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<p>It works the equally in either direction. I wouldn’t stop serving meat because one of my daughters decided to become a vegetarian, and I wouldn’t stop serving vegetables if she became a total carnivore. As I said in my post, I’m willing to make reasonable accomodations to ensure that a vegetarian has plenty to eat at our house, but I’m not totally revamping the whole menu.</p>
<p>My 18yo D has been a pescatarian (that’s the term if you eat fish, but not meat) since she was 12. Her diet was mostly pasta, pizza, veggies, etc. Late last year she finally listened to my suggestion that she might be gluten-intolerant like her mother. Sure enough, so you think being a vegan or vegetarian is tough? Try cutting out gluten AND meat! She eats lots of fruits, veggies, cheese & eggs. We also go through lots of potatoes in our house, as that and risotto are the only foods that everyone in the family will eat, as 14yo S1 doesn’t eat fish or anything green. </p>
<p>It is an understatement that meal planning is a challenge (actually a nightmare!) in our house. I typically make a large side vegetarian side dish when we are having meat or grill a burger for the boy when we have fish.</p>
<p>This month will be 3 years that I have been vegan and I never looked back. My iron is better now than it was pre-vegan and my blood sugar is far more stable. In those 3 years one D became vegan after years of awful stomach issues and it was a life changer for her and she is now over 2 years vegan, another D decided on January 1, 2009 to go vegetarian and has stuck with it - DH and S are still anything goes but they cook what they want and I cook everything else. Starting out I was much more limited in what I could cook and was willing to try but now I am always stumped when someone asks what I eat as a vegan because my answer is usually “everything” lol because a whole new world opened up when I shifted my perspective. I will say vegetarian is a cake-walk compared to being vegan but now it’s just second nature and doesn’t seem difficult at all except it’s a bit tougher when traveling. I also do not expect hosts to change their food for me, nor does D1 though many of her friends and BF’s families have enjoyed trying new dishes.</p>
<p>I did want to share this quote that I have always loved:</p>
<p>“Though a vegan can often be seen
…Eating lentils and tofu and beans,
Still when omnivores pass
They invariably ask
'How do you get your protein?”</p>
<p>Shillyshally - so TRUE!</p>
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<p>It’s not a matter of what dishes are favored by the eaters-- it’s a matter of what dishes are favored by the cooks. I’m not a short-order cook. I try to cook food that my family will like, but if I don’t, well, there’s the refrigerator, there’s the stove, they can cook for themselves.</p>
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<p>Well, so maybe the difference is who does the cooking. DW & I have always shared cooking more or less 50-50, or alternated depending on whose schedule was most flexible on any given day. She was a vegetarian before I met her. I was, and remain, an omnivore. She accommodated me by agreeing to eat, and eventually learning to cook, more meat dishes. I accommodated her by agreeing to eat, and eventually learning to cook, more vegetarian dishes. We probably ate about 50-50 meat and vegetarian dishes when our daughters were young, and enjoyed all. It got more complicated when D1 became a vegetarian and refused to eat meat. Our first concern as parents was for her health, though it quickly became apparent that as a vegetarian she could actually eat at least as healthy a diet, and probably more so, as a vegetarian. Our response then was to up the size of the vegetarian dish, to ensure she’d have plenty of leftovers in the fridge on days we were eating meat. We, too, did not want to become “short-order cooks,” but with a fridge and microwave that’s entirely unnecessary, and really was not an issue for us; D1 became very adept at finding the leftovers and popping them in the microwave at a very early age. But over time we came to realize that as a family we actually liked a lot of the vegetarian dishes D1 and DW proposed, and experimented with, and perfected. And a new equilibrium emerged, because as it turned out there were a host of vegetarian dishes that appealed to all 4 of us, whereas meat dishes automatically excluded one member of the group. And frankly, that factored into the cook’s preferences, too, because even as an omnivore cook I’d much rather please the entire crowd than 3/4 of it. Also, D1 herself became one of the cooks, not quite on equal-time basis with DW & I, but putting in a fair bit of time in menu planning and sous-chef work and cooking some entire meals on her own—and that also tilted the balance in favor of vegetarian, though not exclusively so.</p>
<p>We still have plenty of opportunities to eat meat, especially when D! is away at school, or having dinner at the BF’s house, or out with the BF or some other group of friends. But we’ve found a pretty good balance that works for everyone. And no one is “rigid” or “humorless” about it, on any side of that equation.</p>
<p>I’m with CF on this one. The one who cooks sets the menu. However, when Ds’ BF’s come for dinner, I make sure that the dinner is served Armenian-style (as taught by my good friend who is Armenian): a smorgasboard of small salads and side/main dishes instead of just one veggie and one protein combo. This way, the vegetarian who detest beets can fill his plate with something else, and the carnivors can enjoy a side of my beet salad with their steaks. But I draw the line at fake meats, and I never serve them: if you are a vegetarian, you do not need imitations of the very stuff that goes against your philosophy. Eat tofu instead of tofurkey, mushroom stew instead of gardenburger, etc. Otherwise, you look like an atheist who keeps a copy of the Bible on the nightstand. :)</p>
<p>I’ve been a vegan for the past year. Never in a million years would I ever think I would become one. BUT I feel really well, don’t get sick and have lost over 40 lb. My blood work is stellar.
I became one for more health reasons(Dr Furhman’s, Eat To Live). Having been heavy all my life, trying different diets, only to gain the weight back.
This has been the best decision for me because it has become a way of life and I totally have changed my way of engineering meals and thinking about food. My diet is Plant-based, no processed foods, very little oil, no sugar, very little soy.
Breakfast is a green smoothie made with spinach,fruit,almond milk,flax seeds and maybe agave syrup. I make a pot of any veggie soup or lentil soup with veggies once per week and eat that for lunch all week or when Im hungry. In think nothing of saut</p>
<p>I love reading all these comments. I feel like I have already learned so much about why people choose to become vegetarian or vegan, and how to serve foods that are not familiar to me. I especially appreciate the comments from vegetarians who don’t expect hostesses to make a special meal for them – I always worried about that the few times a guest told me they were vegetarian. Next time, I’ll just maybe make one more interesting vegetable side dish and put everything out for people to choose. I always thought side dishes were the best part of any meal.</p>
<p>I am watching D carefully to make sure she doesn’t lose weight. At 105 lbs., 5’4", running 8-10 miles/day, she needs a certain amount of fuel to keep up her training. She’s been anemic before. I’m keeping an eye on that too. As long as she is healthy and feels energetic, I’m fine with the vegetarian path.</p>
<p>Last night I used the silken tofu to make her a fruit smoothie. Boy it looked good!</p>
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This tells me a vegan diet is not appropriate to our species. It’s still unclear to me why anyone would want to avoid dairy and eggs unless they were allergic.</p>
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Oh dear, nj2011mom! Your family has trained you to cater to them. Of course the gluten issue has to be addressed (easier and easier these days), but no one in my home ever got special meals/dishes because of mere preferences or was allowed to refuse a food group. One balanced and interesting dinner was provided each evening. If you didn’t like it, you went hungry. Amazingly, everyone learned to like a broad range of foods, and as adults they still do. I remember years ago when a little boy came for a sleepover and his mother told me he was “fruit-and-vege-phobic” and should not be offered any of those foods. Imagine letting a kid get away with that!</p>
<p>We had a nanny who was an Adventist, which advocates vegetarianism. We were shocked that she ate mostly processed fake meat. My daughter tried it and declared most of it tasted like dog food. I tried showing the nanny how unhealthy these foods were (high sodium and preservatives) and suggested that she eat more basic foods such as beans, however she was not interested. Bottom line, being a vegetarian is not necessarily healthy if you eat processed food.</p>
<p>S1 has been a picky eater from day 1. We try, but he’s a kid that will just not eat if he doesn’t like what’s being served. This is a problem, as he’s a club swimmer, logging 90+ minutes/day, so he needs a lot of calories. I understand he eats some veggies if he goes to a friend’s house. Compared to my 12yo neice, we have it easy, as she will only eat the same foods every day and my SIL completely gives in to her.</p>
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<p>There are some pretty horrible substitutes out there. The one that comes to mind is Quoron. It is engineered fungus. It seems to be popular, but if you google it, there have been so many people who have complained of some adverse health issues arising from it’s use.
I also don’t understand when people call themselves vegetarian and they don’t eat vegetables but a lot of carbohydrates, starches like potatoes, pasta and rice. To me, that is not vegetarian, that is considered a non-meat eater.</p>
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That, of course, is dumb and unhealthy. One of the big advantages of sleepovers is that your kids are generally too embarrassed to be as picky as they would be at home and learn to like new foods. I remember how cross my Mom was when I came home and told her I now liked cooked carrots.</p>
<p>I don’t put vegetarianism in the same category. I am not a vegetarian, but I think it’s generally healthier and more ethical. You don’t have to be a short order cook. As someone else said upthread it is not that hard to cook a larger quantity of a good vegetarian dish that can eaten as a side dish by the omnivores and on multiple days by the vegetarian. My general cooking philosophy is that anything worth cooking is worth eating (at least) twice.</p>
<p>Fruit and veggie phobic? THAT I will not cater to. Some of D’s friends who claimed to be “phobic” would lick their plates clean in my house. I guess they never tried veggies cooked in a certain way, like my grandfather’s borscht.</p>
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<p>Vitamin D is readily available outside.</p>
<p>Vitamin B12 is an issue for modern day vegans.</p>
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<p>There are lots of reasons why someone would decide to be a vegetarian, but I’m not sure that there is anything “healthier” about it. I think there are a lot of vegetarians eating decidedly unhealthy diets with some deficiencies in terms of protein and beneficial fats. The doctor who did the A to Z Stanford diet study (a lifelong vegetarian) said in his lecture that he has to beg some vegetarians in his nutrition clinic to eat some fats. Some people view vegetarian diets as the ultimate “low fat” style of eating, not realizing that too low fat is a problem.</p>
<p>Young, active people especially need hgher protein levels. Older people desperately need muscle.</p>
<p>I think a macrobiotic diet is the best kind.</p>
<p>regarding the fruit & veggie phobic I know people who ate " on the spectrum" and are much more sensitive to textures than you would imagine.
[Autism</a>, PDD-NOS & Asperger’s fact sheets | Fussy eating and Autism](<a href=“http://www.autism-help.org/behavior-fussy-eaters.htm]Autism”>Autism, PDD-NOS & Asperger's fact sheets | Fussy eating and Autism)
My D wasn’t a bad eater, her tactile sensitivity revolved around not liking to wear clothes, but I wouldn’t assume that a child who was a picky eater to be “spoilied”</p>
<p>Thanks for that comment, ek. Parents of spectrum kids get a huge amount of unjustified smugness and superiority from parents of neurotypicals. My Aspie son happens not to be a picky eater-- in fact he’ll eat anything that doesn’t crawl off his plate-- but his cousin (who is surely somewhere on the spectrum) is the world’s pickiest eater, and not because my sister spoiled him.</p>
<p>Spend a year with an Aspie kid before explaining to me how you’ll make every kid an adventurous eater. And if you say, “So-and-so’s kid isn’t on the spectrum!” I say “How do you know?”</p>
<p>i-dad, well healthier than the average American diet anyway. 
(Interesting though that you say not enough fat can be a problem, since I think the biggest problem of early vegetarian cookbooks was that the food had so much cheese and eggs that it tended to be overly high in fat.)</p>
<p>I’m a happy omnivore, but I agree with Pollen we should all be eating a lot more vegetables.</p>
<p>EK, my quirky kid won’t eat noodles because they are slimy and lamb because it’s too oily. He also hates tags, will only wear thin socks etc. Annoyingly he ate everything when he was three, but the older he got the less he liked. He’ll still eat Chicken Vindaloo though! :eek:</p>