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Will kids in their late teens and early 20s who have only recently cut the knot keep eating the healthy, balanced meals prescribed by parents? Will they cave in completely to their cravings for junk food, or join the growing legion of vegetarians and vegans who, for any number of reasons, are turning theirbacks on meat and animal products?
Because many baby-boomer parents include meat in a well-rounded diet, it's likely a lot of Gen Xer kids will inherit omnivorous tendencies from mom and dad.
Still other young men and women will choose the junk food diet they were denied at home - and add to the worries of campus dietitians who fear students rely too heavily on caffeine and nutritionally- bankrupt fast foods to get them through long days and nights of studying, especially at exam time.
But perhaps the most significant trend among Gen Xers is the new interest in vegetarianism and its stricter cousin, veganism, which forbids all animal food or dairy products in a diet. Some suggest these young people are influenced by vegetarian artists such as k.d. lang, Sarah McLachlan, Jane Siberry and Bruce Cockburn.