Saint Paul in his First Letter to the Corinthians reminds readers that the body is a "temple of the Holy Spirit" in this Sunday's second reading. Apparently a growing number of teens--at least one in 20 in a recent survey--have decided that meat does not belong in the temple of their own bodies and have become vegetarian. Some attribute the rising popularity of the practice to graphic online videos on YouTube of animals being slaughtered for meat.

According to a survey from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), about 367,000 teens, or one in 20, follow a diet that is either vegetarian or vegan. Vegetarian diets exclude meat, but the name is sometimes loosely applied. Some self-described vegetarians eat fish or poultry on occasion. Vegans cut out animal products of any kind, including eggs and dairy products.

Other surveys suggest the rate could be four to six times as high among older teens who have more control over what they eat than younger teens do.

Anecdotally, adolescent vegetarianism seems to be rising in part due to YouTube animal slaughter videos that shock the developing sensibilities of many U.S. children. But there isn't enough long-term data to prove that, according to government researchers.

Information on children's diet habits in the CDC survey was gleaned from about 9,000 parents and other adults speaking on behalf of those under 18. "I don't think we've done a good job of counting the number of vegetarian youth, but I think this is reasonable," Amy Lanou, a nutrition scientist at the University of North Carolina-Asheville, said of the government estimate. She works with the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a vegan advocacy group.

Vegetarians say it's animal welfare, not health, that most often causes kids to stop eating meat. "Compassion for animals is the major, major reason," said Richard Schwartz, president of Jewish Vegetarians of North America, an organization with a newsletter mailing list of about 800. "When kids find out the things they are eating are living animals-and if they have a pet . . . ."

Source: An article by Mike Stobbe for the Associated Press