Don't Have a Cow, Mom

The Washington Post

By now we're used to seeing veg-friendly articles for parents in various local papers, but I haven't seen much in the way of those stories in major newspapers that are frequently syndicated or quoted by TV news programs, so this is pretty good, as far as positive veg publicity goes. In fact, I finally have some support for my sense that vegetarianism is on the rise these past few years:

A poll conducted in 2000 by the Vegetarian Resource Group, a nonprofit group dedicated to educating the public on vegetarianism, estimated that 6 percent of American youths ages 6 to 17 don't eat meat; 2 percent skip fish and poultry, too; while 0.5 percent are vegans -- they also forgo dairy and eggs.

The American Dietetic Association believes those numbers are on the rise, which fits with my experience: My 18-year-old daughter is trying a no-red-meat diet, and increasing numbers of her friends are choosing variations on a vegetarian theme.

Fortunately, these days we have members of the establishment condoning healthy vegetarian diets. Far from subverting the story, as I've seen in Newsweek and other publications, the last line of the article finds Marilyn Tanner, a pediatric dietitian at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, concluding:

"If your child comes to you and says they are going to be a vegetarian, I would say, 'That's fantastic.' " ·

Now that's the kind of support kids need!

Tags: health | nutrition