Vegan with Picky Teens

by Michelle
(McKeesport, PA, USA)


My kids are not vegetarian but I am. I really want and need to go vegan due to milk allergies. My kids are very addicted to meat and milk and only will eat a few vegetarian foods. So I am stuck eating a lot of junk like pastas and pizza. I have gained a lot of weight since going veg, and I really would like to lose it.

Do you have any advice on getting kids adjusted to a vegan diet in the teen years?

*****

Sassy Sez: Hi Michelle! Such a great question. It's important to get a handle on this now, not only to assist you with your weight loss efforts, but so your teens can understand what a healthy diet looks like.

Since I don't have children, and I only speak from experience here at VeganCoach.com, I'm going to ask our peeps in the Vegan Coach community to share their thoughts and experience and advice with you. This should prove to be helpful and eye opening.

So guys, who has some amazing advice for Michelle and her picky teens?

Thanks, and stay tuned... ;)

xo
Sassy

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Vegan with Picky Teens

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Sep 05, 2011
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Advice from an ex-teen
by: AnotherRenoVegan

Well I don't have kids. But I'm not far removed from being a teen and I'll tell you this: For me, there were two things that made me like the foods I disliked before.

One was truly believing in the reasons for going vegan. That made me power through learning to cook for myself, learning how to shop well for a cheap price and educating myself on how to get rid of animal products for good. So if your children don't fully understand why you want them not to eat animal products, it will probably be harder for them to adjust.

The second was forcing myself. With the foods I didn't like, I basically told myself there was no reason for me not to try and like them. So I ate them until I did like them. It helped for me to look up the nutritional profiles of the food as well to know what I was getting, but that's because I'm fascinated by nutrition.
Sep 05, 2011
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Teens not wanting to eat vegan food
by: Carla

Hi, Michelle,

Why not take your kids to some vegan activities where they will have vegan food? Also, there are lots of vegan restaurants that have delicious food that can be found at www.HappyCow.com.

You may also get some pamphlets from peta.org to let your kids read and help in handing out to people. Most kids' souls today are from higher dimensions that they have a very compassionate nature that perhaps is at sleep in this physical world. So it helps to let them be exposed to the information about how animals are tortured and killed that many kids after seeing the film refused to eat meat ever again, even if their parents still eat meat. This kind of information of animal sufferings need to be spread as otherwise if people don't see, they don't think the cruelty exists. But they need to know and see what's behind the scene.

You may also get kids involved in learning how to make vegan dishes by using all kinds of seasonings and spices that actually make the difference in the taste of food, not the meat itself that tastes bloody that is why people must use the seasoning and special cooking method, BBQ or frying to cover up the horrible taste.

You really need to help the kids to start establishing correct eating habit as it's not easy to change later on in their lives. You take them to places or give them books to read about how meat is not clean, and how chemicals, antibiotics and hormones have been put in animals' bodies for abnormal growth. It takes education to help them that is the parents' responsibility.

You yourself need to learn to cook delicious vegan dishes, daily and also for holidays. Kids need to taught properly so that they can become decent adults to continue our human evolutions on this planet by doing the right things for themselves and for the society. They need to be taught to respect all lives and love one another.

It will work out since if you believe it is the way of life, it will be that way. It's the best time to do it when kids are little.


Sep 05, 2011
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Kids don't want to eat vegan food
by: Anonymous

Michelle,

May I suggest that you get online to find some shows of "Animal World" and "Be Veg" for your kids to watch together with you at:

www.SupremeMasterTV.com
Sep 06, 2011
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		teens not eating healthy
by: kc

Hi Michelle

I feel your pain. I brought up my now 16yr son who has ADHD on what I had considered a round diet; usually chicken or fish, a carb and veggie. Its been a year since I went nearly vegan and he was & is royally pissed that I made that decision after watching (with him) Food, Inc that I stopped preparing the usual meals of chicken, fish and normal fare. To this day I still try and eat as much raw foods and ask him to try smoothies I've made, to little enticement.

So I've resolved to give up at this point. I feel that leading by example is the best way for me to avoid the previous battles we did over this way of living.
Sep 06, 2011
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		tried it
by: Anonymous

My kids have seen heard and read a lot of the info from PETA and other animal rights sites. It effects them for like a day or two but then it's back to meat. Even my husband reverts to eating burgers when he's out at work. I'm really losing this battle. My mother is the only other veg in the family. Everyone else is so much a carnivore that giving up meat is like death to them. They all have tried and liked some veggie substitutes, but to totally give up their meat, they refuse. I have cut out the meat in every dish I can, like spaghetti. But when we go out to eat, me and my mother are the only two who order veg.
Sep 06, 2011
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		leading by example
by: Anonymous

I do think leading by example is a great way to influence them when there reluctant . My only problem is the cost of cooking 2 meals and the time doing that. And when I don't I get cheated by only eating the sides.. Mainly french fries or pasta.
Sep 07, 2011
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		The heck with them!
by: Grizz

They're teenagers! They should be able to cook for themselves at this point. I was certainly expected to make my own meals as my mother worked everyday and she got sick of all our rejections of meals she made. And I ate TV dinners and crap food. But as I grew older, I realized how important good food was to good health. And then I learned about the animals, on my own, and that moved me even closer to not eating meat. So it's a process and kids, like the rest of us, need to get there on their own terms and time. We can only set a good example (and don't buy anything but good food - they can get a job around the neighborhood and buy their own food).

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