Joanne Roach (00:13)
Hello and welcome to the Food for Kids podcast. I'm Joanne from the Foodies. Today's episode is the second of our series on the theme of helpful information if your child asks to bring someone home for tea who has different dietary requirements than your own family. Back in episode 11 we talked about some tips for hosting a child who is coeliac and today we're talking about having a child for tea who is vegan or plant-based if your family is not. For this I spoke to Paula Hallam from Plant-Based Kids UK who's a dietitian who specialises in helping families who want to raise their kids with few or no animal products in their diet. Paula has 25 years experience as a children's dietitian, working in the NHS for 18 years in a variety of paediatric roles including at Great Ormond Street Hospital. She describes her mission as helping parents raise happy, healthy, plant-powered kids without spending too many hours in the kitchen. She had some great suggestions if your child's friend is veggie or vegan, so without further ado let's go to the interview.
Joanne Roach (01:16)
So Paula you've been working in nutrition for a really long time and I know you've got a specialism about helping people to raise their children plant-based or with less animal products. But I want today's episode really to appeal to parents who do eat animal products in their own house, but who have friends or their children have friends who don't. For those people who don't really know what the difference is between vegetarian, vegan or plant-based, could you just explain what those are and what the differences are?
Paula Hallam (01:44)
Yeah, sure, of course. And I mean, it's totally understandable to get kind of confused about these things, because I think the terms are sort of thrown around interchangeably and they aren't necessarily the same thing. So a vegetarian family is generally a family where they don't eat meat, fish, chicken, but they do usually include dairy products and eggs. some vegetarian families only include eggs and some only include dairy. But generally as a rule, they include both dairy and eggs, but not any other animal products.
And then a vegan family, they avoid all animal products. So as well as the meat, fish, or poultry, they don't include dairy products or eggs either as well as things like honey or so anything that's a byproduct of animals. And when we talk about people who identify as vegan, that tends to include their whole lifestyle. So it's the diet and the things that they eat, but then it might also include other things in terms of ethics and philosophy around their lifestyle.
And then the term plant-based is more a kind of a general term and can include both vegan and vegetarian. And some people might describe themselves as plant-based or mainly plant-based, even if they include a small amount, of animal products, on occasion. So someone might say that they're plant-based or mainly plant-based, but maybe when they are going out to eat, they might have the odd bit of animal products, but their diet as a whole is mainly from plant foods. So it's really worth checking with the family, where they sit in between that. So it might be that on occasion, they are happy for the children to have the odd amount of animal products included in their diet. But on the other hand, it might be a 100 % plant-based family or vegan family where they really don't include any animal products at all.
Joanne Roach (03:40)
Really, it's about speaking to the person about what that label means to that individual person.
Paula Hallam (03:44)
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I think it's what it means for that particular family, definitely.
Joanne Roach (03:50)
Okay, so if you're a parent whose child has said, can my friend come home for tea, and I think they're vegan or I think they're plant based, I think with vegetarian people have got a better idea, you know, they can kind of go with the cheese pizza, and they've got a rough idea what to do with that. But if they said they're vegan or plant based, what as the parent of a plant based child would be the ideal scenario for you when somebody is inviting your child over for tea?
Paula Hallam (04:12)
Yeah, so I think the first thing is obviously to try and talk to that parent beforehand. Like you might do for a child who might have food allergies or certain preferences, just, okay, what sort of things would your child be comfortable, do we need to be in terms of reading the label so really that is the first thing just to open up that communication and if I was a plant-based parent and my child was going on a playdate with another child I would offer to send something first of all. I would say, would it be easier if I just sent something along with my child or would you like to tell me what you were thinking of making? Then we can maybe talk about that and see if we can come up with something that would be easy for you to make and that the kids would enjoy.
Joanne Roach (05:05)
So from that side you could offer that if you're the person inviting the person around you could do the opposite of that you could say is it alright if I tell you what I was thinking of giving them and you can tell me whether it's the right thing.
Paula Hallam (05:16)
Yeah, exactly, exactly. I think that's great as well saying, this is what I was thinking, Do you think that's okay? Is that something familiar for your child? And is that gonna be fun and comfortable for them? Because obviously a play date, a visit at a friend's house is meant to be fun and everything. You wanna make sure that the children feel comfortable,
Joanne Roach (05:36)
What are some great ideas for tea if you're inviting a child over who let's just say fairly strictly vegan so that you are gonna be reading the labels, you've got to be really careful. What are some ideas for dinners that are fairly foolproof?
Paula Hallam (05:45)
Something fairly foolproof and fairly easy and usually most children are familiar with a sort of Bolognese type of meal and most children really like pasta. So some kind of pasta like a spaghetti or some other kind of dried pasta, not a fresh pasta because they tend to have egg in them. And then, you know, like a lentil Bolognese can be something that's really familiar and easy to make. If someone's used to making Bolognese with like mince, for example, it's just a case of kind of substituting the mince for some lentils. You could also use something like a soya mince or like a Quorn mince, which is made from a mycoprotein, which is mushroom protein. So it of looks familiar and looks like a beef type mince, which the other children might be familiar with and you could just substitute that mince. So I think something like that where there's kind of an easy swap like that and most children would be familiar with that type of thing, that would be a great option. Something where kids could get a little bit involved with making if you wanted to do like a little DIY station for kids. Something like wraps with different toppings can be a great option. So if there are quite a few children, they may be siblings of the family there as well. you can have some delicious, like spicy black beans and then different toppings, like some guacamole and salsa and different sort of veggies, some sweet corn maybe to put on.
And then you could also have some chicken or some mince or something there if one of the other children did want to make up one like that. So that could make the children feel included and sort of involved in the meal. And you can have lots of different bowls and it makes it quite colourful as well and quite fun for them to sort of put their meal together themselves.
Joanne Roach (07:38)
I really like that idea because especially when you're thinking about younger children where actually your own children might have quite a limited palette too, you could do like Quorn nuggets and regular chicken nuggets but then all the other toppings be everybody has the same
Paula Hallam (07:39)
I think meals where you can do that DIY build your own is really great because it just helps everyone feel included. There's something for everyone there. Yeah, some children might be quite selective or have a fairly limited diet and there's still, some options for them. You can include different sides or different like little dips So it just means that everyone's included. I love those family style meals where you've got sort of lots of different bowls and options for children to choose and then they build their own. And it builds their confidence and autonomy around food as well so that they have that little bit of choice in terms of what they can put on their own plate.
Joanne Roach (08:33)
I think that's a great idea because I think one of the things that's frightening about going to somebody else's parents' house is not knowing if you're going to want to eat what they put in front of you.
Paula Hallam (08:40)
Yeah, of course, it can be quite sort of anxiety, provoking for children, they're going to, you know, maybe a new house that they haven't been to before. There's lots of new things, their new environment, and then not sure about the food, And, you know, if parents have spoken before, you can make sure that there's at least a few sides or something that that child will want to eat, even if they're just having the wrap with maybe some cheese if they're a vegetarian family or like a plant-based cheese or like some hummus. So you've got some sides there that they can make up something that is satisfying and they feel comfortable with.
Joanne Roach (09:18)
I understand you've got like a membership that's coming out at the moment. You want to tell us a bit about that?
Paula Hallam (09:22)
Yeah, sure, that's right, Jo. So yeah, I just launched a couple of weeks ago a membership. It's called the Plant-Powered Families Hub. And essentially it is a community for families who would like to raise their children plant-based. So it's for children one to two and above, just because I don't cover weaning, but can cover any other age after that.
And we have a private Facebook group where we can chat and ask questions. do weekly Q &A's then there's a whole load of weekly meal plans with shopping lists. Cause that huge mental load of shopping and thinking about what to make for the kids. And then there's a whole load of resources. And then I've also got a bank of master classes, which every month there'll be a new one added. I've got four available in there for everyone at the moment. one about plant-based milks, because I get so many questions about which ones are best, how do I choose, And then I've got another masterclass on ultra-processed foods, what do we actually mean by ultra processed foods? Are they all bad? Do we have to avoid all of them? And then I've got another masterclass on family style meals. So what we were talking about now just how that can work in a family and how beneficial it can be And then I've also got one on meal planning, how to go about that and making the meals balanced. So yeah, if anyone's interested, I'd be really, really happy to see you there and welcome you into the hub. The link is on my website if anyone wants to have a look.
Joanne Roach (10:52)
Fantastic so I'll put the links in the show notes.
Joanne Roach (10:58)
I hope you found that chat interesting. I think the advice to ask their parent where they draw their own lines is the critical thing. If they're plant-based that could be more or less flexible, whereas veganism tends to be more strict and include things like honey, as well as some food colourings and additives. For vegetarians too, lot of sweets like marshmallows and gummies contain gelatin, which is usually from pigs or cows. So again, that's a question to ask about where they draw their own line so you can try and follow the same. The vegetarian society and vegan society symbols are great on packaging for helping you know whether something meets their standards, but asking the other parent about what you have in mind is a great way forward.
I really liked a lot of the meal suggestions from Paula because I think they're really fun and inclusive and also manage that double whammy of helping children to feel included and in control of their own eating, which is generally good advice whether they're plant-based or not. Those suggestions for how to accommodate a vegetarian or vegan coming to tea are the same things that you do if you have a mix of preferences in your own family. My family is a mix of plant-based and omnivore and those ideas of making the same things but swapping in a plant protein works really well for mixed families too because you're still cooking one meal with some variation that includes everyone.
At the time of recording this, Paula's membership is quite new and it sounds really practical, especially with the balanced done for you meal plans. So if you're interested in that, head over to the show notes where I'll put links to Paula's site and her socials. But she is PlantBasedKids.uk on Instagram, so go over and give her a follow on there.
I'll be back on Monday with another episode and I hope to see you then, whether you're omnivore, veggie, vegan or something else entirely and in the meantime, as always, happy eating.
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