Vegetarians: An Alternate Diet

November is National Vegetarian Awareness Month. With the national epidemic of obesity and the strong connection to the increase of Type II Diabetes, many people are beginning to consider the vegan lifestyle or at least increasing their intake of vegetable.

A vegetarian diet focuses on plants for food. These include fruits, vegetables, dried beans and peas, grains, seeds, and nuts. There is no single type of vegetarian diet. Instead, vegetarian eating patterns usually fall into the following groups: The vegan diet, which excludes all meat and animal products; the lacto vegetarian diet, which includes plant foods plus dairy products; the lacto-ovo vegetarian diet, which includes both dairy products and eggs.

People who follow vegetarian diets can get all the nutrients they need. However, they must be careful to eat a wide variety of foods to meet their nutritional needs. Nutrients vegetarians may need to focus on include protein, iron, calcium, zinc, and vitamin B1.

National statistics indicate that our school age population today is more obese than any previous generation of students. There is also an increase in the incidence of childhood diabetes. The consensus of many experts in the health professions is that student diets include too much junk food and not enough "colored" vegetables (French fries don't count). Of course, lack of exercise is also a factor.

ProQuest model BookCarts that focus on these topics are available for teachers and librarians to copy (see below). These BookCarts provide editor-selected eLibrary Elementary resources and websites that ensure great resources and relevancy. K-8 teachers are always interested in saving valuable classroom and library time while integrating technology into the curriculum.

Traditionally, rolling book carts of appropriate print materials to each classroom was (and still is in some schools) the best way of doing this. Now with eLibrary Elementary BookCarts, the work is easier thanks to a digital equivalent of this strategy.

Pathfinder:

• Click the ProQuest Carts tab
  
  
• Select the Elementary BookCarts folder
  
  
• Scroll to these titles:
  Healthy Food Choices and Junk Food
  Obesity in Children
  
  
• Click the Copy icon next to the titles
  
  
• Return to My Local Carts
  
  
• Edit the BookCart to remove "Copy of" from each title and include yourself as the Author

Each has several examples of essential questions for critical thinking for you to assign to guide student research (teachers should consider adding others). Each has a place for you to include specific student directions relevant to the assignment.

Assign half the class to one topic and the second to the other half. Oral reports of two minutes (or PowerPoint if appropriate) are an excellent way for students to learn presentation skills and share what they have learned with their classmates. Students should use at least two of the resources to answer at least two of the essential questions.