Letters from our readers.(sharing)(Letter to the Editor)

I was heartened to read in Kimberly Lord Stewart's article about school lunches (September 2004, p. 38) that the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine is urging the US Department of Agriculture to include more vegetarian meals on school menus.

When my 13-year-old daughter told me last year that she wanted to go vegan, I panicked--until I did my homework. I soon discovered that kids who switch to a meatless diet have at tremendous advantage--a lower risk of calmer, heart disease, obesity and other health problems that will plague their meat-eating peers as they grow older.

Thanks to my daughter, our entire family is now eating better. We're all including more meatless meals in our diets--and we feel great!

Maura McClure * Virginia Beach, Virginia

I remember taking my brown bag lunch to school every day. My mother would pack a peanut butter sandwich, a piece of fruit, a thermos of juice and an oatmeal cookie. Who would have thought that so many years ago my mother would have been so progressive?

I am pleased to see parents jumping on the bandwagon and making changes in their children's school diets. With childhood obesity and diabetes at an ...