Eating a Vegetarian Diet as a Family

When you’re in charge of planning and preparing meals for your family, understandably, you want to make sure that everyone is getting the proper nutrition for optimal health. Vegetarian meals have a lot to offer in this regard because they can provide the right balance of calories and critical nutrients needed for growing youth, adults, and seniors alike. The key is learning how to combine the right ingredients to create a variety of wholesome dishes. Here’s what you need to know about vegetarianism for the family.

Types of vegetarians

Let’s start with a brief explanation of the unique types of plant-based diets. Generally, vegetarians do not eat meat, and “meat” generally includes poultry, seafood, and fish as well as beef, lamb, and pork. However, different people may do vegetarianism differently.

People who don’t consume any meat, fish, seafood, or poultry but eat eggs and dairy products are called lacto-ovo vegetarians. Those who follow this pattern but exclude eggs from their diet are known as lacto-vegetarians. Ovo-vegetarians eat eggs but no dairy, meat, fish, seafood, and poultry. Finally, vegans can be described as the strictest vegetarians: They remove dairy, eggs, fish, seafood, meat, poultry, and all items derived from animals like honey and gelatin from their diet.

How to ensure proper nutrition

Vegetarian eating has many health advantages. Because it prioritizes fruits, grains, and vegetables, vegetarian diets tend to be higher in fiber and lower in  unhealthy saturated fats and cholesterol. That said, a vegetarian diet is not automatically healthy. You can be a vegetarian and eat nothing but mac and cheese, French fries, cheese pizza, baked goods, and ice cream, for example. Whether you and your family eat meat or not, you should still make vegetables, whole grains, and fruits a big part of your meals, and try to eat fewer processed foods.

In addition, when cooking vegetarian for your family, you’ll want to ensure that meals are well-balanced, so everyone gets the vitamins and minerals they need in sufficient amounts.

Some of these essential nutrients may be easier to find in diets that include meat—for example, vitamin B12. However, vitamin B12 can be found in dairy products, eggs, nutritional yeast, and foods that are fortified with this vitamin.

Getting enough iron in a vegetarian diet is easy with eggs, dried beans, leafy green vegetables, nuts, seeds, dried fruits, and iron-fortified bread and cereals. Vegetarians who drink milk should get enough vitamin D, while those who don’t consume dairy would do well to look for orange juice and other items fortified with this vitamin. Your body also absorbs vitamin D from the sun.

When it comes to protein, lacto-ovo vegetarians can rely on dairy and eggs, but there are plenty more plant-based sources of protein to try, too. Beans and legumes like lentils, soybeans, and chickpeas are good standbys, as are quinoa, nuts, seeds, and soy products such as tofu. Similarly, calcium is in dairy products, but it’s also found in broccoli, dried beans, green leafy veggies, and fortified products such as cereals, orange juice, and soy and nut milks.

Vegetarian eating at any age

It’s true that vegetarianism can be healthy for anyone, regardless of how old they are. However, special attention must be paid to age-related nutritional concerns.

For instance, cereals fortified with iron are recommended for babies when they’re ready for more than milk. As a toddler’s diet expands, protein can be obtained from yogurt, soy yogurt, cottage cheese, tofu, beans, chickpeas, and lentils. During their first few years, as babies graduate from soft foods to harder textures, it’s important to be mindful of choking hazards. You can cook veggies like carrots until they are soft and mushy, grate them, or cut them up in tiny pieces so they are easier for your child to chew. 

It's common for children to go through a picky eating stage as they become older. If your family is vegetarian, it’s critical to be sure that growing kids are getting a well-balanced diet and aren’t missing critical nutrients. Offer as many different options as you can or involve your child in preparing healthy snacks so they feel they have some say in what they eat.

Teenagers often assert their independence through their food choices. If your family isn’t vegetarian, your teen may decide on their own that they don’t want to eat meat anymore. This stance can be motivated by an awareness of how animals are raised for consumption, health or environmental concerns, or just personal preference. You can support your child by helping them learn about healthy vegetarian eating, helping them prepare recipes, making vegetarian snacks available in your home, and making a few vegetarian meals each week for the whole family.

Older adults, meanwhile, need to take care that the vegetarian fare they’re consuming is rich in the nutrients they need as they age. For example, it’s important for seniors to get enough calcium for their bone health. Dairy is an excellent source of calcium for lacto-ovo vegetarians, but if they don’t tolerate dairy well, or if they prefer a vegan diet, then tofu, tempeh, nuts, and beans are good alternatives.

With a little advance planning and an awareness of what balanced eating consists of for each member of the household, vegetarian meals can be both healthy and enjoyable for the whole family.