I'm very tempted to get some papers printed about vegetarianism and veganism just to give to my daughter's "health" teacher and/or to give to someone at her school to give to that teacher.

It bothers me and actually makes me sad when my daughter comes home telling me that her health teacher is telling her and her classmates that its not healthy to be vegetarian, also that it's even worse to be vegan and having them read about it as well. That they can't get the protein they need and that they need five servings of meat a day.

What does that do to our family when I am vegetarian and am actually eating raw vegan at this time? What does that do to my family when I'm incorporating more and more vegetarian meals each day? It has the potential to impact it negatively! Here I am teaching and showing my kids how healthy it can be and then she's getting told its unhealthy.

Request a meeting with the teacher, print your credible sources and take them with you. You won't change the curriculum, but you might encourage the teacher to reconsider the one-sided approach he/she takes in his/her individual classroom.

Until the government's pockets stop being lined by big agri-biz however, this will always be the case.

Yeah, I'm working on my credible sources right now.. I'm also tempted to pull my daughter out of this class as well.
I'm going to have to figure a way to go about this so it doesn't negatively impact my daughter in her high school . It's hard to sit back and make sure I do this carefully when all I want to do is walk in and tell that teacher what I'm really thinking about this one-sidedness going on.lol

I think the problem is that some people who are vegetarian don't always eat enough variety. I had a roommate in college who was a vegetarian but didn't eat right at all. She'd fill her day with chips and junk food. I also have a friend who was vegan who started turning yellow! She got very ill and turned out she was not eating properly. And on the other hand I have many other friends who are vegetarian and vegan with no issues at all because they eat right. My coworker is vegan and a fitness instructor- so it's definitely wrong that it's not healthy! Heck one of my friends BECAME a vegetarian BECAUSE she had so many issues eating meat- what does her health teacher have to say about that? When she stopped eating meat all her digestive problem went away.

I am not against eating vegetarian/vegan at all, but I think that when you have kids it's even more imperative that you make sure your children are getting enough of their nutrients and fats.

I do agree this teacher should be spoken to- she can stress how important it is to make sure you get your nutrients and protein from other sources when you are vegetarian/vegan. But then again vegetarian or not there are people out there who still don't eat right and get the proper nutrition.

How old is your daughter? Oh man if I were in her shoes I would have said something lol.

You might want to point out to the teacher that there are over 2 billion vegetarians in the world (Ok I don't know the exact number but 2 of the largest countries in the world also house the most vegetarians)

I know a vegan who went to one of the best colleges for nutrition in the US and she said that it is all about meat and dairy because that is who funds the nutrition program. And if you want to get any funding, you better be supporting one of those two industries.

Beerab~ You're right, there are some who are vegetarian who don't always eat enough variety and can become unhealthy. Also, it's those people who are always most remembered by others who are Not vegetarian. That right there will give some the impression that vegetarianism is unhealthy and they will stop all thought at that and not look into it further or be interested in hearing that vegetarianism infact can be healthy if done right.

My daughter is 15yrs old and she has spoken her thoughts on some things in that class that I have taught her. But of course it has fallen on deaf ears. I don't think its very common to find a teacher who is willing to listen and be open about some things when its coming from a teen "student". Why would a teacher let a child show them that they are teaching from a one-sided view and may possibly be wrong in doing that?

Nelie~ I hear you on that funding! It's sad that this world goes around like that sometimes.

I got all my info together. I don't know how I'm going to go about this just yet, and I don't think anyone is going to want to even see what proof I've got to show that being vegetarian is not unhealthy. But I'm not going to let this go! In fact, I think I'll be calling my daughter's school counselor here in a bit as well.

I agree to call the school- but I doubt anything will be done. They'll just say it's a difference of opinion blah blah.

I think the highest estimate I've ever seen is that 20% of the world is vegetarian, but that would be 1.2 billion - still a pretty large number- but I read in the US only about 3% of the population is vegetarian.

Not that it really changes your overall problem, but I am sure they mean 5 ounces or ounce equivalents, not 5 servings. 5 ounces is really only about 2 smallish servings of meat.

It's unfortunate that she's teaching that way, because it's not even what the government party line actually is.

Yeah, the five servings of meat a day thing sounds a bit weird, because, vegetarianism aside, who the heck could afford to do that, and how would you eat that much? Seriously, how could you even do that? (Let's leave aside low carb diets and the like, since that's an entirely different situation) I'd think that much meat, from a food pyramid perspective, would totally blow out healthy calorie and fat limits, since the kind of nutrition they teach in school also emphasizes the other elements of the food pyramid, which include grains, fruits, vegetables, etc. Not that I doubt a teacher could totally goof that up, because as I recall from the distant days of my youth, the nutrition education we got was pretty abysmal, and that's not a slam on teachers, it's more a matter of them being given industry-created materials and in most cases, them not being trained to teach nutrition in the first place, and certainly not in depth.

I'm a teacher. I'm not a vegetarian, but I can certainly see how one could eat in a healthy way AND be a vegetarian or vegan. Here's my advice.

Go to the school/district's website and see if you can find the curriculum for the health course posted online. (In my district they post the curriculum maps we use for each class.) Look through the curriculum guide and see if there is any mention of a vegetarian diet. If there is not, then the teacher shouldn't be discussing it in such negative terms. Once you know what is supposed to be taught, request a face to face conference with the teacher and guidance. If that doesn't end in a satisfactory way, speak to an administrator and then keep going up the ladder until you get the results you want.

You'll probably need to think very carefully about what you want the end result to be. Be prepared for your daughter to object to this process. Teenagers very rarely want their parents to "rock the boat".

Good luck!

I see this as a teaching opportunity for your teen about how politics plays into the curriculum and dietary recommendations since the meat production industry has a powerful lobby. Most of us know what happened when Oprah Winfrey made a comment about not eating hamburger and the TX cattlemen sued her!

And I do believe that it will be helpful to approach the teacher to share your perspective. Perhaps build some rapport by acknowledging that some people stop eating meat and call themselves vegetarians though don't eat make healthy food choices as Beerabs acknowledged above. It seems those are a minority of vegetarians and often young kids who are not fully informed about how to eat healthily as a vegetarian.

Best of luck with this and please let us know how it goes!

Thanks everyone for the replies.. A little time has gone by and I talked with my daughter more about this and she really asked me seriously to let it be for her at that time. She said that they are on another subject now and really wasn't sure how it all would play out for her in that class.

So I had to let it be for a bit and think about it some more. I think I will be talking with the counselor on this first to see what he says about it. This is a "small town" and I just want to be sure my daughter is comfortable.
Thankfully she knows that what she was being told isn't true. That's the biggest reason why she came to me about it. I just want her to always come to me about things, and if I don't go about it in a proper way, who knows if she'll come to me again about things like this.

I have to say it definately isn't easy just sitting back for a while!lol

First and foremost your daughter should be comfortable. I think you made the right choice by "not rocking the boat". I think it is a good opportunity though, to teach her that sometimes school is corrupt with funding or the teacher's personal opinions, or outdated curriculum. You can be an example of good health and vitality for her and your family which will outweigh any teacher's rantings.

My daughter is only 7 and already deals with this kind of thing on a daily basis. Her school mates come to school with reasons (from their parents) of why she should not be vegan. They tell her it's unhealthy and that God meant for animals to be our food. My daughter, at 7 years old, has more wisdom and kindness and conviction in her little finger than two adults put together. She's very passionate about her beliefs and she stands up for them. And I'm proud of her every single day. But I do worry about her stress level when people just close their ears and won't listen to her after they blurt out some crap about how we need animal products to be healthy. It's just not true! My kids are very healthy! And what's funny is that those parents that tell their kids these lies are giving their kids junk food for snacks and McDonald's for dinner and setting them in front of the T.V. instead of going outside to play! I'm sorry... it just makes me want to scream!

Remee ~ I think you made the right choice letting it go for awhile. You know your daughter knows the truth and she understands that people like her teacher don't have the information they need and maybe don't want to hear the truth. I would have handled it the same way. I never want my daughter to feel like she can't come to me about anything.

I remember in Jr. High I decided to become a vegetarian on my own merit, no one coerced me as they wanted to believe. It was a moral decision I had made. I remember my momyelling about what teacher told me to do this and even took me to the principal's office to demand who told me to become a vegetarian. There were a lot of tears and it was a huge struggle but I did end up becoming a vegetarian for the next 12 years Though I admit I didn't do it a healthy way. I was supplied with pop and chips But it sure was heck dealing with the authorities! I remember my grandma forcing me to a busy mall to the Chick Filet and forcing me to eat chicken nuggets while I sobbed in front of everyone. It was a rough battle on me for sure, but I'm proud of myself in the end. I stood up for what I believed in. I only stopped because I was inundated by autoimmune disease and was on the verge of dying and I had to make an educated decision on my personal health. (I cried a lot then too)