No Meat In These Muscles
Published Tuesday, January 13, 2009
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Stumble It!Sam Silverman is co-captain of his high school football team — a safety accustomed to bruising collisions. But that’s nothing compared with the abuse he gets for being a vegetarian.
“I get a lot of flak for it in the locker room,” said the 16-year-old junior at Westborough High School in Massachusetts.
“All the time, my friends try to get me to eat meat and tell me how good it tastes and how much bigger I would be,” said Silverman, who is 5-foot-10 and 170 pounds. “But for me, there’s no real temptation.”
Silverman may feel like a vegetable vendor at a butchers’ convention, but about 367,000 other kids are in the same boat, according to a recent study that provides the government’s first estimate of how many children avoid meat. That’s about 1 in 200.
Other surveys suggest the rate could be four to six times that among older teens who have more control over what they eat than young children do.
Vegetarian diets exclude meat, but the name is sometimes loosely worn. Some self-described vegetarians eat fish or poultry on occasion, while others — called vegans — cut out animal products of any kind, including eggs and dairy products.
Anecdotally, adolescent vegetarianism seems to be rising, thanks in part to YouTube animal slaughter videos that shock the developing sensibilities of many U.S. children. But there isn’t enough long-term data to prove that, according to government researchers.
The new estimate of young vegetarians comes from a recent federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study of alternative medicine based on a survey of thousands of Americans in 2007. Information on children’s diet habits was gleaned from about 9,000 parents and other adults speaking on the behalf of those under 18.
“I don’t think we’ve done a good job of counting the number of vegetarian youth, but I think this is reasonable,” Amy Lanou, a nutrition scientist at the University of North Carolina-Asheville, said of the government estimate. She works with the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a vegan advocacy group.
Vegetarians say it’s animal welfare, not health, that most often causes kids to stop eating meat.
“Compassion for animals is the major, major reason,” said Richard Schwartz, president of Jewish Vegetarians of North America, an organization with a newsletter mailing list of about 800. “When kids find out the things they are eating are living animals — and if they have a pet.”
Case in point is Nicole Nightingale, 14, of Safety Harbor, Fla. In 2007, Nightingale was on the Internet to read about chicken when she came across a video on YouTube that showed the birds being slaughtered. At the end, viewers were invited to go to the Web site peta.org — People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
Nicole told her parents she was going vegan, prompting her mother to send an angry letter to PETA. But the vegan diet is working out, and now her mother is taking steps to become a vegetarian, too, said Nightingale, an eighth-grader.
She believes her experience was typical for a pre-adolescent vegetarian. “A lot more kids are using the Internet. They’re curious about stuff and trying to become independent and they’re trying to find out who they are,” she said.
Vegetarians are most often female, from higher-income families and living on the East or West coasts, according to previous studies. One good place to find teen vegetarians is Agnes Scott College, a mostly white, all-women’s private school in suburban Atlanta with about 850 students. Roughly 5 to 10 percent of Agnes Scott students eat vegetarian, said Pete Miller, the college’s director of food service.
Frequently, the most popular entree at the college dining hall is a fresh mozzarella sandwich with organic greens. And the comment board (called “the Beef Board,” as in “what’s your beef?”) often contains plaudits for vegetarian dishes or requests for more. “They’re very vocal,” Miller said of his vegetarian diners.
Eating vegetarian can be very healthy — nutritionists often push kids to eat more fruits and vegetables, of course. For growing children, however, it’s important to get sufficient amounts of protein, vitamins B12 and D, iron, calcium and other important nutrients that most people get from meat, eggs and dairy.
Also, vegetarian diets are not necessarily slimming. Some vegetarian kids cut out meat but fill up on doughnuts, french fries, soda or potato chips, experts said.
“Vegetarian doesn’t mean low-calorie,” said Dr. Christopher Bolling, who directs weight management research at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. He said roughly 10 to 15 percent of the overweight kids who come to his medical center’s weight loss program have tried a vegetarian diet at some point before starting the program.
Rayna Middlebrooks, 15, last year started a weight-loss program offered by Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, a nonprofit hospital organization. She said she’s been on a vegetarian diet for four years and now carries about 250 pounds on her 5-foot-3 inch frame.
Her mother confirmed that, and said that although Rayna does a great job of cooking vegetable-rich stir-fried meals for herself, the girl also loves pasta, soda and sweets. “I have to watch her with the candy,” said Barbara Middlebrooks, of Decatur.
On the flip side is Silverman, the Boston-area football player. He’s pleased with his health and has no problem sticking to his diet. Rather than try to negotiate the school cafeteria line, he brings his lunch to school. It’s the same lunch every day — rye bread, some chicken-like tofu, cheese, a clementine and an assortment of Nutrigrain, Cliff, granola and Power Bars.
He was raised vegetarian and said it’s now so deeply ingrained that the idea of eating meat is nauseating. Recently, he ate something he belatedly realized might contain chicken. “I felt sick the rest of the day, until I threw up,” he said.
Community Discussion
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This should be interesting.
I'll predict some of the comments that will follow:
1) vegetarians are communists, socialists, homosexuals, wimps, PETA-lovers, tree-huggers, uh... oh yeah, bunny-huggers
2) real Americans love their meat; only haters are vegetarians
3) vegetarians should move somewhere else, like Cali
4) I'm a proud hunter, pro-military, and I love my meat and those of you who don't should give their PFD back to Sarah Palin, who rocks by the way, and leave Alaska
5) the price of ammo is going up, and Obama is going to make us all vegetarians, and Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid (probably misspelled as Ried) are EVIL, EVIL, EVIL
6) wolves aren't vegetarian, so state employees should kill them from airplanes
7) until we have a state Board of Squash, Fish, and Game, I'm agonna kill me as many moose as I wanna and you bunny huggers can just kiss my patooey
PETA now has a campaign to stop calling those things with fins and scales that swim in the ocean "fish" and begin calling them "sea kittens." This campaign says a lot about the mindset of people of that ilk.
Ever notice how often vegetarians pressure meat eaters to "go vegetarian?" Or ridicule them, as glow does above.
The more tolerant omnivores seldom try and press their views or "recruit."
Says a lot.
Hitler was a vegetarian.
glow,
Well said. Oh, I bet you were kidding, right?
glow...could you pass the salt for this burger??????
I wonder if any of the Vegies ever witnessed the slaughter of a head of cabbage? They actualy weep when turned into saurkraut!
...now if the kids would be as concerned and smart about drugs and alcohol as they claim to be about nutrition, we'd actually be on to something.......
fred...so was Ghandi. Your point?
grizzlybear....omnivores don't push their agenda? Haven't seen a McD's commercial lately, have we? Or Wendy's? Or BK? Maybe you haven't watched ads from most of the restaurants around town which always prominently feature steaks or hamburgers.
NativeSon...perhaps you favor the language of the hunter wherein "game" is "harvested" by a "sportshunter"? One doesn't kill a moose...one "takes" a moose. Care for more examples of pussyfooting language in the wide world of hunting?
I think the NewsMiner has replaced Palin articles with vegetarian articles. I wonder if they have noticed the major drop in their ad and classified sections and reduced subscription rate and ever thought the articles they print are really worth what most readers pay for them on line, nothing. Maybe they are just promoting vegetables because the articles they fail to print about the economy and the spending spree of the government will result in Americans not being able to afford meat.
What a monumental waste of space. I could care less about the dietary habits of some kid in Mass or some chunky vegetarian in Atlanta who likes sodas.
Come on Newsminer. Can we not do better than this?
Everything in moderation,includeing moderation.
To quote the Killer, Jerry Lee Lewis:
Oh, they call me the meat man
Ya oughta see me eat, m'am
Hear I'm the meat man, baby
Ya oughta see me eat, m'am
I got jaws like a bear trap
Teeth like a razor
Got a Maytag tongue
With a sensitive taste
A born in Texas
A land of beef
Never cared much for greens
Ya' oughta heard I like meat
I'm the meat man
Woo, oughta see me eat, now
Whoa, I'm the meat man, baby
Ya oughta see me eat, now
I been down to Macon, Georgia
I ate the furs off a Georgia peach
Plucked me a chicken in Memphis
Mama, I still got feathers in my teeth
Ate a pound of pork Huntsville, Alabama
From a fine Alabama hog
I went to Dallas, Texas
Got no love, my baby left me
Fed the bone to a Louisiana dog
Hear me talkin'
A meat man
Woo, meat man!
Yeah, I'm a meat man, baby
Ya oughta see me eat, m'am
'That's right!'
'Think about it, baby!'
Yea-ea-eah, it don't make me no difference
Just as long as it's good meat!
I ain't got no preference
If it's dog or rat, I eat
It don't a-have to be U.S. Governmental grade
With stamp a-no Grade 'A' seal
As long as it lean, it full-a protein
I'm gonna damn sho' get my fill
Oh well, they call me the
Meat, meat, meat, meat, meat
Meat, meat, meat, meat, man
Hey!
Meat man! Hoo!
1 in 200.....................................those are almost homosexual type percentages.............................coincedence? You might be on to something glow, being that most people are so predictable.
the article is pretty useless but i like reading the comments. if this online paper didn't have a comments section i wouldn't have made it past the second paragraph of the main story. some of you guys are pretty smart, others not so much. but you are definately always entertaining.
So-----dobie,When you send a bullet through the vitals that dosent kill? Your in your usual form.
Frank_Costello,
"I don't push my diet on anyone else..."
Good for you. You have, however, uncovered the crux of the problem; most other vegetarians (or vegans) can't resist the "Holier than Thou" approach (and the over-whelming urge to 'preach' to others). This is about more than Vegans moral superiority for not killing other creatures; it's about their open desire to 'prosletyze' others to their religion.
I wish you well with your 'experiment' and hope it continues to be successful for you.
TAC---
What a breath taking performance. Literally took my breath away. I had to breathe into a paper bag, just to stay conscious. Fortunately, I had one handy. Just the right size, too.
But this is not about me, it's about you. I never fail to be amazed at what a man can accomplish if he starts drinking early enough in the day. Keep up the good work.
Dobie - Since when did advertising count as "pushing views"? If that's really the case, then I vote we ban all advertising in all media. No more freedom of speech or press - problem solved.
being vegan has enabled me to lose 30 lbs. or so, and i love it. it's driven me to cook new types of food and given me a new way to think about what i eat. i don't count calories or fat and i eat as much as i want. i'm not one to criticize anyone's diet (i don't even like animals very much), but i definitely recommend integrating more vegan food into one's diet for folks who want to kickstart their relationship to food.
I tried going Vegan, for two months straight I was but I couldn't handle it. I ate only meat for about 3 months afterwards and felt a heck of a lot better. I like me a good moose steak or a burger.
i'm waiting for more comments telling that football player to go to hell because his views are different than ALASKAN views!
That kid has enough flack from his peers. Icebear summed it up nicely.
If whatever you're doing optimizes your health and how you feel, goferit.
Who cares? Eat me, dont eat meat? Its a personal decision. I eat meat, I eat veggies too, both are yummy. When Iw as ananny, one of the kids I was in charge of was allergic to the protein in meat, so he couldnt have meat...:(
Oops, eat meat, not eat me. lol.
I cant believe I missed that...
G-les: You did catch the first line of my post, didn't you? Those are the lyrics to a Jerry Lee Lewis tune. "Meat Man." I just copied and pasted from a lyric site. Not my work. However, I'm sure Jerry Lee Lewis has plenty of experience "drinking early enough in the day."
Who would have ever expected that Jerry Lee, out of all of them, would outlive the entire staple of Sun Records superstars? Definitely an argument against living right.
(BTW, G-Man, thanks for the Haggard lyrics the other night. Is Rainbow Stew vegan?)
To each his own I suppose. Honestly reading this article made me what a hamburger. Seriously. I like meat.It's tasty.
So my question is for my fellow meat eaters: Why, when there is a vegetarian or vegan story, do you all start bashing and making fun them? Makes some of y'all look like a bunch of a******s.
Lettuce, turnip and pea!
Nownow Fox, not all of us meat eaters bash the vegetarian articles. It just turns some of us off when we get preached at in some of these stories; not the case in this article.
FWIW, I gave it a try for about 6 years. Wasn't easy, but wasn't impossible either.
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