1 in 200 Kids Don't Eat This

by Bev Sklar (Subscribe to Bev Sklar's posts)
Jan 14th 2009 7:00PM

No, the answer is not french fries, it's meat. It's probably more like one in a million kids who don't eat french fries. But back to the young veggie tale, the Centers for Disease Control recently released the first estimate of how many children younger than 18 avoid meat. The number is 367,000 or about 1 in 200. Not a number indicative of veggie world rule.

Maybe that's a guesstimate as other surveys forecast the rate could be four to six times higher for older teens. If you're old enough to drive a car, you're certainly mature enough to decide if you want pepperoni on your pizza or not.

While the long-term data is too slim to quantify whether YouTube animal slaughter videos are the main motivator behind adolescent veggies, some say animal welfare is the primary spark, not health. I went veggie for five months once, but I felt tired -- yes, I was getting enough protein -- so I returned to the land of the occasional carnivore. I consider myself a flexitarian. Have you ever been or are you a teen or adult veggie?

Source

Comments (3)

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

u262f 1-14-2009 @ 9:18PM

My partner was apparently vegetarian when he first met me, also for primarily animal welfare reasons. It was long before the days of YouTube, but he had apparently seen chicken slaughter videos on PBS.

The problem is that children on animal welfare agendas usually don't understand what it takes to go vegetarian. They often just stop eating meat without replacing the necessary nutrients. They can easily destroy their health by going vegetarian if they don't understand what they're doing.

Children often hate beans. I just hope these vegan children understand that you can't save the chickens, turkeys, or "sea kittens" if you don't eat your beans.

UH2L 1-15-2009 @ 1:05AM

It's easy to be a healthy vegetarian if you eat lots of ethnic food which tends to be less meat-focused than American food. I am the product of 10+ generations of healthy vegetarians from India where probably 40-50% of the people are vegetarian. Most of those are lactovegetarians so they don't eat eggs either.

rachel.smith 1-15-2009 @ 10:38AM

With response to the above commentors-I have been a vegetarian my whole life (much like commentor #2 except im not Indian)- the thing about kids and being a vegetarian is they need parents who know what to feed them- healthy food! To commentor #1I could say the same thing to you about all those carnverous children out there- they are ruining their health with fast food and junk. Ultimatly- in BOTH situations- its the parents job to teach healthy eating. I know my parents did- and I as an adult prefer my beans and veggies over candy and chips anyday.

My point is- people automatically think that if a child is a vegetarian they are missing some nutrients- but what about all the kids who are obsese and their parents let them eat junk and burgers, fried chicken ect.? Isnt that the same thing? In both cases- children need to be taught what to eat. Commentor #2 is a perfect example of this- 10 generations of vegetarians- and I bet not one of them as a child was as unhealthy as a child brought up eating meat in obese america.