Raising non-fat kids (on whole milk?)

Just glimpsed at this nice post by Rod Dreher, referencing the Times Magazine cover story this week, all about how to stay thin and how hard it is to lose weight once you have gained it. Only thing I have to add at this late hour is that I have been amazed at how much easier this whole game is when you have a vegetarian household and are raising vegetarian kids (I still probably eat meat twice a month myself). It's not that there is no fat in such a household—indeed, our ice cream consumption is way above average, not to mention cheese... Rather, it's that you tend not to eat out much, because restaurants have so few affordable vegetarian options; you tend never to eat fast food; you think ahead, because you have to, so you shop carefully and cook at home a lot, which means thinking about ingredients, menus, etc. When the cheeseburger or chicken nugget is not an option, your eating habits just shift health-wards.

Also, I suspect—although time will tell, as my kids age—that when your kids are used to declining food in other people's houses (when that food is meat), they have less of a problem declining junk food in those houses. Not that my kids won't have their fill of junk food; our 1-year-old is already bribable with an M&M...

Of course, it is plenty easy to be a fat vegetarian: you could live on pasta smothered in cheese chased by soda (or other versions thereof). And it is plenty easy to be a thin carnivore. But I wonder if Mr. Dreher, Mr. Crunchy Con himself, has considered vegetarianism (even down there in Louisiana).

Comments

[Bradley Gardner]

I lost 50 pounds when I became vegetarian in 1998. Since then though restaurants have all started serving vegetarian options, and grocery stores have a much wider selection of cheeses. It's still easier than when I was living in China though, where pretty much everything is vegetarian and delicious.