Obviously people can live their whole lives vegetarian -- Hindus aren't supposed to eat meat, right? That's a lot of people, even given the range of adherence to religious dietary laws in the real world.

I actually had a great mixed-group dining experience out of town with friends recently. At least one person in the group is vegetarian, and our meals were a mix of no-meat and two options -- most of us omnivores ate at least some of the veggie options, because they were delish!

Did dcp break the board, or was that me?

'Twas I.

What I meant to post was:

I thought a dog already went to space.

Laika

Oh, and my real point in my earlier post was that I don't see any real reason for parents to feed their kids meat if they're vegetarians.

So what does a 4 year old ask when he finds out I met astronauts? Do astronauts FART? cue screaming giggles.

Farts are purple, by the way.

Child nutrition: the nephew is a human garbage disposal. The boy loves drinking the juice from canned green beans and carrots. Blearg. Well, at least he didn't inherit his mother's lack of adventure when it comes to food. She's strict meat and potatoes (and won't try anything different.) He had alligator and frog legs at his insistence last week. He'd probably love to go to ita's scary seafood place.

I get vegetarianism. I get veganism. I even get trying to raise your kid with the dieatary restrictions you'd prefer. I don't get the urge to forego all cooking or application of heat to your food.

Some foods are good raw. But an entire diet of raw food is strange and alien to me.

Also, would sushi count as raw food? I mean, it's raw, right?

Oh, and my real point in my earlier post was that I don't see any real reason for parents to feed their kids meat if they're vegetarians.

Yeah, this. Most veg parents I know don't feed meat at home (in large part because veg is the normal household diet, regardless of whether it's for health or philosophical reasons), but assume that the kids will try it out at some point and assume that they'll eventually make their own decision later in life.

He had alligator and frog legs at his insistence last week.

My 10-y.o. nephew has finally grown out of his many-year-long refusal to eat anything but croutons dipped in ranch dressing, and has discovered the coolness of various foods. When they were down in Florida for spring break, he asked if they could go to the Japanese grill restaurant at Epcot--apparently, he had been to a birthday party at a similar restaurant in NJ and loved it.

The boy loves drinking the juice from canned green beans

I do that. Salty green beany deliciousness. Also, canned beet juice. Yum.