Veggie food is inherently low in protein, unless you eat eggs all day.
It might tell you pulses or legumes have a high protein content but this is not the full story.
What you need to be aware of is how much of the protein can be utilised by the body, and there are books on just this subject.

Now, I’m dredging my memory from 25yrs ago when I used to fling weigths about, but most athletes and anyone looking to build their bodies needs quality protein.
My concern would be that what little protein is consumed will not satisfy a growing child’s needs very well.

Example: One boy, 3 doors up from me here in my street went veggie about 18 months (?) ago, aged 10. He is still riding the bike he had many years ago, his voice is noticeably shriller than the other boys of his age group and he seems not to have grown at all.
At this age group, it’s something that becomes quite obvious.
This is not good news as the world tends not to be overly kind to small / under developed men as a general rule!

Just a cursory look at veggie food stuffs tells even the casual observer it’s quite often very high in fat too, be they veggie burgers or cheese, you name it, I suspect veggies typically consume considerably more fat in their daily lives than a fish / chicken / turkey / lean meat carnivore.

Just my £0.02 worth.

£0.02 is vast overestimate

The idea that protein types are a problem, and that vegetarians have to be careful about types of protein and combining them was a bit debunked a few years back.

The idea that vegetarian diets are typically high in fat and unhealthy is just crazy madness that you made up in your head and isn't supported by any data – because it is rubbish – all the data suggests that at worst veggies are equal in healthiness to meat eaters, and typically eat a lower fat diet..

Again, the idea that veggies don't get enough protein to grow or to do sport is also rubbish and not supported by evidence.

Like meat eaters, vegetarians need to get a balanced diet. But as with meat eaters, the thing people are most likely to be low on is eating enough fruit and veg – which is far more of a health problem for everyone than lack of protein.

About your anecdote about the kid who was vegetarian , i was that kid too – veggie since 10ish, perfectly healthy, and fine to get in at least 500 km of riding in the average month. I imagine I'm fitter than the average person, even if they eat meat.

GlenP Ta plenty of highly opinionated people on either side of the divide always amuses me that someone can get so worked up over what someone else eats or argue that either diet is intrinsically healthy /unhealthy. Clearly facts dont impinge on their opinions.
I would write some more but, as Ti29r noted my lack of protein means my pale emaciated 4 foot 2 body [high and wide due to my low protein high fat diet] needs more sleep now. Your cursory glance at veggie foods seems to have involved the cheese counter and the frozen isle rather than the veg and fruit isles. Carl lewis was turned vegan in 1990 and then broke the 100 m world record the next year aged 31 on a vegan diet. Guess he managed somehow with the limited protein.

TI29er – what a load of pish.

western man eats far too much protein on average, veggie kids of which I know a few grow up just fine. You can get plenty of protein from non meat sources.

My veggie nephew is over 6 ft at 19 yrs old and plays sport at a high level

Ti29er – how do explain my 11yr old daughter who is going on 14 year old height and weight? She wears the same size shoes as her mum and is only about two inches shorter? That's because she is unusually big for her age – the single example you gave may just be because that child is unusually slight for his age.

Anecdotes like that are the very worst in selective thinking – you are merely weaving a narrative of your own dreaming around scant evidence to suit your ready-made bias. If my daughter was your neighbor would you be using that one single example to make the opposite case?

Late to the party, but Ti29er – you get the prize for the biggest load of shite posted here. Well done, you have had some stiff competition.

Woah everyone! We've all been quick to judge Ti29er's post but there's a possibility we're overlooking:

Yes, it could just be a load of utter, utter rubbish, OR it could be a rather clever trolling, which we've all fallen for.

(Ti29er – better stick your head back in now and claim that it was, in fact, a trolling…)

My, we do have some blinkered, vitriolic posting here this evening.

Not surprising really since those with a vested interest in proving that their child is X or Y or that they can jump over the moon in one leap is proof positive of their own stance.

The evidence sported here is at best no more than a small sample, as was mine.

We're told once Carl Lewis had finished growing he was turned vegan, although my point was that not having sufficient protein during the formative age was perhaps a concern, so the Lewis story, whilst a very nice story is a red herring.

But he's slow by comparison to the carnivore that is Bolt, so do we all eat at McD'd before our Olympic races, of course not; isolated cases prove very little.

TJ's nephew: were not told when he went veggie nor that his parents might well be quite a bit taller than their offspring, so again, selective story telling par excellence.

Linda McCartney foods were lambasted for their high fat content a while back and the few meals I get in for the veggie staff (x1) here are high in fat.

So let's have some science:
Almond Nuts. 1 cup. 140 gms, 26 gms protein, 75gms fat, 2 gms carbs, 785 calories, 35% protein absorbed & converted to muscle.

Brown Rice, 1 cup. 150 gms, 4gms protein, 1gm fat, 38 gms carbs, 177 calories, 70% protein absorbed & converted to muscle.

Spinach, steamed, 1 cup. 100gms, 3gms protein, trace fat, 3 gms carbs, 24 caloriies, 48% protein absorbed & converted to muscle.

Red kidney beans, dry, cooked. 1 cup. 200 gms. 16gms protein, 1 gm fat, 39gms carbs, 229 calories, 48% protein absorbed & converted to muscle.

Lentis, 1 cup, 200gms, 16 gms protein, trace fat, 37 carbs, 212 calories, 48% protein absorbed & converted to muscle.

Chicken. white meat. 8oz. 227 gms, 40gms protein, 14 gms fat, 286 calories, 68% protein absorbed & converted to muscle.

Source: Dr Franco Columbu & Linda Fragomeni. ISBN 0-8092-5457-3

TI – my nephew was veggie from about 5. His parents are of normal height – mother 5'6" dad 6 ft.

Its a simple fact that plenty of protein is easily available in veggies and that western man eats far more protein than needed on average.

You would be suprised how little protein is needed for a healthy diet and how easy it is to get this.

i know numerous veggie kids including two taht are vcegan from birth – all healthy and well

You are talking utter claptrap

Veggie food is inherently low in protein, unless you eat eggs all day

Row 1, column 3

Example: One boy, 3 doors up from me…

Row 5, column 5

Linda McCartney foods were lambasted for their high fat content…

Row 4, column 3

Finding correlations between one event (finding vegetables even) and another is a little unconvincing don’t you think?
I know a cyclist who, after cancer and chemo reached the peak of his physical performance. Therefore to reach your next level, like Armstrong, you too need testicular cancer. Or is it that you need chemo to reach the next level of performance? I forget.
Or with Lewis; is it not that he maybe let Jesus into his life that took his sprinting to the next level, or was it the loss of his mother perhaps?
So, we therefore deduce that in order to run your best times you need Jesus and no mother?
Next you’ll be ‘round my place flogging me a copy of the Watch Tower!
Only when you explode such urban myths and fallacies, lay bare some truth and perspective to these spurious links do you see something approaching the truth.

Then we live for two years in northern Germany and witness at first hand the large meat content in their diet and draw a correlation between that and their (N Germans) very large physical stature. Then spend time in a predominantly vegetarian society in the Indian sub continent and similarity draw conclusions about their small physical stature and the low meat content of their diets.
See, I can make my landscape fit my map too.
It is my experience that those who took up vegetarianism at an early age have not physically developed at the quite same rate as their siblings within their own families.
Or am I making the Lewis – Armstrong error, and it’s actually that they chose to wear lace bonnets at the annual Easter Parade that’s really the link?

You see, no mention that they weren't health and fit, no one has disputed this TJ, it is you that is rather transparent with you observations and closing sentence "You are talking utter claptrap" since it's you who is talking selective rubbish!

HERE Lucy Davies

A few days later, Lucy Davies sat down on the BBC Breakfast News couch along side Sian & Bill.
This is the 5yr old whose parents received a letter from the local authority about their child’s BMI and likely future health issues.

It’s only when you get some perspective on things that you can make more informed decisions, and she was indeed a large-of-stature girl, but big of bone and in IMHO, IN proportion.
However, the camera zooms out to reveal the mother, who was a gargantuan! Again, physically very large of stature, in a N Germanic and not in a Tamil way (!), who for some reason had inflated A tractor tyre inner tube & tucked it under her bright red, too-tight fitting top, further emphasising her weight issues.

Her mother, Susan, 38, said the 3ft 9in-tall girl, who weighs 3st 9lb, regularly played outdoors and took part in ballet, cheerleading and walks.

Then we had the case of the 10yr old whose father contacted the media when his own daughter was told by the Wii Fit that she was obese.

"I was gobsmacked when it told her that she is overweight.”
"She is a healthy ten-year-old girl with an active lifestyle – she swims and dances every week.
"There is not an inch of fat on her. She is solidly built but not fat”

Then the two of them went in front of the world’s media (read cameras and TV) and lo! she was, as had been suspected, just a smaller version of him, and he was obese.

The point being that we do not need TJ (just using this as an illustartion) to tell me his nephew is fit & healthy, and please note that these “facts” were never in doubt, but it’s simply that there is little or no perspective for us to work with, and as such is fairly meaningless as proof positive that all is as he would have us believe.

Ti 29, wtf was that last post about? it makes no sense whatsoever in any way. bizzare in fact, trolling surely?

For what it's worth, I have three kids, all normal and healthy despite being veggie from birth. Just waiting for their mum to get home and i'm off to Glentress with the oldest two. I doubt they will collapse at the trailside due to lack of nutrition!

I'm normally a measured, balanced, temperate sort of person on here, so this next comment is completely out of character but, I feel, justified.

T129er: you sir, are full of shit.

All of your posts have been completely meaningless drivel. My particular favourite was when you said:

So let's have some science:

and then proceeded to dish out a load of statistics that, if anything, show that non-meat foodstuffs are lower in fat than the one meat example on your list. Please explain what the point of all that nutrition information was…

To counter your isolated examples of pasty-faced, stunted children I will refer firstly to myself: vegetarian since birth and a perfectly normal rate of growth and development. My brother: an identical story. My ex-girlfriend: vegetarian since birth and a very beautiful woman.

Sheesh, I can't believe I've stooped to responding to your pointless prose. To refer back to my earlier accusation, I very much hope you're actually trolling.

Tell your kids you respect their right to vegetarian but feel it’s morally wrong to become one. Should they go down the route of becoming organic vegans tell them you'll give them your full support.

I was making a bolognese the other day when our 4-year old, Poppy, looked at the mince and said …
'They need to stop chopping animals up in to our food. It's really sad and I am not eating it!'

ok I have read nothing about that thread but I am sure
Someone did say veggie/veggan are the healthiest people on earth, and that all meat eaters are fat knackers that are going to die at the age of 36 from a meat-induced heart disease.
Let me guess the "defend the veggie bingo" was out.
Someone said the poor animals shouldn't be killed for eating bla bla bla because we humans are better off than animals (whereas most of them don't give a shit about abusive parents) while probably having leather shoes/belt.
Probably someone mentioned the fact that soya/tofu is as bad for environment than eating meat (within reason).
It's all getting very very boring by now to be honest, use to amuse me but not any more.
Now one thing that still piss me off, is the healthy comment, how on earth does eating meat/dairy/egg is going to make you unhealthy.

Don't really want to insult two people in one evening, so I shalln't, but you do tempt me mightily, Juan, especially with your comments in the last vegetarian thread. If you must know, no one said any of those things, though the ever-amusing bingo has made an appearance simply because it showcases all the ridiculous things vegetarians & vegans get told and asked by ignorant (yes, I said ignorant, not stupid/foolish/idiotic) people.

Anyway, can we just get over the whole healthy/unhealthy thing? Please. It is perfectly possible to raise healthy omnivorous/vegetarian/vegan children and perfectly possible to raise unhealthy omnivorous/vegetarian/vegan children. The OP came for advice about raising a healthy veggie daughter and, as usual, it has descended into people missing the point by several AU.

Some very good suggestions have been made and some fine ideas for feeding children healthy grub have come out. Unless anyone has any other thoughts on the original subject perhaps we could just gently roll this thread to a close now.

Convenience food wise, Tesco's mushroom burgers are very tasty.

not had time to read all 3 pages but has anyone on here with a vegetarian family had their 6 year old come home from school and say she wants to become a meat eater?

Yep, our middle 'un who is 10, decided about a year ago she wanted to eat meat. So she now eats meat, she made a her case for it and we talked it over for a bit of time to check she was sure, so I couldn't see a reason for fuss. A lot of the family dinners are still veggie, and she accepts that. But on nights where it's stuff like sausage and mash, she gets gets 'proper' sausage etc, and when we are out she goes for meat options. I don't see it as a major issue in our lives, I was more worried when our 13 year old had a brief flirtation with religion 😕

Can I thank everyone who has made sensible, constructive and helpful suggestions.

And thank everyone else for making me laugh, especially Ti29er 😆