I like being a vegan kid. I have always been an animal lover. When I was younger, I decided I was vegetarian (not including spaghetti and meat sauce). When my mother was a little girl, she acted in a similar way. Her uncle, a vegetarian, visited, and they were discussing the subject over dinner. (Knowing my grandpa, I would guess it was a slightly heated one.) My mother, greatly influenced (and unaware), held up her chicken leg bone and cried, "I'm a vegetarian, too!"
I was a vegetarian baby before I was born. My mother was falsely diagnosed with gestational diabetes and told she had to eat meat or I would be born very sick or even die! When she was tested again during her pregnancy with Kaitlin, they told her that she did not have gestational diabetes after all!
We are vegans for a lot of reasons. We don't like how animals are treated when they are being raised for meat or dairy purposes. We don't want to kill animals. We think it is healthier to not eat meat or dairy. I read in my science book that all the protein that we have is actually from plants! We only get it from animals because they eat plants. It is much better to get your protein directly from plants than killing animals to get it indirectly. We notice that we feel much better when we follow our vegan diet. Even a small piece of organic cheese makes us all feel congested, especially my mother (the only one in our family who was not a breastfed baby) who has asthma.
One of my favorite veggie foods is shepherd's pie. We have a recipe with a mashed potato, crust and tomato sauce/veggie filling. I also like all kinds of soup, and I love pesto - a dip made of basil, garlic, and nuts.
I pretty much like all veggies. About a year or so back, my little sister Kaitlin didn't want her broccoli. I told her that when I was her age, I pretended the broccoli was trees and that when I ate the leaves it was winter, and so on. She gobbled it right up.
I like to cook, too. I make banana bread, muffins, cookies, noodles, rice, smoothies, sauces, potatoes, dumplings, sorbet, pancakes, oatmeal, beans, dips... all kinds of things.
I never feel left out or limited, because for one, I still occasionally sample other foods besides vegan ones. For another, I choose to be a vegetarian because I want to, not because my parents force me to be one. I like that no foods are "forbidden foods" in our family. I had a friend who was forbidden to eat ketchup, and that
was all she seemed to want! I am encouraged to try all types of foods if I want to.
Some moms are worried about their vegetarian kids trying meat when they are at a friend's house. I occasionally sample meats or dairy foods. If anything, it usually reinforces how much better I feel as a vegetarian! Talk about a stomachache!! Just because I am a vegan kid, people assume that I don't like meat and dairy products. I do! That isn't the point. I choose to follow my vegan diet because of all of the reasons I already mentioned. If I was forced to be a vegetarian and didn't understand the reasons for it, I would probably fight it.
One thing I have noticed in groups of kids is that I seem to naturally make friends with the kids who are eating the healthiest foods! One kid in particular who I really couldn't stand always ate one or two hamburgers with nothing else for lunch! He sometimes tried chips with processed cheese for a snack. He was known for bullying other kids and swearing at adults. My mother says you are what you eat and it really does seem to be true! It certainly makes us giggle when we think about it.
Sometimes it is hard to see people I love make food choices that I know are not healthy for them. My great Grandmother is 94 years old. She eats lots and lots of ice cream and sweets. Every cup of tea or coffee includes a plate full of cookies. She has, however, always loved vegetables and fruit and has not eaten much meat. She told us that she has never eaten at McDonalds or any fast food restaurant. This maybe part of why she has had such a long life!
Read a recipe submitted by Brittany--Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins!
