Best possible option: Tips for vegetarians

When you research about diet and nutrition, you are likely to feel bombarded with information. Some conflicts with others and a selected few may make you terrified to eat. When you decide to cut out animal products for health and safety concerns, you feel better. If you eat the way you are biologically designed to do, the questions of dieting becomes less pressing. The vegetarian dietary choice not only affords compassion towards animals but also rewards this compassion with good health. With that said, you may also notice that at times your dietary choice may impede your social entertainment. Trying to make peace with how difficult dinning out and eating away from home can be challenging.

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Vegan Eating for Kids has some sound advice. The book discusses how parents need to make the best of the situation by “making the best possible choice from the options at hand.” You cannot always be perfectly prepared for eating away from home, but you can make sure you know your options. Here are a few tips to help you stay on board especially with kids who seem to want something to eat every hour.

Pack a car snack bag—When you find those fabulous vegan and vegetarian friendly processed foods get excited. Though processed foods are not ideal, eating on the go is hard; and though health conscious people would love to be able to eat raw and organic all the time, with kids and a hectic life— it seems impossible. Always have a snack bag in your car. It is a lifesaver and keeps you from stopping somewhere and spending too much money or getting annoyed trying to find veggie friendly options.

Plan Ahead—Social gatherings are fun but if you are on the invited side rather than the throwing side it can be scary. Offer to contribute to the menu and make something that is vegan/vegetarian friendly. It is a great way to show case how tasty vegetarian dishes are, and it ensures that your family will definitely have something on the menu they can eat. If not, eat before hand, likely there will be some fruit or veggie plate you can snack on, but it’s hard to feel satisfied from just snacks. Eating before keeps you full, and when your brain is not focused on hunger you are going to have a much better time at the party.

Give yourself a break—We all want to be perfect vegetarians and with good cause. Our health and ethical values are important and who wants to slip up. You are not always going to be diligent at reading the labels. Every so often, you may miss something and consume something you would rather not. There is nothing you can do to change it— give yourself a break. You live in a society that inundates your diets with dairy and animal flesh, and looking at every ingredient can become exhaustive. Just because you make a mistake does not mean you are not a true vegetarian or vegan. Do the best you can and remember that you eat 3-6 times a day 365 days a year. That is 1095-2190 eating choices a year at least. If you make a few unintentional mistakes here and there, your success rate is still high. So give yourself a break and applaud what you are doing for your health and the environment.

Buy The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Vegan Eating for Kids!

Source : Examiner.com