I have learned in my first 16,000 or so days of existence that major life decisions are usually major. One I have made in stages over the past few years is going to a plant-based diet. This is the second time I have done this. The first time was for three months in high school. You may snicker at my lack of resolve back in the 80s, but lets face it, three months when you are sixteen is that same is twenty years when you are forty.
Kim has never been a big carnivore. It was relatively easy for her to give up eating meat. The last straw for her was jamming her hand into the rectal region of a chicken while dressing it for Thanksgiving. After said poultry colonoscopy, she and I decided plant-based was the way to go.
I was raised on meat. Steak, hamburger, chicken, fish- if it breathed, we ate it at home. We decided to go plant-based in stages as I said. No more red meat. Then a few years later, no more chicken. Then "adios pescado" as well. This has worked well for me. What really got me convinced that I should stop eating meat was watching my father die from congestive heart failure. I wanted to better my odds of not going the same route. It's not pleasant.
Now, as for the kids, Carter ate some chicken at daycare and fish at home a few years ago. Reid has never eaten meat, as far as I know. I realize that we are setting them on a lonely and difficult path, but that's how it's going to be until they choose otherwise. Yes I realize they may get knocked around the schoolyard a bit for having tofurkey sandwiches for lunch slathered in nayonaise.
Recently, as I was eating my vegetable medley at Cracker Barrel, Carter told Kim that she would eat meat when she got older. Kim replied "Not in my house you won't!" I felt that it would be fitting as a newly minted full-time dad to give my two cents. Actually, anyone who knows me is aware that I always give my two cents whether asked for or not. I took a more scientific approach to the subject:
"Now Carter, with the family history of coronary artery disease and the occlusions that result from too much cholesterol, thus possibly necessitating the insertion of stents, bypass surgery, treatment for myocardial ischemia or the resultant distress of suffering an infarction, I suggest that you refrain from ingesting too much meat should you consider no longer following a plant-based diet."
She proceeded to throw a green bean at me.
I am very torn on this subject. I eat meat and my cholesterol is normal. My friend who is slim and eats little meat, if any, has to take cholesterol medicine. So my concern involves the drugs that are used in these animals. Steroids especially are worrisome for me. When I buy hamburger for example, I buy the leanest and it has to be drug free.
ReplyDeleteMy mother once had a child in her home child care that was vegetarian. The mother would pack the child's lunch every day. Over the couple of years she had this little boy the mother gained atleast a hundred pounds. I was a teenager and did some baby sitting for them. There was no meat in the house, but it was junk food and sweets galore. My mother, who would have described them as a "bunch of hippies", said that she was using sugar to get the energy she wasn't getting if she just ate some meat. O_o
Back to the kid. I was there a few times during lunch time when other kids would have birthday parties. At the time I think Burger King had little mini burgers and the parents would get those as a treat for the kids. The little boy would sit down and watch all the other kids get the burgers and burst into tears. Mom would give him a burger (she told his parents when this happened and they were OK with it). Once my boyfriend was there helping and this happened. Scared the crap out of him. He started shoving the burgers at the boy, who was thrilled.
So if Carter decides to snap into a Slim Jim, don't be too hard on her.
True- it's her body and her decision, just want her to decide to do what she wants because it's her choice and not just to spite us!
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