<p>Let’s not argue about bacon. Let’s stay friends.
I’ll just say that at my kids’ college, choices are darned good. At one known school I worked at, I felt sorry for committed vegetarians. The salad bar was a small hodgepodge where serving utensils landed anywhere and the hot bar was 4 choices. two usually grubby veggies, pasta and something “exotic” du jour . Then again, that school had only a few choices for non-vegtarians: greasy, greasier. Mind blowing.</p>
<p>Oh, don’t worry, east coast. Don’t think it’s on your radar.</p>
<p>My daughter became a vegetarian as a freshman at her very, very small private college. She did find the selections a bit limiting, but learned to advocate for herself and befriend the dining hall cooks. She had to speak up, otherwise it would have been pasta, pasta, pasta. I’ve found that no matter how good it is, after a few months of it, every student fusses about dining hall food. </p>
<p>Yea…it’s sort of a non-issue. Any vegetarian that has truly integrated the choice into their life is used to seeking out and finding things to eat that are “in bounds”. The world outside a college cafeteria is no different than the world outside your front door. And if in doubt, go to Bowdoin, where a vegetarian can eat like a king.</p>
<p>My sons’ colleges all have vegetarian options. But it’s always an issue when a kid goes away, whether he is going to be eating properly. With vegetarians, the issue that often comes up , from what I have seen with my friends’ kids is the hemoglobin count. Many of them, come up anemic. Without eatiing meat at all, particularly beef, it does take a bit of an effort to get that iron in the diet on a regular basis. Especially if the person tends to be naturally low in that count. I’m one of those people whose body does not process iron well, so to go veggy without taking special care that I watch that iron, means going anemic as I’m borderline that way.</p>
<p>My kids, in contrast, are waaay up there in hemoglobin counts, just naturally. I had one who went through high risk leukemia chemo and never needed a transfusion because even halving his naturally high count meant he was still within the Ok zone. Me, it wouldn’t take much of a drop to be red blood transfusion level. </p>
<p>But with carnivore kids, it’s the fresh veggies and salads that I fear they did not get once I was out of the picture in their diets, so if it’s not one thing, it can be another. </p>
<p>I doubt the OPs kiddo will have any trouble finding food to eat. Raw diets, gluten free diets, vegan diets, vegetarian diets…they are all quite popular these days with young people. </p>
<p>Having been through this twice at different schools in different parts of the country, it’s easy to do with the caveat that the kid needs to consider and watch protein intake … particularly if vegan because the vegan choices may be that much more limited. Since I eat mostly vegetarian and workout, I use protein supplements. That’s something to consider if tracking protein reveals too little intake. And those are available for just about any diet.</p>
<p>D doesn’t have too much of an issue in college. There’s always pizza at the events. She does like it much better this year though as she is off the meal plan and has an apartment and can cook for herself.</p>
<p>S is at a boarding school and has a harder time with it. There are vegetarian options, but the offerings are slim. Not very appetizing either. He does eat a healthy, hearty breakfast and makes do for lunch/dinner. He did tell me that he has heard disparaging comments from other kids about him being vegetarian (surprising to me, but perhaps not so surprising in the midwest?), but that hasn’t bothered him or dissuaded him. He continues to be vegetarian!</p>