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1In200KidsSkip Meat,StudyFinds

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The Associated Press

Published: January 12, 2009

Sam Silverman is co-captain of his high school football team - a safety accustomed to bruising collisions. But that's nothing compared with the abuse he gets for being a vegetarian.

"I get a lot of flak for it in the locker room," said the 16-year-old junior at Westborough High School in Massachusetts.

"All the time, my friends try to get me to eat meat and tell me how good it tastes and how much bigger I would be," said Silverman, who is 5-foot-10 and 170 pounds.

Silverman may feel like a vegetable vendor at a butchers' convention, but about 367,000 other kids are in the same boat, according to a recent study that provides the government's first estimate of how many children avoid meat. That's about 1 in 200.

Other surveys suggest the rate could be four to six times that among older teens with more control of what they eat.
Vegetarian diets exclude meat, but the name is sometimes loosely worn. Some self-described vegetarians eat fish or poultry on occasion, while vegans cut out animal products of any kind, including eggs and dairy products.

Anecdotally, adolescent vegetarianism seems to be rising, thanks in part to YouTube animal slaughter videos that shock the developing sensibilities of many U.S. children.

The new estimate of young vegetarians comes from a recent federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study of alternative medicine based on a survey of thousands of Americans in 2007. Information on children's diet habits was gleaned from about 9,000 parents and other adults speaking on the behalf of those younger than 18.

Vegetarians say it's animal welfare, not health, that most often causes kids to stop eating meat.

Nicole Nightingale, 14, of Safety Harbor, was on the Internet to read about chicken in 2007 when she came across a video showing the birds being slaughtered.

She thinks her experience was typical for her peers. "A lot more kids are using the Internet. They're curious about stuff and trying to become independent and ... find out who they are."

HEALTHY VEGETARIAN DIETS FOR CHILDREN

•Children who want to be vegetarians need to "fill in the blanks" of their low-protein diets by eating alternatives to red meat, fish and poultry, such as soybeans, fortified soy milk and nuts, which are important sources of the protein, iron, zinc, calcium and vitamin D that most kids get from meat.

•Nutritional yeast - which has a cheesy flavor - has vitamin B-12. And flaxseed is good for linolenic acid.

•Vegetarian children who eat eggs and dairy products will most likely get all the nutrition they need. But those who become vegan - abstaining from dairy - need to be more diligent.

Source: The Associated Press

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