Request the Medical doctors: Changeover to vegan food plan really should be gradual | Health, Drugs and Physical fitness

Pricey Medical doctors: Our 16-calendar year-old daughter wishes to turn out to be a vegan. Her father and I imagine that may perhaps be a bit extraordinary, so we’ve compromised, and initial she’s going to consider remaining a vegetarian. What is a fantastic way for a increasing teenager to safely make the transition?

Dear Reader: We’re each mothers and fathers ourselves, so we fully grasp your considerations about meeting your daughter’s nutritional requirements. A vegan diet program, which cuts out all foodstuff derived from dwelling creatures — which include eggs, dairy goods, gelatin and honey — can ship you on a steep discovering curve. Even the more lenient parameters of a vegetarian diet plan take care and preparing to be healthful and very well-balanced.

As with any diet regime, the objective is to get enough energy, protein, vitamins and minerals from a large array of fresh new and healthful foods. The fantastic news is that vegetarian and vegan weight loss plans are really popular. That suggests the information and facts and products your daughter requires to be a healthful vegetarian are extensively readily available.

When subsequent a vegetarian eating plan, your daughter will no extended take in pink meat, poultry, fish or other seafood. Vegetarians may well pick out regardless of whether or not to consume eggs and dairy products and solutions. (Some, referred to as pescatarians, consist of fish in their meal plans.)

Though it can be tempting to dive into the deep end with a new life style option, we counsel a gradual transition. As an alternative of doing away with meat, get started by introducing an array of foods to your daughter’s present food plan. This involves the tofu, tempeh, seitan, beans, legumes, nuts, seeds and full grains that will come to be staples of her new way of having. As soon as she’s familiar and comfortable with these new foods, she can start ingesting them instead of the meat-centered meal the rest of the relatives is owning. A vegetarian we know produced an simple changeover by getting rid of a single classification of meat at a time. She started with beef and, each and every handful of weeks, stopped ingesting an additional type of meat. Inside of a handful of months, she experienced accomplished her aim of starting to be a vegetarian.