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Overview | What is vegetarianism? Veganism? Why are many drawn to these diets? Is it healthy to avoid meat? In this lesson, students create vegetarian menus for fictional characters, then analyze them for nutritional content.

Materials | Computers with Internet access.

Warm-Up | Many teenagers are drawn to vegetarianism, so you might begin class by asking students in your class about their experiences. Are any students currently vegetarians or vegans, or have they been in the past? Do they know any vegetarians? What is the difference between vegetarianism and veganism? What do vegetarians eat? Why do people become vegetarians?

Ask a volunteer to come to the board to write class definitions of vegetarianism (and veganism), and list reasons for becoming vegetarian.

Next, tell students that they will read an article about how making the choice to become a vegetarian or vegan is not an easy one.

Related | Tara Parker-Pope writes about both vegetarians and vegans in “The Challenge of Going Vegan”:

From Bill Clinton to Ellen DeGeneres, celebrities are singing the benefits of a vegan diet. Books that advocate plant-based eating are best sellers. But is eliminating meat and dairy as simple as it sounds? As countless aspiring vegans are discovering, the switch from omnivore to herbivore is fraught with physical, social and economic challenges — at least, for those who don’t have a personal chef. The struggle to give up favorite foods like cheese and butter can be made all the harder by harsh words and eye-rolling from unsympathetic friends and family members. Substitutes like almond milk and rice milk can shock the taste buds, and vegan specialty and convenience foods can cost two to three times what their meat and dairy equivalents do. And new vegans quickly discover that many foods in grocery stores and on restaurant menus have hidden animal ingredients. “The dominant social-cultural norm in the West is meat consumption,” said Hanna Schösler, a researcher in the Institute for Environmental Studies at Vrije University in Amsterdam, who has studied consumer acceptance of meat substitutes. “The people who want to shift to a more vegetarian diet find they face physical constraints and mental constraints. It’s not very accepted in our society not to eat meat.” Still, the numbers are substantial, according to according to a 2008 report in Vegetarian Times. Three percent of American adults, 7.3 million people, follow a vegetarian diet, and one million of them are vegans, who eat no animal products at all — no meat, fish, eggs, milk, cheese, even honey. (And 23 million say they rarely eat meat.)

Background Vocabulary: Read the entire article with your class, then answer the questions below. You may wish to introduce students to the following words or concepts before reading: vegetarian, vegan, herbivore, omnivore.

Questions | For reading comprehension and discussion:

Why is becoming a vegetarian so difficult? According to a 2008 study, how many Americans are vegetarians? What does the author mean when she describes a “lack of social support” for new vegans or vegetarians? Why are dairy products particularly difficult to replace?

Activity | What does a balanced vegetarian diet look like? Divide students into groups, and instruct them to create a fictional character, specifying sex, age, height, weight and activity level. Groups then plan a full day of vegetarian (or vegan) meals and snacks for their character, like breakfast, lunch, an afternoon snack and dinner, including quantities.

Next, have students research how to satisfy nutritional requirements on a vegetarian or vegan diet, using nutritional guidelines for vegetarian children, The Times’s health page on vegetarianism and the collection of vegetarian nutrition resources at the U.S.D.A. National Agriculture Library. Ask students to choose several nutrients, based on their research, that are important for vegetarians to consider. Protein, omega-3 fatty acids, iron, zinc, iodine, calcium and vitamins D and B-12 are good options.

Students then return to their fictional characters and use the U.S.D.A. dietary reference calculator to determine the daily recommendations for each nutrient chosen above.

Are the characters eating well? To find out, students look up the nutrient content of the foods they’ve chosen using the U.S.D.A. nutrient database, add up the totals for the day and compare them with the daily recommendations.

Finally, have groups report back to the class and discuss what they’ve learned. Did their original vegetarian meals and snacks represent healthy diets? Is it possible to eat healthfully as a vegetarian? Is a vegetarian diet always healthier than an omnivorous one? How could students adapt this activity to determine the healthfulness of an omnivorous diet?

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Going Further | Here are three ways that your students can explore this topic further:

Vegetarian Potluck: Students cook vegetarian dishes for a class potluck. Thanksgiving is right around the corner, so students can find recipes and inspiration in the Well blog’s 2012, 2011 and 2010 vegetarian Thanksgiving collections. Or, The Times Magazine offers additional recipes for the semi-vegan that it bills as both interesting and not challenging. While the class is enjoying the feast, students can take turns explaining what ingredients and methods were used to create their items.

The Ethics of Eating Meat: Earlier this year, The Times’s Ethicist ran a contest, “Tell Us Why It’s Ethical to Eat Meat.” We mirrored it on The Learning Network by asking as a Student Opinion question: Is it ethical to eat meat? Have students read both the adult comments on the Ethicist piece, as well as the winning essays, and some student comments for or against eating meat, then have a class discussion or invite them to post their own thoughts on the issue on our blog.

Research Writing: Students investigate claims on whether vegetarianism benefits the environment or not. Or they can take the debate one step further, and explore whether veganism is good for everyone. Even if one agrees with the premise that it’s good for us or the planet, what are the practical challenges of going vegan? Then, after reading a variety of opinions and articles on the subject, students can write an essay summarizing their findings, or make an argument in favor of one side or the other.

Common Core ELA Anchor Standards, 6-12:

Reading

1. Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.

Speaking and Listening

1. Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.

4. Present information, findings, and supporting evidence such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning and the organization, development, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.

McREL Standards

Science

6. Understands relationships among organisms and their physical environment

Mathematics

1. Uses a variety of strategies in the problem-solving process

3. Uses basic and advanced procedures while performing the processes of computation