Reminded me of a comment by Linus Torvalds [1]: Meat is kind of important to people. Young kids in particular need a lot of varied nutrients, and a balanced di

Reminded me of a comment by Linus Torvalds [1]: Meat is kind of important to people. Young kids in particular need a lot of varied nutrients, and a balanced diet - with meat - is likely to be way healthier than the alternatives. Quite frankly, being vegetarian is like being religious: you should let the kid decide on his/her own when they are grown up and can make that choice on their own. Plus by then they've done most of their development, so your choice won't mess them up for the rest of their lives. Humans are designed to be omnivores. Don't play games with your kids nutrition. Eating meat is not at all unnatural. It's generally considered to be one of the main reasons humans could afford to evolve a larger brain - because meat is denser in nutrients than vegetarian diets. Yes, you can do a healthy vegetarian diet (and even a vegan one, although at that point you really are crazy - there's no substitute for milk), but it is certainly not at all a trivial matter. It's much saner to just say "eating meat is natural". Once you're fully grown, it's a different matter. Quite frankly, anybody who tells their kids to "don't eat meat" is kind of crazy. You're much better off telling them to not drink sodas, avoid overly processed foods etc. And yeah, I care a hell of a lot more about my kids health than I care about cows or even pigs. Deal with it. [1] http://torvalds-family.blogspot.com/2010/05/pig-lovers-oath.html?showComment=1274201279556#c6797364674668189582 http://torvalds-family.blogspot.com/2010/05/pig-lovers-oath....