Vegan for Life - Jack Norris [61]
Teens raised in vegan households might have an edge over omnivore teens since they are likely to be familiar with a wide range of healthy plant foods. On the other hand, vegan teens may have to pay even more attention to calcium and iron than their omnivore peers. The biggest challenge faces teenagers in omnivore families who have chosen to adopt a vegan diet on their own. In that case, it’s important for parents to offer support by learning about vegan diets and making sure the kitchen is well-stocked with lots of vegan foods.
The food guide on page 158 can be used to help teens make healthful food choices. During growth spurts—when teens can grow several inches over a period of a few months—calorie and nutrient needs are much higher than usual. Growth spurts are accompanied by increased appetite, and it’s important to make sure your teen is consuming plenty of foods that provide protein and calcium.
Since teens will choose many of their own meals and snacks, it’s a good idea to have plenty of healthful foods available that can be quickly prepared or carried in a backpack. Some ideas that are likely to have teenager-appeal:
Dried fruits
Trail mix
Popcorn
Frozen vegan pizza slices
Hummus on pita bread
Calcium-fortified juice or soymilk in individual serving cartons
Bagels
English muffins with almond butter
Burritos
Veggie burgers
Instant soups
Instant hot cereals
Ready-to-eat cereals
Smoothies with frozen fruit, soft tofu, and fortified soymilk
It’s critical that teenagers regularly consume high-calcium foods like fortified soymilk and orange juice or calcium-set tofu. You should also include beans, a good source of iron, in foods that teenagers tend to enjoy, such as baked beans, salads with chickpeas, hummus, and burritos.
The widely varying nutrient and calorie needs of the teen years make it difficult to come up with a sample menu for this age group. The menu on page 162 provides approximately 3,000 calories and offers ideas for teen-friendly meals that are packed with good nutrition.
Eating Disorders
While some research suggests that eating disorders are more common among vegetarian teens, this is because girls sometimes adopt a vegetarian or vegan diet as a way to manage and disguise their unhealthy food behavior.5 That is, the eating disorder comes first and a vegan diet is merely one of many tools aimed at controlling calorie intake. But healthy girls who become vegan or are raised in vegan households are no more likely than anyone else to develop an eating disorder. A vegan diet is not a sign of an eating disorder.
The causes of eating disorders are complex and poorly understood. Parents who are concerned that their child might be adopting unhealthy attitudes toward food should look for these classic signs of eating disorders:
• Unnecessary weight loss that continues beyond three months.
• Meal skipping.
• Avoidance of all foods that appear to be high in calories or that contain fat, such as tofu, meat substitutes, peanut butter, breads, and pastas.
• Compulsive counting of fat grams and calories.
• Offering repeated excuses for not eating.
• Frequent weight checks.
• Complaints about feeling bloated after eating normal portions.
• Ritualistic behavior around food, such as cutting food into tiny pieces or eating only one food at a time.
• Avoiding social situations that involve food.
• Excessive exercise.
• Distorted body image.
REAL VEGAN CHILDREN
Most parents worry at some time or another about their child’s diet and nutrient intake. In today’s world, where children are bombarded with advertisements for fast foods and have constant access to fatty, salty, sugary, processed foods in school and out, there is a deepening crisis regarding children’s nutrition. The evidence lies in the dramatic increases in obesity and diabetes among young Americans over the past several decades.
Questions about meeting nutrient needs on a vegan diet seem to pale in comparison to those larger public health concerns. When it comes to feeding vegan children, parents need to give extra