Raising a Plant Based Family

I have been vegetarian for over 20 years, I think if I hadn’t been at boarding school through the 90s & 00’s then it would probably have been a lot longer. I never really understood the thought of eating animals. I tend to describe it as a spectrum of what we all feel is tolerable & often I believe its dissociation that enables us to eat meat/animal products in the way we do. I am aware that we are ‘designed’ to eat meat, but much like the way we were designed perhaps to live in caves & hunt for our meat, our modern lifestyle has changed & so has our diet. To some the thought of eating kangaroo anus might not appeal, but popping to Waitrose & picking up some chicken fillet might be totally ‘normal’, however if you were asked to produce that chicken fillet yourself, you may struggle with the process - so for me, I sat on the spectrum of not feeling comfortable eating meat & that feeling grew into being completely plant based for the last 4/5 years now. I say plant based over ‘vegan’ because firstly vegan doesn’t necessarily mean healthy or environmentally friendly & secondly because to some vegan is a whole lifestyle & I am not going to put labels on our family when we do still have say a leather pair of shoes we have had for 15 years & it would be less kind to the planet to stop wearing out of principle

So onto being plant based. Our (nearly) three year old & currently 2 month old follow a plant based diet with us. It wasn’t a difficult decision, the difficult part was feeling confident with the boundaries we have to hold with societal ‘norms’, the assumptions, judgement & guilt projected for potential future events like parties, school trips & suppers at friends houses

But these were not enough reason not to. Our aim is to raise our children to make informed, conscious decisions. If they choose to eat meat/consume animal products in the future, then we wont stop them. But whilst we are their guardians until they are able to make informed choices, we will make those for them & the overwhelming evidence is how important & valuable a whole food, plant based diet is for our bodies, minds & planet

Of course we have had comments such as ‘but where will they get their protein’ & ‘all children will at some point only want chicken nuggets & chips’… well, only if you give them chicken nuggets & chips. Yes, the chips certainly feature for trips to the pub or evenings by the sea, but I am passionate about raising them to enjoy their food & for food to be a positive & joyful event

We involve them in cooking, giving them choice in the menu, learning about spices, how to create dishes & add flavour, texture & colour. We don’t force eating, there is no food hierarchy, ‘desert’ is as available as mains. Focus is on listening to tummies not empty plates, education is given about why each food is offered (e.g. walnuts are good for the brain, let’s put them in our banana bread!)

How do we navigate parties/events? We always gently contact in advance & offer to bring something. It is a hope for the future that people will grow in confidence/inclusion for providing plant based options, there is still a sort of unwritten rule that if you don’t eat the norm then you bring your own, even tho the plant-based supermarket aisles are as available as the meat ones nowadays, but for now, we tend to bring contingencies. I never want them to feel different or left out, but I also don’t want to not live by our values just because it isn’t the most obvious lifestyle choice & maybe it can be an opportunity for others to explore a few little tweaks to some plant based options, which is so accessible nowadays

So what do our little people eat? We, to be fair at 2 months one obviously just has (breast)milk, but the other eats a whole variety of plant based whole foods. Each day is different, some days she seems to prefer simple foods such as pasta (so we try & use a wholegrain pasta & mixed vegetables), other days she devours humous & falafal. In the summer time a vegetable platter with dips & pita is a hit, whereas in the cooler months a vegetable pie, lentil bolognaise or chilli go down well. When you start to explore & get interested in cooking plant based, focussing on allowing the ingredients to build the flavour than trying to directly replicate meat options, then you really aren’t missing out on anything

I wont go into too much detail in terms of supplementation as it is important to do your own research, but we do add some extras in our diet such as B12, iodine, omega 3 & Vitamin D3

Got any questions? Please do get in touch. I hope you found this blog helpful

Love Katie x