to worry about my teenage daughter going vegan?

[Meechimoo]

She's 14.
She decided to go veggie about a month ago.
She now wants to cut out all animal products and be vegan.
I've had long long conversations about this with her and told her that I'm very concerned about it. I'm worried she'll end up with poor nutrition and get rickets or something. I'm worried she won't get enough calories from a vegan diet.
But she's 14, almost 15, and hellbent on being vegan. The way I look at it, I can't force feed her dairy, can I?

My husband, her Dad, is dead against it because he thinks this is a control thing and we shouldn't allow her to dictate this sort of thing. And he's worried at additional cost to our food bill if we have to get her supplements, soya milk, vegan cheese etc.
Are there any vegan mumsnetters with vegan teens out there? How do you do it? Is it ok? Are they healthy and enough energy? Should I just go with it and support her or put our feet down and say she can remain veggie but we're not supporting her going vegan??

she will have to think about clothing/shoes/accessories as well- no leather, wool or silk . No products with beeswax or honey in

party rings are now vegan

You do have to be careful with calcium etc especially at this age! If she doesn't get enough now it can cause problems with osteoporosis later.

However as she seems clued up I would give her the information and see how she gets on. She will need to think about getting enough nutrients and it will mean a wholesale change to her diet but she's old enough to realise this.

Not a fan of your husbands mindset either. 'Control' and 'cost'.....sounds like someone with a inflexible mindset to me.

Linda Macca sausages are vegan, as is most of her stuff if you need a quick meal.

Find your local Indian food shop, I can get massive bags of lentils for £2/£3!

Did you buy Quorn tunelessly? None of that is vegan as it contains egg white. The OP would soon get the hang of it tho- and it isn't any harder to pick up a pack of Linda McCartney or Cauldron sausages and cook them than it is to buy normal ones.

A diet free of animal products is a lot cheaper than a diet that incorporates meat and dairy products. It starts getting expensive when you buy prepackaged stuff, plenty of vegan and vegetarian recipe blogs around for quick, easy cheap meals.
We eat a lot of vegan meals, mainly as a cost saving device, but I am also weaning my meat eating boof heads. As long as there is variety there are plenty of nutrients available, iron is found in leafy greens, protein and good fats in nuts and seeds etc.

I admire her conviction and think she is plenty old enough to make this decision.

RightyTightyLeftyLoosey I was actually careful to point out that my 'randoms on the internet' comment was definitely NOT aimed at websites such as you suggest, more at some of the shite spouted on you tube etc.

OP can recommend the cookbook Vegan Planet.

Also when I was vegan, years ago now, Tesco used to label their own brand products if they were suitable for vegans. That can save time.

Soy milk is not expensive and the free from aisle will also have oat milk, rice milk etc which she may prefer.

And I don't understand why she can't cook for herself frequently. She is 14 not 4! I cooked all the time at that age.

See how long she lasts when faced with cheese, cake, chocolate etc at Christmas .

Some people are very successful vegans of course but for me I just couldn't resist the old cheesecake and praline chocolates in the end and reverted back to vegetarianism. It's also VERY difficult to eat out as a vegan unless you live in London. Where I live vegan is not an option, vegetarian is but there's only two choices in most restaurants and both always contain cheese. So when I used to eat out I had to deal with a bowl of chips and ketchup! I'm far happier as a vegetarian...

Veganism is sort of like a food prison, it's very very restrictive and difficult. YES there are vegan alternatives but they're expensive, not as readily available as the non vegan stuff and do not taste as nice at all.

Anyway. Let her have her way, arm her with supplements (particularly B12 which is IMPOSSIBLE to get from a vegan diet aside from fortified cereals...) and see if she sticks it out, particularly at Christmas time which is when I broke . Teenagers are stubborn little buggers, they learn by doing and making mistakes. It's very possible to everything you nutritionally need from a vegan diet btw, it can be very very healthy. It's just hard... Sooo hard. Cheeeese Vegan cheese is gross.

I was briefly vegetarian as a teenager, and my parents just let me get on with it. They didn't change their eating habits at all, and if I wanted something different to eat, I had to cook it myself. What would be the problem with doing this?

However, if I were you, I would look at some of the ethical concerns with her. For example, how she feels about the food miles of her meat & dairy replacements. If animal rights is her chief concern, what about the rights of the people in Peru and Bolivia who can no longer afford their (previously staple grain) quinoa?

These are just a couple of examples, and I honestly couldn't tell you which side of the fence I'm on myself. But I think if she really wants to be vegan, you shouldn't stop her.

Marmite is also a good source of B12, which may or may not be good news for her.

She loves marmite, so thanks. I'll tell her. I'm making notes. Want to cut back the meat myself anyway cos there's a family history of bowel cancer and I know veggie diets help prevent bowel cancer.

I think you are right, just go with the flow and don't give her something to rebel against. You could discuss the middle ground of only consuming ethically produced animal products but that could just be left as an idea for her to keep tucked away as it were. In the meantime, let her do it, keep a careful eye out for any health concerns that might result (though there may not be any!). She may well find, especially as a teen with a social life, that veganism is a PITA in practical terms, pretty difficult to sustain, this may tip the balance but plenty of people do sustain it and remain healthy for years. Some will then run into health issues that seem only to be 'fixable' with the reintroduction if animal protein, but not all

Deliciouslyella.com is a great resource for recipes.

It's also VERY difficult to eat out as a vegan unless you live in London

I think YABU a bit. I would be proud that she had decided to make an ethical choice like this and I would support it even if it is a fad. There are millions of very healthy vegans out there.

Btw I'm a total carnivore.

I know veggie diets help prevent bowel cancer

My understanding is that this is correlation, not cause.

meat consumption, especially processed meats, can be contributory factor to bowel cancer, like smoking and excessive alcohol consumption etc I think?

Well, people who eat less processed meat have lower rates of bowel cancer, for sure. But they also tend to have 'better lifestyles' in general, fewer smokers and heavy drinkers, higher levels of exercise, and so on.

I'm veggie, I'm all for promoting the health benefits. I've just always been unconvinced that being vegetarian/vegan is the single thing to do!

Not sure if she has also mentioned cosmetics etc but there are some fab brands which do animal friendly, vegan products which i've managed to convert my whole (non-vegan or vegetarian) family onto as they are so gentle! But a little costlier.
I went vegan when I was 19, and the only thing I would suggest from the start is that she takes it slow - I went totally vegan from one day to the next and suffered horrendous withdrawal symptoms from dairy / breakouts / fatigue for about 2 months before it sorted itself.
As suggested above, marmite is a key food as it's one of the few non-meat derived forms of B12. If I remember rightly as well the body can't store this so she will need to have a small amount fairly regularly.
Please please do try and support her with this, as even if it makes it harder for you in some aspects it's never nice being made to feel like a problem because of your ethical beliefs bitter experience? Moi?

I came onto the thread to recommend the vegan society. Also the Physicians Committee for responsible medicine have a great guide to going vegan. Calcium is not an issue if she is using fortified non-dairy milks and there is quite a bit of evidence that animal proteins leach calcium from the bones, so actually dairy milk may not be the best source of calcium anyway. There is alot of info out there and peer reviewed studies etc.

And, although it might come under the classification of randoms o the internet, :) There are heaps of fabulous vegan blogs.

Dreena Burton does great family recipes.

plantpoweredkitchen.com/blog/

www.pcrm.org/

I really think your interested and supportive approach is fantastic. :) It can be the most exciting way to live. When i went vegan for 8 years (I stopped for reasons to dull to go into, and we have just committed to going back again this very week as it happens!) I found my creativity with cooking, and my willingness to try new exciting foods just developed. Itreally can be exciting, challenging, but fantastic. And like others have said, unless you are eating only junk food that happens to be vegan, it is so deliciously healthy!

have fun!

Defo get her to prove her commitment by putting together a three week meal plan with nutritional info and shopping list.

Also get her to come up with some vegan meals the whole family will enjoy, or can be vegan (something and todY) or meat (the something with meat).

Google 'best vegan food blogs' as there are loads which have seriously yummy and quite easy vegan recipes. Post punk vegan is great.

Oh, and do warn her as well that she will have to become an excellent label reader as the amount of stuff which you would assume to be vegan friendly but isn't is ridiculous why on earth is there dairy in writing icing?!

YY about the label readings.....and some 'non-dairy' margarine (some olive oil spreads etc) still has milk or whey in it. I have found that out too at my cost.