegetarians to be weird cultists who ate nothing but seaweed and granola. Today, a diet that focuses on grains, legumes, fruits, and vegetables is not just seen as normal, its considered desirable and healthy.

And it is healthy. In fact, the American Dietetic Association stated in 1997, It is the position of the American Dietetic Association that appropriately planned vegetarian diets are healthful, are nutritionally adequate, and provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases.

Of course, eating isnt just about health. Its also about good taste and energy and fun. A vegetarian diet can supply all of those things, too. And talk about adventure adopting a meat-free diet can be the beginning of a delicious food tour around the globe.

Whether you are a lifelong vegetarian or vegan, or a brand-new one, this book is for you. In these pages, youll meet kids like 11-year-old Brianna, 13-year-old Tim, and 15-year-old Jesse. Youll find out why they went vegetarian and what they like about it. Youll discover how to win over your parents, how to make your school more veggie-friendly, and how to handle sticky situations such as Thanksgiving dinner, when Aunt Erma is begging you to try a turkey leg, for my sake and Uncle Fred is warning of your imminent demise if you dont smarten up and eat your meat! Youll learn nutrition basics to help you plan a vegetarian diet thats healthy for growing bodies. And youll find delicious recipes to get you started in the world of meatless cooking.

So, welcome to a different way of eating and of living. A way thats compassionate to animals, kind to the environment, healthy and tasty and fun. In the words of the Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw, a lifelong vegetarian who lived to be 94: Animals are my friends and I dont eat my friends.