The question on the minds of many veg-curious teens is “but where do I begin?” When I interviewed teens from across the veg spectrum about how to minimize the meat you eat, I got the same answer from them each time: start at the place that feels right to you.
Some of the teens I spoke with started slow to get a taste for their new way of eating. Others have felt more comfortable diving right in to the deep end. There are many different routes you can take. It’s also important to keep in mind that the tool you use to transition into your happy veg place can evolve over time as you find your way and settle on the diet that works best for you. None of these approaches is etched in stone. Begin at your beginning, and it will all make sense for you.
Below are six different approaches for going from a red-blooded, meat-eating American teen to a red-blooded, meat-avoiding one. (And while we’re on the topic—why do people say that anyway? Isn’t blood red regardless of what you eat? Anyway…)
BEST APPROACH IF:
• You want to try going veg with little commitment.
• The adults in your life don’t support your plans to go veg, and you want to show them how easy and healthy it can be.
• You want to eat less meat but don’t necessarily want to give it up altogether.
Just like “Just Do It” promotes Nike and “I’m Lovin’ It” makes you think McDonald’s, Meatless Monday is an advertising campaign. While it’s been getting a lot of attention in the last few years, it’s actually been around since World War I, when it was used by the government to encourage people to eat less meat to save money for the country and conserve resources for soldiers. In 2003, a health advocate got the idea to revitalize Meatless Monday as a campaign to promote public health. With the support of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Meatless Monday has gotten a lot of attention worldwide as a low-commitment, minimal-drama way to reduce the amount of meat in our diets.
Even if you haven’t heard of it already, you probably can guess how Meatless Monday works based on its name. The idea behind the campaign is easy—start each new week off with one meat-free day. Not only do you get to test going veg, you also get to show your parents, coach, and others who may think “but it’s so hard to be a vegetarian!” that it’s really not difficult at all. And according to the people who run Meatless Monday, giving up meat even just once a week can have many of the same benefits to your health and the environment as giving up meat altogether can—so you get to exercise some of those “go green” muscles you’ve been wanting to put into use.
Get started: Pick a Monday to start going meatless. The weekend before, take a little time to prepare. Explain your plans to your family and see if they’d like to get on board with you. Come to the conversation armed with ideas for how to make this easy on everyone. If your dad always makes you a turkey sandwich for your brown bag lunch, ask for PB + J instead. And offer to make your family’s dinner—few parents will pass up the opportunity to put their feet up and relax while you get a meal on the table! If you or your parents are stumped as to what to make for a meal, check out Chapter 10, Get Cookin’, VegHead Style, for plenty of delicious options even meat-maniacs will love, or Google “Meatless Monday recipes” for loads of blogs, websites, and Pinterest boards packed with tasty ideas.
BEST APPROACH IF:
• You are ready to make a full-time commitment, but want the flexibility of eating some meat.
• You really like chicken and turkey and only want to give up beef and/or pork.
• You eventually want to go “all the way” veg or vegan, but prefer to make changes gradually.
When it comes to going veg, there are many who get started by giving up red meat first—or who stop eating beef and pork and find that’s where their VegHead wants to rest (there’s no official name for it, but we’ll just call it “Red Head” here). Sharon, twenty-one, of Newark, DE, first stopped eating pork when she was fifteen. When she went to college, she found that the burgers, meat sauce, and other beef foods in the dining hall tasted “pretty bad,” and so she stopped eating all red meat. For plenty of people, avoiding red meat is plenty of commitment. Sharon, however, took it a step further. Later that year, she ordered her favorite chicken sandwich at Panera Bread. “I realized I’d scraped all the meat off and was just eating the bread!” she remembers. For Sharon, going Red Head was the first stop on her journey to full-fledged vegetarianism.
Giving up red meat appeals to many because it’s a heck of a lot easier than giving up meat altogether. While it may sometimes be hard to find a vegetarian option on a menu or on the buffet table at a party, you can almost always find something that has chicken, turkey, or fish in it. Rejecting red meat can also be a pretty healthy move, since red meat tends to be high in bad-for-your-heart saturated fat—but since you’re still eating meat, you’re likely getting plenty of protein and nutrients that some vegetarians may have trouble getting enough of.
Being a Red Head is a perfect place for many VegHeads to land indefinitely. And if it’s just a layover on your veggie voyage like it was for Sharon, it serves a crucial role. Limiting your diet one step at a time can help you prove to the adults in your life—and yourself—that you can handle the bigger commitment of going fully veg or vegan, if that’s where your little veggie-filled heart takes you. Whether or not Red Head is your ultimate goal, you should feel empowered and proud of your decision to take charge of the way in which you’re choosing to eat.
Get started: You may have been in the Brownies, but the Boy Scout motto comes in handy for this path: be prepared. Tell your parents that this is something you’d like to do, and explain your reasons. And while you may have known you were headed in this direction, the people around you may not—so ready yourself for any response. “At first my parents thought I was joking,” says Jemma, fourteen, of Merrick, NY. “I had to start refusing to eat meals for them to understand I meant business.” Begin having conversations about this move with them—the more you talk about it (out loud!), the more seriously they will take you. And just so Mom doesn’t think your admirable decision is going to turn her into a short-order cook, be sure to explain what you plan to do when the rest of the family is eating hamburgers (to help you figure out what you can do, check out Chapter 5 for more on meatless meal building).
BEST APPROACH IF:
• You’re not sure where you want to be, but you know that eating less meat is part of your goal.
• You don’t want to be tied down by specific limitations about days of the week or types of food you eat.
• You’re a “go with the flow” person who wants to figure things out as you move forward rather than have them all figured out from the start.
Also known as “semi-vegetarian,” flexitarian is a relatively new word that refers to a vegetarian who eats meat occasionally. How often is occasionally? Well, there’s no official limit. So if you’re committed to the idea of eating less meat but haven’t really figured out what that means to you, set out on your road to veg as a flexitarian. “I consider myself a flexitarian because I know it’s healthier and better for the environment to eat less meat,” says June, fifteen, of St. Louis, MO. “But I don’t feel ready to never eat meat at all. I probably eat it about once or twice a week, when I’m at home with my family. When I’m at school or with my friends and I’m in control, I hardly ever eat any.”
Get started: Take eating a plant-based diet out for a test drive. Try ordering veg-friendly meals when you eat out or when you get lunch at school to cut down on your meat consumption. And at home, suggest meals that just happen to be vegetarian for everyone to enjoy together—check out Chapter 10 for some delicious ideas everyone will love.
BEST APPROACH IF:
• You want to do it…but there’s one or two meat-containing foods that you just can’t imagine giving up.
Many of the VegHeads I interviewed had one or two foods that were keeping them from going veg or had kept them from it in the past. But if there is one rule for going veg that I want you to take from this book, it’s that there really are no rules. You are responsible for figuring out what works for you. As eighteen-year-old Andy from Oakland, CA, put it, “don’t feel bad about occasionally eating meat. Do what will make you happy. It’s not a rule, it’s a lifestyle.”
So, will people look at you funny if you say you’re a vegetarian and then eat a bowl of Mom’s chicken soup at every holiday dinner (as some grown-up VegHeads in my family do)? Well, they might. But that doesn’t mean you should throw in the towel and eat meat year-round. If anyone gives you a hard time, smile proudly and tell them: “This is my one vegxception. I don’t eat any other meat products.” They’ll understand.
And keep in mind—the way in which you eat is something that is always evolving. Giving up meat with one vegxception may help you transition to an eventual meat-free diet, if that’s your goal. Sarah, eighteen, from Carmel, NY, gave up meat when she was nine with two vegxceptions—her grandmother’s meatballs and ham. (Grandma is either an amazing cook or very, very persuasive. Maybe both.) “That was only a couple of times a year, and after about one year of cutting everything out except those two things, I realized I was being silly. So I cut everything out completely. I don’t miss it at all!”
Get started: Be up front about your plans. Sure, what you eat is your business. But if you intend to include mini hot dogs on special occasions, why not save yourself the explanations down the road? The benefit is that people will realize you’re not making it up as you go along and may take your preferences more seriously instead of nudging you to follow that hot dog with a hamburger, since they can see that “you’re eating meat now.”
BEST APPROACH IF:
• It hit you like a ton of bricks that you just don’t want to eat meat any more.
• You are in control of most of what you eat; perhaps you live on your own, or you do a lot of the cooking at home.
• You’re ready!
Quite a few VegHeads I interviewed had an “aha” moment that made them never, ever want to eat meat again. For some, it was watching a movie like Food, Inc. or Forks Over Knives. Samantha, fifteen, from Philadelphia, PA, went out for dim sum with her family and was grossed out by people eating duck that still, well, looked pretty much like a duck. For Natalie, fourteen, from Merrick, NY, it was a quote from The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, about a romance between two teenagers who meet in a kids-with-cancer support group. “It said, ‘I want to minimize the number of deaths I am responsible for.’ That quote hit me, and the very night I heard that, I stopped eating meat,” says Natalie.
Other veg-curious teens jumped into their eating style of choice after some serious consideration—this might make sense for you if you have a life change that makes a once off-limits veg diet suddenly possible. Emma, twenty, from Dallas, TX, wanted to go vegan but her parents disagreed. When she went to college, she saw that the food choices were plentiful—her dining hall offered soy milk for cereal and always had at least one completely plant-based option for meals. On her third day of college, she became vegan and says she has not regretted her decision once (though it can be a challenge when she goes home for school breaks).
Get started: While this approach doesn’t require a lot of preparation, it’s helpful to have given such a major shift some thought beforehand. You’ve already made a smart decision by picking up this book to help you navigate the nutritional, social, and other challenges that come with going veg. If you’re in the “I just can’t do it anymore” camp and don’t want to think too much, well, then go for it—and read fast!
BEST APPROACH IF:
• Eating meat doesn’t bother you, but you want the animals you consume to have lived happy, healthy lives.
• You don’t want to give up meat, but you want to eat in a way that is good for the environment.
Maybe you’re turned off by the practices used to farm meat in this country. You feel that it’s OK for us to eat animals, but that they should be treated with some respect and raised in a way that minimizes harm to the environment. Just a few years ago, this may have been enough of a reason to go veg—it was hard to find meat that was up to your standards, and so eating none was your best bet. Not so much anymore. “We are so lucky to live in a time with so many food options!” says Veronica, twenty, of Emeryville, CA. She doesn’t consider herself a vegetarian (in fact, she says she eats meat pretty often)—but as far as this book is concerned, she’s on the VegHead spectrum with the rest of us. The reason? Veronica has really thought about what role meat should play in her life. And all of that thinking has led her to make some important decisions.
Veronica doesn’t like the way that large food corporations push smaller food companies and farms out of business and the negative impact they have on the environment. She’s seen photographs of feedlots and slaughterhouses and thinks animals deserve better treatment. As a result, Veronica only eats meat out if it’s “humane” or “environmentally conscious.” At home, her family shops at farmers’ markets, buying meat that was raised locally on organic farms.
Get started: Read the following section, “Conscious Carnivores,” for the basics on what it means to be a meat eater with a veg head and for details on how you too can set forth on that path.
Teenagers today think about food a lot more than teenagers in any previous generation. The reason: food is a much bigger part of the public’s consciousness than it ever has been. Flip through the TV channels and there are numerous culinary shows to choose from. You can probably name five celebrity chefs without thinking too hard. You’ve likely seen a movie like Super Size Me or Food Inc., or read a book like Fast Food Nation or The Omnivore’s Dilemma. Not to mention all of the food-related blogs, Pinterest boards, and websites that leave you salivating. Given all of this foodtastic information you’ve, ahem, digested, it may have struck you that the food industry has some dirty little secrets.*
*If you don’t know much about how food is produced and want to learn more, there’s a ton of information out there. The books and movies mentioned above are good places to start. For more information on them and others, check out Chapter 9, Really Cool Resources.
So what does it mean to be an conscious carnivore? Well, that’s for each ethical eater to determine for his or herself. There are a number of different criteria that people who follow an ethical meat-eating diet tend to look for (keep in mind that the definition of each of these standards is subject to change, but the definitions listed in this section were accurate as this book went to press). You can stick with the ones that seem the most relevant to you, or just do your best to eat as ethically as you can, as much as possible. Below, some of the terms worth looking out for (just some of the labels out there):
Organic/Certified Organic: The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) oversees this label, which means that food producers who use it are held to a high standard. Animals raised organically must eat 100 percent organic feed and have access to the outdoors. The USDA also limits organic food producers from using synthetic pesticides, antibiotics, and genetically modified organisms.
Natural: This term is not as meaningful. It generally indicates that meat doesn’t contain artificial flavoring or coloring and minimally processed. However, the word “natural” tells you nothing about the conditions in which an animal was raised. And the government doesn’t oversee the use of the term in the same way it supervises use of the word “organic”—so there are no guarantees when you see it used.
Free-Range (or free roaming): This term is regulated by the USDA regarding chickens raised for meat; however there is no legal definition when it applies to egg-laying hens. It means that the animals have had access to the outdoors—though the type of outdoor space and length of time they spend in the sun are not specified.
Cage-Free: This nonregulated term typically means that hens live in an open area (like a barn or warehouse) with unlimited access to food and water. They have more room to spread out than if they were in cages, but they don’t necessarily have access to the outdoors.
Pasture-raised: The government does not oversee the use of this term; however, it is usually used to mean that animals have access to the outdoors and get their nutrition the way they do in nature—from grass, plants, and even insects. The meat and eggs from legitimately pasture-raised animals are more nutritious for us. Raising animals in this manner—if companies do as they promise—is also healthier for the animals and better for the environment.
Grass-fed: This term refers only to cattle, sheep, goats, and bison. Grass-fed means that the animals get 100 percent of their nutrition from freshly grazed pasture or hay and grass silage rather than grains, which is the primary food for most cattle in this country. It doesn’t tell you anything about the conditions under which the animal was raised. Meat that’s been raised on grass can be more nutritious than that raised on grain; this practice is also better for the cows and the environment. Look for meat that has been verified grass-fed by the USDA or the American Grassfed Association.
No Hormones Administered: This implies that the people who raised the animals didn’t give them any extra hormones over the course of their lives (hormones do occur naturally, so it isn’t technically true to say “hormone free,” even though plenty of companies do so). Synthetic hormones are usually used to help animals grow bigger or faster. The USDA can verify if a company using this term is telling the truth, though they don’t always do so. It’s also worth mentioning that the USDA already doesn’t allow added hormones to be used in the raising of hogs or poultry. So if you see pork or chicken products that say “no hormones administered,” the company is trying to pull a fast one on you (and possibly charge you more for it). The USDA does however permit additional hormones to be used on cows. So a beef product labeled “no hormones administered” may be worth the extra cash.
No Antibiotics Added: This usually means that the people who raised the animals didn’t give them any antibiotics over their lifetime. Antibiotics in food are bad for human health, because when we get overexposed to the drugs, the bacteria in our bodies becomes resistant to them—and that means that one day, the prescription your doctor gives you to heal strep throat or a sinus infection may not work.
Certified Humane: This label is certified by the organization Humane Farm Animal Care and is considered very reputable. To be certified under this program, animals must be raised without growth hormones and antibiotics. They must also have access to clean and sufficient food and water and a healthy living environment. Producers are also required to comply with specific earth-friendly criteria and humane slaughtering standards.
Certified Naturally Grown: Not to be confused with the mostly meaningless “natural,” this label is an alternative to the USDA’s organic certification. You might see it on produce, honey, poultry, and eggs. The regulations are similar to those for organics, but this program is tailored to meet the needs of smaller-scale farms. Use of the Certified Naturally Grown label is overseen by the organization that administers it, and people consider it to be pretty reputable.
Animal Welfare Approved: This label is designed to ensure that animals live as naturally as possible—in order for products to be certified, the animals raised must been raised outdoors using sustainable farming methods, and meet a stringent list of standards designed by scientists, veterinarians, and farmers. Supervised by the nonprofit Animal Welfare Institute, this label is considered to be reputable.
Five ways to eat more ethically (for carnivores and vegivores)
Find a Farmers’ Market: The food that is sold at your local farmers’ market is grown close to home, which means that less gas, oil, and other resources are being used to get dinner on your plate. And chances are your friendly neighborhood farmer is using more sustainable practices than the large-scale ranch that ships truckloads of ground beef to your local Walmart. You’ll also be helping to keep area farmers in business.
Join a CSA: It stands for Community Supported Agriculture, and you can think of it as a membership in the “vegetables of the week club.” Here’s how it works: you purchase a share from a farmer for a season. Each week you get a box of whatever produce is harvested that week (there are CSAs for foods like meat, eggs, and dairy, but most are for fruits and veggies). By being a member of a CSA, you get many of the same benefits of shopping at a farmers’ market with the added bonus of supporting one farmer’s work for an entire season (it also doesn’t hurt that it will help your family save money on groceries in the long run, since buying this way tends to be inexpensive and cuts down severely on your grocery needs). Oh, and the biggest bonus: being in a CSA guarantees you a steady supply of super fresh, seasonal food. Delicious.
Look for Local: You’re already accomplishing this if you’re shopping at a farmers’ market or have joined a CSA. But it doesn’t have to stop there. You can support local farmers and businesses at the regular grocery store too. Even large chains are starting to disclose where food comes from. Vote with your dollar and spend your money on food that was grown or produced nearby, whether that’s in your county, state, or within a one-hundred-mile radius. You’ll be minimizing the environmental impact of your diet with every bite.
Inquire and Applaud: As you learned from the terms covered in this chapter, sometimes foods that are labeled in a way to sound super ethical may not be. And on the other hand, products that don’t promote themselves as healthy or ecologically sound may in fact be just so. There’s only one way to know what’s what, and that’s to be an advocate for the things you believe in. Don’t be afraid to ask questions—and if you don’t get the answers you need, ask some more. If a restaurant says its food is “all natural,” ask the owner what that means. If a product at the grocery store sounds suspicious to you, email the company. And if you like what you see—a restaurant serving all Animal Welfare Approved meat, dairy, and eggs, for instance—tell the staff how happy you are to have found them. And then spread the word on your blog, Facebook, web review sites, and Twitter (or write about it in your book…see page 146, Sustainable Spotlight: Grazin’).
Grow Your Own: Whether it’s in your backyard garden, an urban farm plot, an edible schoolyard, or a pot on the windowsill, you won’t find more local veggies than ones you’ve tended to and harvested yourself.