DC going vegan?

[57mama]

My DC are 12 & 14. They've decided that they want to go vegan because it's "healthier". They've been vegetarian for almost 5 years because they just refuse to eat any meat or fish we serve to them (except the gravy and roast potatoes that they think are vegan ). DH and I will absolutely not be going vegan, whether we let the DC do it or not. I've heard all the stories about vegan kids being malnourished etc, but AIBU to let them? DH thinks it's dangerous and inconvenient, but they'll be cooking for themselves, and surely they can just stop if they want/need to? Any advice would be appreciated!

Why make it miserable for her just because you think she should eat a certain way?
She's her own person, capable of making her own decisions.

Its not "making" anything
I have perfectly good food in the house she can eat and i cook.
I wont spend more money or time shopping, i wont cook it. I hate food prep as it is, no way would i make it harder
no one is stopping her from making choices, the choices are make and buy the food yourself or eat as we do.

That’s what my mum thought. My ‘fad’ has lasted over 33 years.

given just the other week she overheard me and dp laughing at kfc doing chicken free nuggets and said "Ewww thats stupid", im not worried

@squeekums

You sound charming.

Its not "making" anything
I have perfectly good food in the house she can eat and i cook

Well, you did say she'd soon "get bored fast" as you've got pasta and beans and that's about it.
So does sound like you'd try to make it as difficult/miserable as possible in the hope she'd get over her "fad."

Disgrace lying to your children feeding them foods they dont wish to eat!

Make the ones you're eating in goose fat, put theirs in a different tray. Are you normally this dense or is it just you can't consider that your way is in fact, not the only way?

Way to respect your children for developing their own opinions and feelings. Why not use it as an opportunity to involve them in meal planning & prep, plenty of meals are vegan that are healthy and delicious. I’m always baffled why people get so defensive about others exploring vegetarianism or being vegan. You can have roast potatoes without goose fat, you can have chilli without beef, you can have curry without chicken, stir fry without prawns. And on and on.

But hey, far better to just say ‘my house my rules’ and really foster independent thinking from your children.

Don’t you want your children to feel they can trust you? If so stop feeding them non vegetarian food, it’s a dick move and could do real damage to your relationship.

B12 and D supplements are recommended, plant milks tend to be fortified with both but not in high enough quantities, there are other fortified foods and for D obviously the sun so it can be done without supplements but it’s safer just to take them. Calcium and iron should be ok as long as they eat lots of pulses and green leafy veg with sources of vit C. For omega 3 you want to use flax and chia seeds or supplement. Iodised salt also a good idea.

Your kids sound amazing. You sound pretty disrespectful to intentionally give them meat containing foods. You can be perfectly healthy on a vegan diet but they should definitely have B12 supplements. I think you should support your children's decisions because you love and respect them. I think that will have a beneficial impact on your relationship long term.

except the gravy and roast potatoes that they think are vegan )

You are an absolute pies of sh** for doing this & to your own DCs too

How difficult is it to do a separate tray of roasties in olive oil and a mug of red bistro?

I can't believe people are changing their diets based on The Game Changer, it's absolute pseudo science.

@Pinkblueberry

I am genuinely worried for your literacy levels as I never posted any articles? That was a completely different poster who posted the article.

I’m still waiting for the unbiased, excellently researched and peer reviewed study which shows eating milk and cheese is better than a vegan diet?

When I look at the supposedly healthiest diets (blue zones), these things jump out at me, the 4 Always, the 4 Avoids.

They definitely don't say you must follow
No Sugar at all
No carbs at all
No Meat
No milk products
however the trend does say
Must have beans
Must have nuts

I have not seen a single thread on MN extolling the health benefits of daily beans and nuts. Not even once. Why can't folk find a moral message attached to eating more beans or nuts?

@lljkk this so one of the oddest rebuttals to veganism I’ve ever seen.

1. The sugar and carb comments are irrelevant as veganism has nothing to do with excluding those.

1. People do not attach a moral message to eating beans and nuts and beans aren’t sentient animals with central nervous systems so they do not feel pain when you ‘kill them’.

Please come up with something better if you are really going to argue against veganism.

I say this as someone who isn’t vegan myself but is aiming to be as soon as possible.

@squeekums We GET IT. You're a huge meat eater who needs to tell vegetarians/vegans how much you love meat. We don't care. It's getting a bit tedious now.

I wish folk hadn't been so harsh on OP. I'd like to hear what happens, get an update in 9-18m maybe.

I wasn't rebutting veganism per se, I was pointing out that it can't claim to be the healthiest diet either. Some folk promote veganism as super for health (implying the evidence is clear) when the evidence for that may in fact be quite weak. I genuinely wondered why folk aren't promoting beans and nuts.

As an aside, I don't agree that Not Eating Animals is a morally superior choice. But that's irrelevant. I was addressing the 'better for health' claims.

If you have only got pasta and kidney bead in the cupboard
Does that mean you dont have vegetables, fruit, salad ingredients etc in the fridge.

No rice or even just a tin of tomatoes or jar of pasta sauce in the cupboard

Is a roast dinner just roast meat and potatoes in which case I think that you and your dh need to take a look at your diet.

What happens if your dc started to lose lots of weight and told the school you refuse to cook for them and if they want to be vegan you have told them to buy their own food

I think SS would be around at your door

Please watch game changer on Netflix . You may join them !

From what I am reading... the Game Changer is a movie about a guy who becomes a champion at some manly sport, which he credits to eating a plant-based diet?

There's a dissection of the claims here.

I'd love to know if OP lies to adults aswell. Would she be ok with lies about food being kosher? Or halal? Or gluten free? Or anything else. Is it ok for everyone to be lied to or just her children? Is she going to be fiiiiiiiine if she hears someone else lies to them/forces beliefs that don't match onto them.

@Dandelion753

As far as I’m aware there’s research which points to moderate intake of dairy as being beneficial in terms of prevention of serious disease..... and then there’s research which points to the opposite - ie, any consumption of dairy being harmful. It’s a minefield, and you either have to wade through thousands of pages of research yourself while getting a master degree in statistics or you just go with your gut instinct and what feels better for your own body/fits your life better.

This ^^
There will always be biased information. You've just got to weigh up the information, take it with a pinch of salt, and do what feels right to you.

Vegan diets are ridiculous. It is almost impossible to get the nutrition required from a vegan diet and mostly they need B12 and Omega and sometimes iron supplements too. Way to be natural.....not!!!

what i would be worried about is there age and wanting to do this.it is rife at the moment with being plant based all over instagram and some of the influencers and paid ads are disgusting and make very vunerable people get all sorts of disordered eating views.plant based,raw and that kind of thing has been pushed really hard on people who are now suffering.orthorexiais getting worse and worse.and something people are really worried about right now.

You ah e to be careful, my ds turned vegan last year and for the first few mo that he lost a lot of weight off his already slim frame , it’s only now that he’s bulked up a bit but he has protein powders and goes to the gym often

Fucking hell, autocorrect is on a roll this morning