Growing up veg - snapshots - vegetarian - Brief Article

Better Nutrition, Sept, 2002 by Amanda Jacobson

Although Lucie and Caty Sargent have never tasted fried chicken, tuna salad or roast turkey, they have probably eaten a more diverse diet than most kids their age.

The sisters were raised vegetarian by their mother Susan Belsinger, an herbalist and cook who has practiced a vegetarian diet for 31 years.

The girls and their mother agree that their vegetarian lifestyle affords them a greater variety of fare than the diets of their meat-eating friends.

The girls' friends always have adventures in eating when they visit Belsinger's kitchen. "And kids come to dinner and find flowers and herbs in their salads," Belsinger says. "There are lots of kids who've never eaten eggplant. Some of them ask, `When I come back, will you make this for me again?'"

"I'm glad I don't eat red meat, fish or chicken. There are so many other foods and choices," says Lucie, who is a passionate vegetarian. "Most of my friends have never heard of some of the the foods that I eat."

Life without meat evokes a slew of questions from friends and parents.

"My friends always ask me how I can live without meat," says Gaty.

"Most mothers are amazed or curious," Belsinger says. "They want to know what we eat and how we eat."

One mother made her first trip to the local health food store after talking about her eating habits with one of the girls. The parents of the girls' friends sometimes worry about what to feed the young vegetarians, but going to a friend's house where roast beef is the main course doesn't daunt Lucy and Caty.

"If they go to a cookout, they take a veggie burger in their backpack. It's not fun to go somewhere and be hungry, so we think about that kind of thing in advance," says Belsinger.

Eating well comes naturally for the sisters, who have practiced vegetarianism since birth.

Says Lucie, "I don't feel like I have to plan every meal in advance to make sure I'm getting enough healthy nutrients because that's how my mom brought me up--to have a little bit of everything at each meal or at least each day."

While Caty shines in things like basketball and lacrosse, Belsinger says her oldest daughter seems to be inclined toward the culinary arts. Lucie enjoys cooking when Mom is away and helps teach cooking classes at L'Academie De Cuisine in their hometown of Bethesda, Maryland.

Belsinger says their vegetarian lifestyle keeps the girls healthier and makes them more aware of where their food comes from.

"From the time they were babies, they were out in the garden crawling around eating dirt. That's how they grew up," explains Belsinger. "We try to eat things from the earth that we grow. Basically, we eat organic whenever we can."