Ask the Expert Archive Week 5
One day you're sitting around the table eating pork chops .. the next day your teenager decides to become a vegetarian. But a growing body still needs lots of protein.
Here's dietician Liz Pearson on how to feed a vegortunately there are some teenage girls that will go to McDonald1s and, rather than having a hamburger and fries, they just have the fries. That1s not balanced or nutrient-rich. Ideally when you think of a vegetarian diet you want to make sure that the meat is replaced. Think of three words: nuts, cheese and beans. When you take meat out of the diet you want to make sure it is replaced with one of these items so you don't run into deficiencies of nutrients such as B-12, iron or zinc. The vegetarian has to make sure she1s getting lots of things like tofu or soy milk. It can be nuts like peanuts or peanut butter, or seeds like sunflower seeds. These items should be part of their diet at least two to three times a day. If your teenager decides to go vegetarian and you don't want to be cooking two meals every night there are a number of things you can do. If you1re having a barbecue, rather than throwing on chicken breasts for everyone, it's very easy to throw on a veggie burger. If you1re cooking a stir fry or pasta sauce, partly cook it and leave a portion aside for the non-meat eater. Also make sure you sometimes have foods where you won't miss the meat, such as quiche, lasagna and meatless chili. Lastly, why not buy your teenager a great vegetarian cookbook and have them cook dinner for the whole family. etarian teen. Vegetarianism is a growing trend among teenagers, especially teenage girls. This is fine if they choose a nutrient-rich, well-balanced diet.
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