June 1995
Judith Myers-Walls, associate professor of child development and family studies at Purdue, says there are three qualities of adolescents that could lead them to become vegetarians:
"Sometimes the adolescent's decision causes the rest of the family to try vegetarianism,
but this may not always be good," she says. "If the reason the adolescent is trying
a new diet is rebellion, it could cause the child to go to extremes. He or she may
become macrobiotic, for example, and that's really challenging. Macrobiotic diets
consists chiefly of whole grains."
Beth Russell, 16, Bedford, Ind., says she became a vegetarian two-and-a-half years
ago because she was disturbed when she read pamphlets about the alleged abuse of
farm animals. Russell's family has had few problems with her dietary choices. "It
hasn't really been a problem," she says. "I eat a lot of noodles and vegetables -- all kinds
of vegetables. We'll do things like using water instead of chicken broth to make
vegetable soup. We also make lasagna with vegetables instead of meat."
Myers-Walls suggests having the child make his or her own shopping list to ensure
that foods are available to support the new diet. For older adolescents, parents
may even want the vegetarian to do his or her own shopping.
She also recommends having the vegetarian prepare one meal each week. This will give
all members of the family a chance to explore different menus without forcing an
entirely different diet on them.
By trying some of these approaches, parents may be able to better coexist with their
vegetarian children. "My overall reaction is not to try to get children to change
their diet," Myers-Walls says. "Handle it in a healthy way. After all, you can't
force feed children, not even when they're babies."
Sources: Judith Myers-Walls, (765) 494-8402; Internet,judith_myerswalls@acn.cc.purdue.edu
Beth Russell (812) 279-3917
Writer: Amanda King, (765) 494-8402
Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; e-mail, purduenews@purdue.edu
NOTE TO JOURNALISTS: A related story, "Teen-age vegetarians must do more than avoid meat, experts say," accompanies this release. To receive this news release via e-mail, send a message that says "send punews 9503fp2" to this address: almanac@ecn.purdue.edu. Purdue News Service also maintains a searchable data base of faculty experts and posts news releases on a web server at https://www.purdue.edu/uns and a gopher server at newsgopher.uns.purdue.edu. The web site also offers selected downloadable photographs.
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