Transcript Episode 10: 5 Healthful Habits for Vegan Families
Karla Moreno-Bryce: When it comes to raising a vegan family, ensuring that you are providing everything that they need to properly grow and develop is your top priority. And I know that because as a vegan parent myself, this is something that I too focus on.
Many vegan parents I’ve worked with in the past often focus on too many things that it becomes overwhelming for them. Meal planning starts off as something they enjoy and are excited to offer to their kids to then a task that is dreading and not very exciting to look forward to. Meal planning becomes something that causes anxiety because they desire a plan and more clarity on what plant foods to include in their meal planning to ensure that they’re not doing things right.
And if you’re nodding your head and saying “yes” at this because you can relate with these emotions and experiences, it’s because it’s common. You’re not alone in wanting a simpler plan that you can feel confident about what you’re preparing for your family meals.
So, in today’s episode, to give you a little boost in simplifying meal planning for you and your family, I’m going to be sharing with you the 5 things you should be focusing on right now to ensure you raise your vegan family with healthful meal habits. This won’t be only talking about what plant foods to focus on but it extends to other habits of meal planning that go hand in hand with the foods you offer in your meals. And as you’re listening, you may notice that you’re probably already doing one or all of the 5 habits I mention. And if that’s you, then you my friend are already on the right track to having a healthful vegan family journey. And even if any of the following habits are not currently part of your vegan family, that’s okay, this is your moment to choose one and begin to implement it.
Alright, so the first habit I want you to focus on is ensuring your meals and snacks provide high-energy and high-nutrient plant foods. And the reason for that is because in order to support a child’s growth, they need adequate calories. Having adequate calories ensures that their bodies are able to carry out tasks like to keep their lungs breathing and be able to have energy to play with their peers but it also ensures that they’re meeting their protein needs. There are many things that calories play a role in our child’s growth and development and why it’s important that this macronutrient is met from an early age.
Now, you may be wondering, “Well, Karla that’s great but how do I know what foods meet this criteria?” Well, I’m glad you asked because I’m going to detail what this means and share a few examples of these foods. Plant foods that help meet calories for your vegan kids are going to be those that are high-energy and high-nutrient foods. For example, these are going to be your nuts and seeds, soy foods, some root vegetables like sweet potatoes, and certain types of grains. We want to ensure that our meals and snacks focus on providing these foods not only to meet certain nutrients but primarily so that our children have the adequate calories to thrive on a vegan diet. So, where you’re thinking about what to prepare for a meal or what plant foods to include in a meal or snack, plan around one food that will help meet your child’s caloric needs. You don’t only have to offer these foods at a particular meal but just one that can help meet this requirement.
Alright, the second habit for vegan families is to ensure calcium-rich foods. I have worked with several vegan parents who are genuinely concerned about not meeting their child’s calcium needs. Some parents aren’t sure what plant foods to focus on that meet this key nutrient and others feel a bit lost as to how to meet daily needs. And both are valid concerns but feeding our vegan kids isn’t about perfection. Yes, we want to aim to meet daily nutritional amounts but fixating on portion sizes to meet your child’s specific calcium requirements is not the habit I want vegan families to have. Rather, the habit I want you to have and implement in your meals is to have a knowledge about what plant foods provide calcium so that you can meal plan with more confidence.
The most practical way to meet calcium requirements is by offering a calcium-fortified plant milk and many of you know that unless a child has an allergy or an intolerance to soy foods, soy milk is my number one recommendation for a plant milk as a primary beverage. I do have a blog post on this topic that you can take a look at as to why soy milk is the preferred choice and when you can begin offering. I’ll leave that link in the show notes. Depending on the brand or the fortification, many will offer anywhere between 300 to 400mg of calcium per one 8 ounce serving of soy milk. So, any amount your child consumes can help meet their daily requirements. Other plant foods that provide calcium are calcium-fortified fruit juices, cooked leafy greens like collard greens and kale, cooked broccoli, almond butter, and my favorite, tahini. We use tahini in our household very often, whether that’s in a dressing for a veggie bowl, in pancake batter, or oat bars. I do have a recipe for a tahini dressing on the blog and I’ll link in the show notes if you’re interested in trying it with your kids.
Now moving to the number three habit and that is to supplement adequately. I often come across vegan parents who want to meet their children’s nutritional needs just through plant foods. And while I admire and [agree] that we should meet our child’s nutritional needs through plant foods, there are some nutrients that naturally lack in plant foods and should be supplemented. You’ll often hear from non-vegan individuals that because we have to supplement our children it means that a vegan diet is not adequate to support their growth. But I disagree that that statement because regardless of whether a family follows a vegan or an omnivore diet, supplementation is still needed for certain nutrients.
In fact just to give you some context here, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans indicates that Vitamin D is a nutrient of concern in American diets(1), where in adults ages 19years and older more than 90% don’t get enough Vitamin D and for infants and young children it’s challenging to meet Vitamin D even with a varied diet alone, which suggests that supplementation is needed for those over the age of 12 months (2). While there other nutrients of concern for specific group of populations, overall supplementing our diet, no matter how varied it is, is important to ensure that our vegan family is meeting those key nutrients.
Alright, moving right along to number four is to have structured or routine meals & snacks. I remember working with a vegan mom a few years ago where she felt very concerned about her child’s weight. She felt lost on how to get her vegan child to not only eat but also to help them gain weight as they weren’t meeting their growth trend. Sometimes, a child’s weight is genetic and just the way their body is meant to be but something about this child’s eating habits raised a red flag for me to know that their disinterest in food and lack of weight gain was all pointing to their eating habits at home. This vegan parent allowed their child to eat anytime of the day, whenever the child wanted and whatever the child wanted to have at that given time. And I can understand why they would have that approach, it was a desperate approach to just get her vegan child to gain weight but not having a routine to meals and snacks was causing this vegan child to snack throughout the day. And it was snacking on random things they could reach in the pantry, which majority of the time these foods lacked the nutrients they needed to support their growth, like protein, iron and zinc. So, after we worked on helping this vegan parent have a meal and snack routine that worked for their family, she gradually noticed that her vegan child began to eat at meal times. All because she had structure in the day.
So, I want you to take a look at what your meals and snacks look like. Do your kids sit down at regular meal times? Or do they snack frequently throughout the day? The goal isn’t to have meals and snacks at the same time every single day but rather to have some sort of rhythm throughout the day and a routine that’s going to work for your family. Because when you have a routine, your vegan kids not only know when to expect a meal, helping them be more likely to eat at that given time, but also develop healthful eating habits that they can carry throughout their childhood. And developing these eating habits is what’s going to support their weight and overall development while following a vegan diet.
And now the last family habit that I encourage for vegan families to have is to have family meals together as much as possible. There are many benefits to family meals times that your vegan kids get to have just by implementing this one habit. Research has shown that sitting down as a family and having a meal together is associated with better academic performance, increased self-esteem because your child is interacting and engaging with you, and it’s being associate with better psychological outcomes like lower rates of depression and disordered eating (3). So, there’s many great benefits for our amazing vegan children when it comes to simply having family meals and why I encourage every family to make family meals a priority.
Now, I get that there are exceptions to this and that many families face obstacles to eating a meal together at the same time. You may be saying “That’s great Karla but I’m a single parent and have no time to sit with my child to eat”. And I get that. Your time is valuable and limited and you want to focus your attention on putting dishes away or cleaning the kitchen a bit while you sit your vegan child to eat their meal.
Many families just like yours have unpredictable schedules sometimes, you work late and don’t have the time to prepare a meal for everyone, so you just focus on serving something quick for your kids. Or perhaps your older child rushes to eat the meal so that they can go play or be on their screen. These are all valid scenarios and in no way am I discrediting them because I’ve encountered them time and time again with working with vegan parents. But I just want you to choose one meal or snack that you can enjoy together. Just one at the very least. It doesn’t have to be dinner. It can be breakfast or lunch on the weekend. It can be afternoon or bedtime snack. If you can’t commit to having 2 or 3 meals a days because of your schedule or other family dynamics, then at least commit to one where your vegan child feels seen and heard. Because when they know that a loved one is going to be present with them at a given time, they’re not just more likely to eat what you offered, but they’re also more likely to develop healthful eating habits, build better self-esteem, and more importantly, support their overall growth and development.
Okay, let’s recap the five healthful habits for vegan families. Number one is to focus on high-energy and high-nutrient plant foods for meals and snacks. These are plant foods like nut butters, soy foods, and sweet potatoes. Number two is to ensure calcium-rich plant foods in your vegan child’s diet. A fortified soy milk or other fortified plant milk that is nutritionally adequate is a very simple way to help meet your vegan child’s calcium needs. Number three is to supplement appropriately at each stage of growth. Number four is to have structure or routine in meals and snacks to support your vegan child’s weight and overall development. And number five is to have family meals or at least one so that your vegan child gets the full benefits from eating together.
Now, if this sounds like too much to do all at once. I get that, it’s a lot of information. And that’s why I outlined each of these habits inside the Vegan Kids Nutrition Blueprint course so that you can implement them at your own pace. You’ll first learn how to meal plan and know exactly what to include at each meal by ensuring high-energy plant foods are included. You’ll also learn how much calcium your child needs and other meal planning practices that make it easier to meet this requirement for your kids. As you move along the program, you’ll feel confident supplementing your vegan kids because you’ll know exactly how much to offer depending on your child’s age. And by the end of the program, you’ll leave the stress that sometimes comes with meal times by having the foundation that sets you and your vegan child up for success with healthful eating habits. If you’re ready to join me, click the link in the show notes to find more details.
Alright my friends, I hope that today’s episode leaves you with a better understanding of what healthful habits can set up your vegan family for a healthful journey. I’ll talk to you in the next episode. Bye for now.