Reflection on "First U.S. Count Finds 1 in 200 Kids Are Vegetarian"

This essay gave me incite on the reasons why children become vegetarians and who they were influenced by. I found it very surprising to learn that a great number of children become vegetarians at a young age. Most children become vegetarians because they understand the severity of animal cruelty that takes place in the United States and they couldn’t imagine that happening to a pet of theirs. I respect the fact that children all around the world are standing up for what they believe is wrong and taking actions to reverse it. However, my concern is that I don’t think all the children are getting the protein they need knowing that meat has large amounts of protein in each serving. The protein is essential for growth and development that is important for young children. Also this essay diminished the stereotype I had for vegetarians. Before reading this article I automatically thought that if you are a vegetarian then you eat mostly healthy foods such as fruit and vegetables. However, this is not the case because many vegetarians are substituting the meat with unhealthy foods such as junk food. All in all I did enjoy this essay and it inspired me to do some more research on the topic.      

Here is the website for the article: 

First U.S. Count Finds 1 in 200 Kids Are Vegetarians: Mike Stobbe 

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-01-11-vegetarian-kids_N.htm