Karen writes: Vegetarian
I am a carnivore. I have over the years had various 'goes' at being a vegetarian, but having usually taken the easiest route I tended to make my health worse rather than better. I also came to terms with the fact that not having had the moral or philosophical drive to permanently swap such cultural treasures as bacon, roast beef, and cottage pie for tofu and lentils meant that the non-meat eating discipline was never likely to become a way of life for me.
My most recent effort was a wee while ago now, spurred on by research suggesting that a mainly vegetarian diet has advantages for health generally and...bonus...sporting performance. I purchased a vegetarian cookbook in a secondhand shop and sat in the car while waiting for an appointment, eagerly perusing the contents for irresistible recipes for meals to put on the family table to start our new healthier life. Sadly there wasn't anything irresistible, there wasn't anything uncomplicated, there wasn't anything which didn't have a majority of ingredients which I don't hold in the kitchen cupboards. We had mince for dinner that night.
Enter 9 yo daughter. A few days ago she announced that she wanted to be vegetarian. I asked her why and she said "because it's mean to animals". YES I thought, good for you kid and I gleefully totted up the potential benefits for the rest of us, reasoning that having a strong (sort of) moral stance in the family might be just enough to generate a change in all of our eating habits! We had a talk about the minor problem of her not actually liking vegetables (I don't either, I force the things in because I should)..that would obviously have to change. We talked about the importance of getting enough of particular nutrients and that meat was the easiest option to get these but we could add...shock horror...beans and pulses and lentils and things. I also negotiated a compromise, I wasn't keen on the idea of strict veganism at this point and would like her to continue to have dairy and eggs, and still have 2 meat meals a week in the short term to see how things go.
The other night the whanau had chicken and the vegetarian reminded us that she had already had a meat meal this week, so she had scrambled eggs. She ate everything on her plate which included a mountain of spinach/zuchini/carrot which would normally have had to be forced in with bribery at the very least. She has since been at school camp, I wonder if she announced her new eating preference to them, or whether she forced down a last few sausages. When she comes home tonight will she still think being carnivorous is mean to animals, or will she think being vegeterian is meaner to her?
I sincerely hope the former, and armed with some practical information from one of the Gardens4Health team at work I really like the idea of exploring this topic further with our big girl.
My most recent effort was a wee while ago now, spurred on by research suggesting that a mainly vegetarian diet has advantages for health generally and...bonus...sporting performance. I purchased a vegetarian cookbook in a secondhand shop and sat in the car while waiting for an appointment, eagerly perusing the contents for irresistible recipes for meals to put on the family table to start our new healthier life. Sadly there wasn't anything irresistible, there wasn't anything uncomplicated, there wasn't anything which didn't have a majority of ingredients which I don't hold in the kitchen cupboards. We had mince for dinner that night.
Enter 9 yo daughter. A few days ago she announced that she wanted to be vegetarian. I asked her why and she said "because it's mean to animals". YES I thought, good for you kid and I gleefully totted up the potential benefits for the rest of us, reasoning that having a strong (sort of) moral stance in the family might be just enough to generate a change in all of our eating habits! We had a talk about the minor problem of her not actually liking vegetables (I don't either, I force the things in because I should)..that would obviously have to change. We talked about the importance of getting enough of particular nutrients and that meat was the easiest option to get these but we could add...shock horror...beans and pulses and lentils and things. I also negotiated a compromise, I wasn't keen on the idea of strict veganism at this point and would like her to continue to have dairy and eggs, and still have 2 meat meals a week in the short term to see how things go.
The other night the whanau had chicken and the vegetarian reminded us that she had already had a meat meal this week, so she had scrambled eggs. She ate everything on her plate which included a mountain of spinach/zuchini/carrot which would normally have had to be forced in with bribery at the very least. She has since been at school camp, I wonder if she announced her new eating preference to them, or whether she forced down a last few sausages. When she comes home tonight will she still think being carnivorous is mean to animals, or will she think being vegeterian is meaner to her?
I sincerely hope the former, and armed with some practical information from one of the Gardens4Health team at work I really like the idea of exploring this topic further with our big girl.
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