Help! My Child Stopped Eating Meat: The A-Z Guide to Surviving a Conflict in Diets

“A very insightful, extremely well written book. This is a must read for anyone facing this predicament.”
– Richard Carlson, author of Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff

In presenting her acclaimed “Sexual Politics of Meat Slide Show” throughout North America, Carol Adams has encountered innumerable young people who reported with sadness: “My parents don’t understand the choice I have made to become a vegetarian (or vegan).” Now, in an easy-to-use format for both parents and kids, Adams offers an insightful book that bridges the generational and culinary gaps between meat eating parents and vegetarian and vegan children.

Help! My Child Stopped Eating Meat! is a comprehensive parental guide; practical and timely, it is sympathetic both to parental dilemmas and the child’s keen interests. Drawing both on her own parenting experience, her expertise on vegetarianism, as well as on her background in pastoral care, Adams addresses the difficult issues that may arise when a child stops eating meat. It’s five chapters, with topics arranged alphabetically for easy reference, cover family and emotional issues, philosophy and peer relationships, and practical issues. In a chapter devoted to nutrition, it offers an invaluable “Vegetarian Food Guide For Ages 9-18” that answers the concerns of worried parents about calcium, protein, iron and other nutritional issues.

The final chapter “What’s Left to Eat,” consists of scrumptious recipes: from essentials like muffins and scrambled tofu, to tasty smoothies to comforting biscuits and gravy, from “steddas” like tofu ranch dressing, and tofu “cottage cheese”, from wraps to soups, from dinner meals like Mushroom Stroganoff to comforting pot pie, special dishes like Stuffed Acorn Squash and Greek Salad, and the not-to-be missed desserts such as Banana Cake with tofu cream frosting and Cheeseque Cake from Buffalo.

“No, your child isn’t going to die… In fact, as a vegetarian your children may now be adhering more closely to the current dietary guidelines. And your children are not rejecting your values. They are manifesting a level of sensitivity and tenderness toward the feelings of living creatures, their own health, or the environment. You must be the people who shaped these values.”

PRAISE FOR Help! My Child Stopped Eating Meat!

While presenting her "Sexual Politics of Meat Slide Show" throughout North America, feminist thinker Adams (The Sexual Politics of Meat; Living Among Meat Eaters: The Vegetarian's Survival Handbook) heard many complaints from teens about their parents' unwillingness to support vegetarianism. As a result, she created this comprehensive guide for adults coming to grips with their children's choice to stop eating meat, with nutritional information from Messina, a registered dietician. Like similar books (e.g., Joanne Stepaniak and Vesanto Melina's Raising Vegetarian Children: A guide to Good Health and Family Harmony), this one promotes vegetarian diets by elaborating on their nutritional merits and providing family recipes; however, it also specifically targets the emotional family conflicts that may arise when children separate themselves by becoming vegetarians. Fear, embarrassment, and rejection are common feelings experienced. The author encourages parents to support their children's decision, not view it as merely pubescent rebellion: they should respect it because it is based on healthy moral and nutritional principles. Adams offers practical tips for sanely discussing vegetarianism with children, asking them to help plan and prepare meals, and easily altering family meals to include vegetarian choices. The book's alphabetical format makes it an excellent reference for parents.
--Library Journal

Cover illustration by Dan Piraro

184 pages

50 original recipes

0-8264-1583-0

table of contents for Help! My Child Stopped Eating Meat!

1. Introduction

2. Family and Emotional Issues

3. Practical Issues

4. Nutritional Issues for Vegetarians by Virginia Messina, MPH, RD

5. Underlying Facts: Philosophy, Peer Relationships and Traumatic Knowledge

6. What’s Left to Eat? Recipes for Surviving and Thriving

Appendix: An A-Z Guide to Vegetarian Foods

Acknowledgements