"You're crazy!" Jennifer told her best friend Sarah. "You want us to become vegetarians?" Sarah was pretty committed to the idea and already knew a lot about being a vegetarian. She wanted Jennifer to try being a vegetarian with her. But even though Jennifer had not been eating red meat for the past six months, she didn't think she was ready to quit eating all kinds of meat.

• Red meat: Usually beef or pork.

Jennifer was a slim, dark-haired honors student who had just finished her sophomore year in high school. She liked to think she was pretty healthy and enjoyed being in track, running the 400 and the mile. She was usually very busy in the summer working, roller-blading, and swimming. But this summer, Jennifer was also spending a lot of time with Sarah in the public library looking up lots of articles in teen magazines about being a vegetarian.

At first when Sarah asked Jennifer to be a vegetarian with her, Jennifer said "No way!" It probably wouldn't even have occurred to Jennifer if Sarah hadn't suggested it. But then Jennifer started to think more seriously about the pros and cons for being a vegetarian herself.

She thought it might be a good idea to be a vegetarian for health reasons, but mostly because even though she thought animals were put on the earth for people to eat, she didn't want to kill them or have anybody else kill them. She was concerned that sometimes there might be abuse in the way people took care of animals and how they were killed so the meat could be processed.

Jennifer lived with her mom out in the country and loved taking care of their two horses and her dog. One day during the summer she visited a nearby farm and saw the chicken and turkey coops. It seemed so gross, with tons of chickens or turkeys in the coops, and feces everywhere. Jennifer wondered "I eat these animals? I could get really sick if they aren't cooked well enough."

Jennifer and Sarah read a lot that summer about how to be a vegetarian and what kinds of vegetarians there are (Exhibit A: Seventeen Magazine Article). Jennifer thought it would be healthier to be a vegetarian because she found out from her articles that vegetarians are less likely to get heart disease or be obese. But she also found out from her reading that she needed to be careful to get plenty of iron and calcium.

• Calcium (mineral): The principal function of calcium is as structural material in bones and teeth, and for cells to conduct their specialized functions such as cell division, secretion, and movement.
• Iron (trace mineral): The principal functions of iron are for transport of oxygen in hemoglobin and its involvement in oxidation-reduction reactions in metabolism.

She didn't quite know what to think about protein. She would probably have to watch it all the time to make sure she got enough, but she knew there were cookbooks that could help her.

• Protein: The importance of protein in the diet is primarily as a source of amino acids. Amino acids are used for protein synthesis. Structural components of the cell, antibodies, hormones and enzymes are proteins.

She wondered what her mom would say if she told her she wanted to be a vegetarian. Her mom was a big red meat eater. Would she say that Jennifer had to make her own meals, or would she accept Jennifer's decision and help her? She considered being a lacto-ovo vegetarian because it would be too hard to be a vegan living at home with her mom. It would be hard not to eat eggs and milk because her mom prepared most of her meals at home and always bought eggs and milk.

She wondered how she could eat like a vegetarian in the school cafeteria or when she went out to eat with her friends. What would her relatives in Colorado think when she showed up for Thanksgiving dinner and couldn't eat turkey? Could she handle not eating any meat? She knew that she didn't want to have animals killed, especially bigger animals like cows and pigs. But she liked eating some kinds of meat like chicken and turkey because they weren't considered "red meat," and they tasted good sometimes.

After reading about vegetarianism during the summer, Sarah suggested that they try it, and if Jennifer didn't like it, she could always quit after a month. Jennifer really wanted to help Sarah because she was her best friend and they always did stuff together.

The more Jennifer read, the more she wanted to do it, but there was one thing holding her back: Could she really do it?