Family Going Veggie? How To Make Sure They Get The Right Nutrients

According to the American Dietetic Association position paper on vegetarian diets, people who eat a vegetarian diet have a lower risk of developing heart disease, Type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure. They also tend to have lower LDL cholesterol levels, body mass index (BMI) readings and overall cancer rates (1). However, when it comes to a vegetarian diet, there are right and wrong ways to go about adopting this (largely) healthful way of eating. For this reason, education on a healthful vegetarian diet is critical.

A 2005 poll showed that 3 percent of 8- to 18-year-old children were vegetarians (1). While it's been well established that a vegetarian diet can be healthful and adequate in nutrition, children and teens do require age-appropriate intakes of certain nutrients. Especially important for vegetarians are: protein, calcium, iron, zinc, Vitamin D and Vitamin B12 in amounts sufficient to support growth and development. Guidance from parents in making deliberate food choices helps maintain balance and variety, ensuring that nutritional needs are met. If your child has decided to "go veg," here are the nutrition considerations that need to be taken into account:

1 of 5

Protein

1 of 6

First Slide

Previous Slide

@

For many people, protein is synonymous only with meat, fish and fowl, however, there are many plant-based foods that are high in protein, such as, beans, peas or lentils, nut butters, soy foods and eggs (for lacto-ovo vegetarians). Children's protein needs, depending on age, ranges from 16 to 44g per day (2), but a variety of vegetarian protein sources can provide sufficient amounts. Iron is the most common nutrient deficient in vegetarians, and especially in vegans, who don't eat any animal products, the American Academy of Pediatrics' "Pediatric Nutrition Handbook" says. This is because iron-rich plants contain a type of iron that's harder for the body to absorb than the iron found in animal products.

The Best And Worst Foods For Digestion

American Cancer Society Through The Years

Poland Face Transplant

Health Benefits Of Friendship

gadgets/slideshows/298735/slide_298735_2482900_small.jpg

Oklahoma Tornado Coverage

Unexpected Side Benefits Of Exercise

For many people, protein is synonymous only with meat, fish and fowl, however, there are many plant-based foods that are high in protein, such as, beans, peas or lentils, nut butters, soy foods and eggs (for lacto-ovo vegetarians). Children's protein needs, depending on age, ranges from 16 to 44g per day (2), but a variety of vegetarian protein sources can provide sufficient amounts.

Iron is the most common nutrient deficient in vegetarians, and especially in vegans, who don't eat any animal products, the American Academy of Pediatrics' "Pediatric Nutrition Handbook" says. This is because iron-rich plants contain a type of iron that's harder for the body to absorb than the iron found in animal products.

comments(39)

Total comments: 39 | Post a Comment

1 of 6

This Tip

Rank #2  |  Average: 4

Already do this. Good ideas!

• 
  1
• 
  2
• 
  3
• 
  4
• 
  5
• 
  6
• 
  7
• 
  8
• 
  9
• 
  10

Top 5 Tips

loading...

Top 5 Tips

UserName

 | Become a fan

Picked These as the Top 5 Slides in the Slideshow

loading...

Top User Slides

← Prev|Next →

 | Become a fan

Picked These as the Top 5 Slides in the Slideshow

loading...

Users who voted on this slide

← Prev|Next →

loading...

References:

1. Craig WJ, Mangels AR; American Dietetic Association. Position of the American Dietetic Association: Vegetarian diets. J Am Diet Assoc. 2009;109(7):1266-1282.

2. Melina V, Davis B. The New Becoming Vegetarian: The Essential Guide to a Healthy Vegetarian Diet, 2nd ed. Summertown, Tenn.: Healthy Living Publications; 2003.

 

 

 

Follow Joanna Dolgoff, M.D. on Twitter: www.twitter.com/joannadolgoffmd

Comments

[TofuMan]

03:32 PM on 09/09/2011

I’ve been veggie for 23 years (15 vegan) involved in many veggie/vegan organisations so I’ve met thousands! Often I’ve seen people brought up in meat eating households go into veg*nism largely ignorant about the huge diversity of plant foods and the nutrition they provide... Did you grow up in a home where vegetables were boiled into submission and put on the side of the plate? :-)

Unhealthy veg*ns are usually ones who never learned about or fall in love with all that amazing food we never heard about in school or at home! A few tips:

1. Don't try to just replace animal products with vegans ones. Vegan sausages can be nice but don't rely on them!

2. Try everything more than once, you really can't expect to make vegan food taste amazing the first time, keep experimenting and don't give up...

3. Wikipedia is a great place to learn with great lists of vegetables, nuts, seeds, etc.

4. Check out the USDA Nutrient Database - Thousands of foods nutritionally analysed. Ever wondered what's in broccoli? Probably not, but this will tell you! http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/

5. Join veggie/vegan forums, people who have years of experience will be happy to help you and share their favourite recipe tips.

I'm here to share & learn.... so daft comments and insults will be ignored. ;-)

[spitfiredd]

10:08 AM on 08/22/2011

This is a horrible article; I'm a vegan and I don't even eat half this crap. Not once were greens (Spinach, Kale ect) even mentioned which contain a lot of iron/calcium and loads of other minerals or fruit which have tons of vitamins and are loaded with potassium and magnesium. Plus they have tons of soluble fiber which feeds health gut floura. This article just has processed soy junk and a picture of a drug isle....

With the exception of white rice I would stay away from grains because they have phytates which bind with minerals and make the mineral bio-unavailable for your body to absorb. The harsh insoluble fiber can may also damage your digestive track as well.

[Stephanie Elise]

06:45 PM on 08/21/2011

I doubt I would be feeding my 'veggie' son or daughter fortified cheerios out of a box in order to fill them with nutrients.

Don't even get me started on what grains do to nutrients in the body.

[LittleRedEngine]

05:10 PM on 08/25/2011

What do grains do to nutrients in the body? Are whole grains not good?

[Cuthbert]

06:02 PM on 08/20/2011

Just how natural is it to totally ignore an entire portion of our diets that we evolutionarily adapted to consume to fulfill our nutritional requirements. Only a human could rationalize that they know better than nature what is healthy. Get over yourselves and recognize the fact that if it wasn't food 40,000 years ago, it probably isn't now. Vegetarianism and Veganism aren't natural states of optimal nutrition.

[TofuMan]

04:07 PM on 09/09/2011

40,000 years ago people had not cultivated and improved carrots, potatoes, broccoli, melons, cauliflower, peanuts, bananas, wheat, zuchini, basil, lentils, cassava, oats, chilis, peas, apricots, beans, almonds, radishes, garbanzos, barley, walnuts, rice, kale, squash, corn, onions, tomatoes, rosemary, sunflowers, pumpkins, spinach, celery, asparagus, garlic, apples, etc...

So all of these should be off the menu?

The cavemen who never ate those things either also took a remarkably long time to think up the wheel, reliable medicine, just laws, science not to mention your clothes, your house, electricity, anti-biotics (if you are over 25 you have lived far longer than the majority of them and probably have unnatural medicines to thank for that) and lets not forget how they also didn't invent your computer
:-)

I don't think there is a sound scientific basis for your claim at all. All these lovely things rely on agronomy - not hunting for meat. Agronomy is quite 'unnatural'.

The only hint of science I spotted in your comment was a cursory mention of the nutritional requirements of our bodies which you didn't detail. I personally meet my bodies nutritional requirements by giving it nutrients... which luckily are abundant without relying on meat, thanks to those lovely unnatural plant foods intelligent people spent the last few thousand years improving.
:-P

[Cuthbert]

11:51 PM on 09/11/2011

And we as a species figured out all of these things INCLUDING agriculture (meaning raising plants and animals) because we consumed foods our bodies adapted to over millions of years. If you CHOOSE not to eat meat, you can do so, but you still don't have a chance of nourishing yourself better than a person who elects to include eating complete protein sources like meat and healthy sources of fat like those that come from animal sources. There still is not a single human culture that can claim to have developed and thrived solely as vegetarians. It goes against our nature, and that is the point of my post. You may be able to survive eating no meat, but if you started eating meat tomorrow, you would not suffer, but rather thrive physiologically. Just to put this to bed, agriculture isn't just about raising plants for consumption. Using and consuming animal products has been a part of the circle of life from the beginning and you would not exist without it's practice.

[Tunghoy]

03:58 PM on 08/20/2011

Rather than eating sugary cereals to get vitamin B12 and other B vitamins, I use nutritional yeast. The yeast flakes come in a shaker jar and have little taste (maybe a slight bread-y taste), so you can sprinkle it in anything and not notice. I add it to almost everything. And it isn't active, so you don't have to worry about killing it with heat, and it won't make food rise.

The most common brand is Red Star, and you can find it on the shelves of any health food store or organic section of the supermarket. Some health food stores sell it in bulk.

[henriette and hube]

11:20 PM on 08/20/2011

I use nutritional yeast as well, buy in bulk, and a B complex vitamin. I don't need to get my supplements added to a product to boost the price either.

[Jennifer Walker]

12:31 PM on 08/27/2011

I love nutritional yeast! You can use it to make an amazing vegan hollandaise sauce as well (pureed silken tofu, nutritional yeast, lemon juice, garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne pepper, and salt) Pair it with steamed kale, brown rice, and blakened tempeh, and you're in for a treat!

[Tunghoy]

05:46 PM on 08/27/2011

Sounds great! I'm definitely going to try that,

[DavidMG]

08:21 AM on 08/20/2011

A pleasant rule of thumb for vegetarians is to "eat each day as if you are dining in a different foreign country". This means you will eat lots of different ingredients in varied proportions. Chinese, Italian, Greek, Mexican, Mideast, etc all have wonderful vegetarian meals that are time and taste tested. Also, try to make sure all grains and sweeteners are unrefined.

[Themis27]

06:28 PM on 08/19/2011

Aren't studies showing milk is a poor source of calcium anyway?

[zallen777]

01:13 PM on 08/19/2011

My Husband had been a vegetarian for the last 5 years and had nothing but problems in the bedroom dept.(low testosterone tests confirmed it) I suspected and did research that brought me to many studies showing the majority of vegetarian men had low testosterone.
Within 3 days of his decision to eat meat again there was an amazing difference. Im sorry it might have some health benefits to certain individuals if done correctly but I also feel most people need some form of animal protein to remain healthy

[Rebrebreb]

04:05 PM on 08/19/2011

Doesn't happen for everyone. And there are probably TONS of carnivores with the same low testosterone problems plus a zillion other health problems (heart disease, not to mentioned clogged blood vessels) which REALLY affects performance, too. Entire societies out there are veg and not experiencing population problems. Also I would investigate if you were a healthy or unhealthy vegetarian, i.e. when I went vegan from vegetarian my health increased thousand-fold... I had to realize that as a vegetarian I was loading up on breads, dairy and cheese products - - I wasn't a health vegetarian. Cleaned up my act and went vegan and never felt better.

I am not saying you didn't solve your problem (as you say you did) but honestly, doctors offices are filled with far far FAR more people with health problems of all kinds (and virility problems) who are carnivores. There is no denying that when done right, vegetarian/vegan people are just healthier. But you have to really do it right, know your protein grains, your veggies, where your calcium sources are. In other words: be educated about health. Which one should do, regardless of being veg or carnivore.

[Eric Mann]

08:14 PM on 08/21/2011

The health issues omnivores in this country have are not shared by those who eat meat in other countries. Japanese eat A LOT of animal flesh, but most of it is seafood. Europeans eat plenty of meat too, and have less heart disease. Get off your high horse about eating meat. It is not about eating meat or not, it is about WHAT meat we eat, how often we eat it, and how it is prepared. On those points, the US diet is off the hook in the "FAIL" department. If we ate lean cuts of meat and more fish, we would not see the problems that you try to connect to eating meat.

[Frederick Wolter]

04:49 PM on 08/19/2011

That might be attributable to low zinc levels. Zinc is an important nutrient involved in pubertal development and Testosterone (T) synthesis. Many vegans' diets are deficient in zinc because of phytic acid present in their zinc sources. Phytic acid is an anti-nutrient which binds to several minerals (zinc, iron, calcium, magnesium) and reduces their absorption into the body. There are techniques that can be used to greatly reduce phytic acid content in foods, but the problem is that most people don't even know what phytic acid is. "Very low-fat, high-fiber," "very high-protein, very low-carb" and high-sugar diets will also reduce T. Any vitamin or mineral deficiency will also do a number on your T levels. Poor psychological health and high stress will blunt T levels as much as any dietary factor. High body fat is another T killer since T is converted to 17ß-estradiol (a major estrogen) in adipose tissue. Eating monounsaturated fat found in nuts, olive oil and avocados boosts testosterone.

[SteveC 1979]

11:36 AM on 08/19/2011

If going vegan, one might also explore the benefits of an Omega 3-6-9 supplement. Just an FYI...

[jpalmettoguy]

11:17 AM on 08/19/2011

The less meat I eat, the more it grosses me out.

[mamamor]

10:08 AM on 08/19/2011

This article is really timely for my family, as we are currently making some changes to our diet(s) - trying to eat less meat, but also less simple sugars/carbs/starches, all while accommodating some picky eaters! I appreciate this concise review of how I can focus my efforts. However, while I realize that quick and easy has its place, I feel like the article over-emphasizes fortified foods to supplement a diet. It seems like often there is an overlap between fortified foods and processed foods that tend to be heavy on simple carbs/sugars, and only offer nutrition through fortification. Everyone needs an easy option, but it would be great to include additional information about how to find those nutrients from other sources.

[zengirlnyc]

09:50 AM on 08/19/2011

Surprised to see this article recommending soy for so much- when much of it is toxic - genetically modifed- and in general even organic soy can contribute to thyroid and other problems as independent studies show.

[SteveC 1979]

11:38 AM on 08/19/2011

I've heard of this - can you post one or two of these studies? Trying to learn more about it. Thanks!

[LisaViger]

11:52 AM on 08/21/2011

If you're concerned about soy, you'll find this article interesting ...

http://www­.veganheal­th.org/art­icles/soym­essina

[lotusgirl]

01:51 PM on 08/19/2011

I don't think it's healthy to eat tremendous quantities of soy period, especially GMO soy. I do occasionally eat organic tempeh (fermented soy). To me it's has a much better taste and consistency than tofu and is much more digestible. I occasionally also make seitan (wheat meat), but it's kind of a pain. I get most of my protein from organic beans.

Recently, I'm just eating a lot more simple. I'm a good cook and use to go all out. But now a nice salad, green juice, rice and beans, raw veggies or fruit is doing the trick.

[John and Amanda No]

02:09 PM on 08/19/2011

Soy is the worst....avoid it.