I am a vegetarian but am not forcing my 19 nos old son to be one. He does eat chicken breasts occassionally. He was offered beef twice but hated it. He LOVES garden burgers and fake chicken nuggets that are made from soy. He also loves soy spray butter on rotini (but will not eat it when I use real organic butter). I've been reading a lot about how one should limit soy intake due to the high amounts of estrogen and negative effects on development but have been unable to find a guideline that states how much is too much/how much is safe. Do any of you know of a resource/site that contains this information? Thanks for your help.
Thanks to all that took the time to reply. I also appreciate the sites for recipes. I can alway use more recipes to try. I did not mention that my little guy is very particular. I am extremely fortunate that he loves the taste of almost every fruit and vegetable. For the most part, he still prefers them pureed and he drinks them from a cup. I am usually able to get at least 5 servings in him every day. Over time and many repeated attempts, we are adding mashed, sliced, cubed servings of fruit and veggies to his daily diet. However, outside of the fruit and vegs (which are great, I know) he will eat oatmeal, cheerios, yogurt and whole grain pasta (with flax for added protein). I have not had success with my repeated attempts at encouraging him to eat beans (cooked-whole, mashed (refried style), black bean "burger", hummmus etc) or rice. This lead me to the garden burgers and chix nuggets and until recently I was thrilled to have something that he would always eat. I never even thought about how these foods would teach him to want the "real stuff" later. I totally see that now with the fake chix nuggets. Our garden burgers are the veggie medley variety and don't resemble a beef hamburger in color/flavor etc. No, I do not want him growing up on processed foods...but I wanted him to eat some more protein. I guess I just need to research whole foods more and try out new recipes. I will try to puree some beans to mix into other foods...perhaps that will work. Soy is freaking me out now.
I agree with Tiffaney. Have you thought about other alternatives like rice milk or almond milk?
Here are some collected recipes:
Vegetarian
http://www.recipezaar.com/cookbook.php?bookid=93878
Toddlers
http://www.recipezaar.com/cookbook.php?bookid=93092
Good luck!
More and more research is showing that the estrogen in soy can be dangerous. One serving of soy per day while pregnant, for example, can result in your son being born with 20,000 (TWENTY THOUSAND!) times the normal levels of estrogen!
Personally, I do not let my son eat soy at all except on rare occasions in trace amounts. I check labels and prefer for him to eat home cooked, whole foods the vast majority of the time.
A couple good links:
http://www.westonaprice.org/mythstruths/mtsoy.html
http://www.soyonlineservice.co.nz/03summary.htm
People will tell you that soy has phytoestrogens and thus aren't a concern. However, your body recognizes estrogen as estrogen whether it is plant or animal based.
Also...lots of soy isn't good for you either. Soy made me infertile. I was unable to conceive until I removed soy from my diet. (I was doing Weight Watchers and was using soy since it was low in calories, high in fiber, to lose my weight. I lost 85 lbs that way, but at a high cost to my health.)
I'm sure you have many reasons why you are a vegetarian. By giving your some the soy burgers, soy chicken nuggets and so on, you are actually teaching him to eat and enjoy meat. Many people, even vegetarians, think that "meat" is a must at every meal. He can enjoy a veggie sandwhich, garbanzo bean or black bean based burger patties, eggs, nuts and bean sprout chopped up with low calorie sweet salad dressing. There are many other options for getting protien into him. I have a friend who has five kids and they are all vegetarians. She doesn't force them into it, but as a mother teaching them to eat her families cultural foods, she presents them with non-meat options. As they get older, if they want to eat meat, they are old enough to ask about it, try it and decide for themselves. They have all been disgusted with the idea of eating animals and all the fat. If they had been given "fake" hot dogs, they would eventually try a real one and think it was SOO much better. Because if you were a meat eater before, you can remember that steak is pretty darn good, but as a person who never, for example ate cats, the idea of eating cats would be disgusting and you would never even desire to try it, especially if your mom didn't feed you fake cat nuggets your whole life. Too much soy is contreversial, espcially in boys ( some experts attribute the excess estrogen to sexual identity confusion as adolescents, I don't know if it could possibly be true, I dont want to go there) So research non-meat meals, meals that dont even focus on meat. You can log your family's food on www.livestrong.com and will be surprised to see how much protien is in veggies and fruits and dairy products, much less nuts. I always made veggie carrot banana bread with TONS of finely diced nuts and they kids could have their "treat" with tons of protien, add a scrambled egg and they are pretty much set for the day. Peanut butter banana smoothies are fun, too and you can add a bit of chocolate sauce for flavor and some apricots and pureed zuchinni, he wont even know it's in there. Good Luck
I am sure he eats those things because that is what you eat. If you ate the beef then he would eat it. It is not a healthy choice to make him a vegetarian. Any amount of soy is not good. I have thyroid problems and have been told by several doctors to avoid soy as it is bad for your thyroid. Of course you can't avoid all of it. It's in to many products. Somethimes hidden. My daughter is 21 and decided to be vegetarian about four months ago. She was getting very unhealthy and has been having a lot of medical problems. The doctors told her she needs to eat meat that there are no good substitutes for meat. She is now eating chicken and doing a lot better. She is hoping to be able to start eating beef again as beef has different protiens and vitamins that your body needs to function properly. Your sons health is important. Maybe you could cook him some hamburger and cut it up and let him dip it in ketchup. If he hears you saying meat is bad of course he is not going to like it. You need to tell him meat is good for him.
Soy is BAD. It's in just about everything you buy. It's even all over the nutrition stores. Many people are allergic to it and don't even know it. It can cause sleeplessness, depression, blockage in the small intestines, and other things.
Almonds are a great source of protein. Blue Diamond is peanut free, just in case peanuts are an issue.
My friend told me about a nutrition website that talks about the dangers of soy. Go to Hallelujah Acres at www.hacres.com. You can do a search for "soy" and it will pull up several things about it. You can also sign up for a free quaterly nutrition magazine. Good luck!
That "ask your pediatrician" advice is not good, since they have very little to no training in nutrition, but I am pretty sure you know that already.
I don't have a resource on soy, but I've been vegetarian for 12 years. We use soy a couple times a week (tofu or veggie burgers). I make homemade nut and seed milks for our cereal. I think a couple times a week is okay. I am healthy. My hormones seem normal--my cycle is very normal/regular, for instance.
any is too much, check out WestonPrice Foundation
Dr. McCullen
ask your pediatrician. only you and the doc know what is right for your family. Best of luck!
