Vegetarian cookbook or recipes?

[aargh]

If your children are going vegetarian, do make sure they are getting fish, egg and dairy.

My Uncle (a former head of the medical council) gave us a big lecture over this when one of my cousin's children raised the issue. He says Human body systems have evolved to be omnivorous and animal protein is vital for growing proper muscles, bones and brain tissue and synapses. Full fat dairy products are also very useful for synapses to form strong connections.
Let them go fully veggie when they have stopped growing. I trust him on this because his speciality as a consultant is gastroenterology.

In evolutionary terms, our species increased in brain size and overall strength when we learned to cook our meat because cooking it releases more protein.

[scary mum]

If your children are going vegetarian, do make sure they are getting fish, egg and dairy.

Hear hear

In evolutionary terms, our species increased in brain size and overall strength when we learned to cook our meat because cooking it releases more protein.

Hmmm. Cooking make protein easier to digest, but maybe our increase in brain size was due to the fact that we always ate more meat than other primates (cooked or not) due to being better hunters (and of course those who cooked meat would be more likely not to die of food poisoning & therefore pass on their genes).

I love vegetarian food but I do find it a bit of a faff.

[doodles]

It is very hard when your 7yo decides, that he is veggie, albeit a fish eating one, and is the only one in a house of carnivores.

This is what happened to us 2 years ago with DS2, though looking back he has never liked meat. Mealtimes became stressful and Sunday lunch was a living nightmare as he used to sit there gagging and interestingly enough since he has given up meat completely his eczema has gone.

I was very worried about the whole thing but in fact I was probably more scared about what I would feed him to give him a balanced diet. In reality it hasn't been that hard, I have to think a bit more, have to be a bit more adventurous and we certainly eat more fish as a family. Quorn is a saviour as bolog, chilli etc are easy and it hasn't done any of us any harm to cut down on the amount of red meat we eat.

DH, DS1 and I will never be vegetarian but we are certainly eating more delicious vegetarian food thanks to a 7 year old who knew his own mind.

[um]

None of us have any plans to become vegetarian. I was just concerned, ethically, and from an economic and health perspective, about eating meat, chicken or fish every day, which was what my children insisted on . I wanted ideas for veggie cooking, so that my children got more vegetables and pulses and a wider diet. My ds1 - the most unlikely kichen helper anyone has ever met - has been in the kitchen with his DT apron on all evening cooking American pancakes! I am amazed and ecstatic!!! And many of Sam Sters veggie recipes can be turned around - for instance by using chicken instead of tofu - in some recipes.

I am not convinced, though that vegetariansim is all that dangerous anyway. My neighbour's boys are strict vegetarians and look fine to me. And much of India has been strictly vegetarian for centuries - they have clearly survived. I was reading that for most of history, the common people only ate meat about twice a year - on speccial occassions.

[um]

Sorry for all the mistakes - hard to type and edit on my phone!

[doodles]

None of us have any plans to become vegetarian. I was just concerned, ethically, and from an economic and health perspective........

This is just what DS2, inadvertently, did for us. Made us, and me in particular, think. I don't think vegetarianism is bad for children, I just think you have to be a little more adventurous and perhaps think a bit harder. In fact I would argue that my DS2 is healthier now he has totally given up meat

[Muggle]

My Sam Stern Vegetarian book also arrived today and I really like it, and so do DD and DS1. They both followed the pancake recipe this evening (delicious). DS1 has made the Granola ready for breakfast tomorrow and they've earmarked several recipes they are going to make in the next week or two. I feel this will be a cookery book that will actually be used, rather than just sitting on the shelf.

[aargh]

I don't think vegetarianism is bad for children

I will still stick with my Uncle on this because he has dealt with a vast sample of children in his medical career and has made a study on the effect of lack of meat when we are omnivores. he is very clear that completely excluding meat is not life threatening but limits a child's growth in brain and body. So if your DCs seem OK, think how superlative they would be if they had a bit of animal protein as well .
I think one has to distinguish between a diet you can manage on and a diet that is very healthy. DU says there are many variations in human digestive ability and there will always be those who cannot tolerate certain food groups. For example, many chinese people lack an enzyme which helps digest dairy products.
An obvious example to give is the current generation of Japanese who are growing far taller than their grandparents because of a change to a more meat filled diet. Whether they live to the same great old age is another matter- the traditional japanese diet was particularly healthy, but then it did contain masses of fish (even inland, you keep carp in the paddy fields).

I was reading that for most of history, the common people only ate meat about twice a year - on speccial occassions.

In this country they would often have pottage which is based on meat stock. DH (a historian) says meat might be eaten only twice a week. There would be rabbit, fish and shellfish as well as milk products and eggs. In summer you made soft cheese, while you had plenty of milk, and hard cheese was for storing the milk to eat over winter. Anyone who could afford it would keep a pig. So plenty of animal protein. Medieval diet in particular produced strong skeletons and (despite what the movies would have us believe) excellent teeth. Richer people with more access to meat grew taller.
Our modern diet is more meat heavy than it should be for health. I am just saying not to exclude animal protein completely.
It is though that the children who grew up in the second world war in this country are the most healthy as they had a strictly balanced diet due to rationing and had to walk most places.

I was just concerned, ethically

Ethically, if we stop eating meat a whole range of animals we currently eat will become extinct as no-one will bother to keep them. Think of the rare breed farm animals which teeter on the edge because they are deemed uncommercial.

Hmmm. Cooking make protein easier to digest, but maybe our increase in brain size was due to the fact that we always ate more meat than other primates (cooked or not) due to being better hunters (and of course those who cooked meat would be more likely not to die of food poisoning & therefore pass on their genes).

I agree. But DH adds that there is a spike in growth at the time we master cooking. He says the ease of digesting the protein means that more is taken in a used.