Following the furor that has been caused in the UK by an advert released by Tesco, a major supermarket chain, to promote it’s vegan meals, it seemed like a good time to talk about what to do if your child comes home and says that they want to go vegan.
In the advert by Tesco, which you can watch below, a little girl enters the kitchen where her dad is cooking. She says in a sad voice, “Dad, I don’t want to eat animals anymore.” And we hear her dad thinking, “I love my meat, but I love my little girl more.” We are then told about Tesco’s meat alternative range that is as tasty and nutritious as their traditional meals minus the meat. I have to admit that I was cock-a-hoop when I first saw this advert. As a teacher I know that there are many children and young people out there who would love to not eat animals anymore, but they just don’t know how to do this in a healthy manner.

I used to be one of those children. I gave up eating meat when I started my secondary education, roughly equivalent to the American middle school age. I too had made the connection at a young age between the meat on my place and the animal suffering that had put it there. And I didn’t want to be a part of that. This is a conundrum that many parents will face. Their child doesn’t want to eat animals and as a parent you want your child to be happy and healthy. So how do you do it?

In my case, I was given a vegetarian cookbook and allowed to get on with it. Which was pretty good going on my mum’s part in rural Aberdeenshire, Scotland in the late 1980s. Now-a-days parents and children alike have much more help at their fingertips, thanks to the internet. So what should your reaction be if your child comes home and says that they want to go vegan?

Be Supportive
Recognize that your child has the very best of intentions. Also try to understand that it can be extremely distressing to be made to eat meat and dairy once a connection has been made been the living animal’s suffering, or the environmental damage caused by eating meat and dairy.
In order to support your child, it is time to roll up your sleeves and learn all about veganism and the animal agriculture system, in order to understand where your child is coming from and why. You also need to make sure that they fully understand all the ramifications of this new life choice of theirs.

A Vegan Diet is Healthy at Every Stage of Life
Firstly, it is really important for parents to know that a fully vegan diet has been endorsed by the National Health Services in the UK and Dietetics Association in the U.S.A as suitable and healthy at all stages of life, including pregnancy, infancy, the teenage years, and old age. The key is that the diet be properly planned in order to contain enough calories and key nutrients. This is entirely possible on a whole foods, plant-based diet. Furthermore, it is not only entirely possible, it is also much easier as we shall discuss.

Getting Enough Calories
As a mom or dad, your primary concern is often that your kids are eating enough. And certainly it is an easy mistake to make when first transitioning to a vegan diet to not eat enough food. Plant-based food by its very nature is lower in calories than its meat or dairy counterparts, so children will have to increase their consumption in order to meet their daily calorie needs. This is at the root of why many people feel weak or ill when they transition to a vegan diet. It isn’t that there is anything wrong with the diet – they simply are not eating enough calories.
An easy way to manage this to begin with is to check calorie consumption with an app such as cronometer.com However, it is crucial to note that protein levels and fat levels as well as a couple of other things will be off on cronometer due to the misguided amounts for these circulating in general knowledge i.e. we need a lot less fat and protein than many experts would have us believe. But let’s not go down that particular rabbit hole. The important use of this kind of app is just to generally track that the person transitioning to a vegan diet is eating enough calories.

Supplements
It is important that children who want to follow a vegan diet are supported to do so and are given a daily supplement in order to ensure they are getting a regular supply of some of the nutrients that are tricky to get on any diet, not just a vegan diet. These are: iodine, B12, D12, zinc, selenium, and the essential fatty acids. My favorite supplement for people 12 years and up is Complement Plus. This is the one supplement that I take daily as it contains all of those harder to get nutrients, so that I don’t have to worry about missing out on anything.

Eating a Wide Range of Plant-Based Foods
A well-planned vegan diet will contain lots of heart healthy whole grains such as rolled oats for breakfast, whole wheat toast and cereals, wraps with hummus and salad for lunches, plenty of fruits such as apples and bananas, and hearty dinners made of big vegetables stews and soups. For children, it is also so helpful to use the mock meats in order to bulk up meals and enable them to follow their wishes to not eat animals, while also continue to eat familiar meals. There are substitutes for almost everything now from hot dogs to cheese.
Home made smoothies are also great for kids and can be a good way to increase fruit and vegetable intake. Beans, lentils, and brown rice are also going to be really important to ensure that kids feel full-up after meals and are getting enough calories.
If your child is a healthy weight they should also be encouraged to eat small amounts of nut butters and avocado as part of a healthy diet.

But Kids Need Cheese and Milk for Their Bones – Don’t They?
Far from being beneficial to bones, dairy is actually one of the most unhealthy things that a young person can eat. Dairy is linked to a variety of cancers, and the countries with the highest dairy consumption also have the highest rates of osteoporosis. Go figure? Furthermore, cheese is the leading source of dietary fat and cholesterol in our diets which directly leads to our number one killer: heart disease. Not convinced? Check out Dr. Colin T. Campbells work on dairy here.

Get Your Kids Cooking
Just like I was encouraged by my mum 30 years ago to get cooking my own food, so you should encourage your child to do the same. There are lots of great vegan kids and family cookbooks, including ones focused on yummy desserts and cupcakes. If your kid wants to go vegan they should be encouraged to become interested in food and in cooking. Baking cupcakes, granola bars, and simple soups is a great place to start.
They should also be encouraged to learn about nutrition and how our bodies are powered. In other words, to help them to make the connection that food is our bodies fuel, and whatever we put into our bodies has an impact on how we think, feel, look, and how much energy we have.

Watch Documentaries Together
A key part of becoming vegan is educating ourselves about what is happening in the world and educating ourselves about what it means to eat in a healthy way. It is therefore vital that you encourage your child to watch and learn with you, so that you can all grow as a family. Depending on the age of your children great documentaries to check out on Netflixs are Forks Over Knives, The Game Changers, Cowspiracy, and What the Health.

Remember That Following A Well-Planned Plant Based Diet Reduces Risk of All The Major Killer Diseases
It is still relatively little known that a young person who grows up eating a plant-based diet is at a far reduced risk of developing cancer or diabetes. If they continue to follow a plant-based diet into adulthood their chances of developing heart disease or dying of a stroke are also drastically reduce, to the point of being negligible. So far from being an unhealthy way to eat, encouraging your child to follow a healthy plant-based diet will actually keep them healthier and protect them from these major diseases.

Educate Yourself So That You Can Support Your Child
For $25.00 you can sign up for Vegan Online Academy’s Vegan 101 class. This will enable you to go through a step-by-step guided process in an online class, in order for you to understand and be able to support a sensible and healthy transition to a plant-based diet. This course provides you will all of the knowledge you need in order to be fully informed about things like vitamins, minerals, calories, supplements and what to cook now. For the cost of a good cookbook, you will have lots of videos, recipes, information and guidance in order to take this step with confidence.

Keep in Touch With Your Doctor
Visiting your doctor regularly in order to check blood work and growth charts is important. Most doctors are supportive of a plant-based diet, but you may find yours isn’t yet fully informed about the benefits of eating this way. Don’t be discouraged about this, remember that most doctors and pediatricians have very little nutrition training and so aren’t experts in what to eat in order to be healthy.
You may well find that you soon know more about diet and nutrition than they do. Be open with them and share resources that you have found such as websites and cookbooks that you value. They can then keep an eye on your child’s blood work and development and make sure that you are taking the essential supplements such as iodine and B12 mentioned above.

Finally, Be Open To Change
It is really important that you, as a parent in the modern age, keep an open mind. The initial reaction of most people is that eating a vegan diet is going to be limiting, unpleasant, and difficult. Actually, this couldn’t be further from the truth. You may never want to stop eating meat, but don’t let your reactions stop your child from pursuing their dreams.
You will undoubtedly find that if you keep an open mind, inform yourself, and experiment in the kitchen, that you will be able to incorporate a plant-based diet into your family’s lifestyle with ease. As people continue learning about veganism they find that they don’t miss meat or dairy as much as they assumed they would. They are delighted when stubborn weight that has been hanging around for ages begins to fall off, they are also delighted with the range of tasty food they can eat. So if your son or daughter wants to go plant-based, why not follow their lead and see where it goes.

After all, isn’t it what every parent wants? For their child to eat more fruits and vegetables?

If you want to learn more about how to easily transition to a plant-based diet, sign up for Vegan Online Academy’s Vegan 101 course today. For only $25 you will have access to everything you need in order to make this transition to a new, healthy lifestyle easily and with complete success.