Call me selfish, but I'm oh-so-happy my youngest son is eating meat again. For two years he was a pescatarian, which made my job cooking meals far more difficult. It was hard enough working around my own dietary restrictions and not forcing he and his brother to always eat like me. Add someone else's choice to eat selectively into the mix and it was like a damn restaurant in my kitchen.
His reasoning for the resistance to eating meat was moral, which I respect. His choice to let go of some of his hard lines on that morality came from a mix of not achieving his physical goals and finding he was getting sick more often. As a child who was raised a meat-eater, I don't believe he was diligent enough or prepared enough to succeed long-term with this lifestyle choice. And yes, selfishly I am relieved.
My household has one person who can eat damn near everything, one who is allergic to and intolerant of several foods, and one who wrestles with the ugliness of how we get beef, pork, and poultry. I get where he was coming from, but from a busy, working mother's perspective, I just didn't have the time to consistently shop, prep and cook three different meals all the time. Even with his help, it never got easier. When you don't abstain from meat in your diet, it is quite difficult to make certain you're incorporating enough alternative sources of protein and nutrients in your child's diet.
I realize that people manage to do this all the time. They have members of their families with allergies and have to follow strict protocol when preparing everyone's food in order to avoid cross-contamination. For me it was just too much. My own ridiculous food issues keep me on my toes, so having to be even more focused on someone else's — yes, even my child's just became too challenging. I imagine if his health was dependent on it, I'd have figured out some way to make it work, but when a pescatarian gets most of their nutrients from foods a gluten intolerant/onion allergic person can't eat - there aren't many options for single entree meals.
We are now suspecting that this same child may have developed an onion allergy like me. He has yet to be tested for it, but all the symptoms are nearly identical to my own. This, in effect, rules out nearly all vegetarian pre-made foods (be they frozen or at a restaurant) if they contain vegetable broth, stock or are braised. Part of me suspects that he understands the difficulties he faced if he continued with his dietary choices if all his food had to be made at home.
I love to cook, but the past two years have taken the enjoyment out of it. Even eating has had little appeal far more often than I could have imagined. Being able to maintain the energy and time allotment needed to cook and prepare everything from scratch and having to get creative with substitutions and alternative ingredients requires more patience, hours in the day and assitance than I have. It isn't as though I'm taking shortcuts, our food is still prepared at home, from scratch more often than not. The ordeal is just less overwhelming when there aren't so many variables to consider.
For over a decade, I have been reading labels, asking what is in a dish, informing waitstaff of my onion allergy, and more recently avoiding gluten. As tough as it has been, I realize there are others who have far more restrictions and the demands of providing sustenance to themselves and their families are constant. I admire and at the same time feel for these people. When your whole enjoyment of life, health and well-being hinges on the food you consume, it is impossible not to obsess over everything you and your loved ones eat. Life shouldn't revolve around the fear that the wrong foods might accidentally be ingested, but sadly in a GMO world, allergies (and serious ones) continue to rise. It's become a more common place thing to understand and be aware of cross-contamination and that, people with restrictive diets aren't just being picky eaters, and as great as that is, the fact that it's necessary is just downright sad. When it comes down to thriving and minimizing physical pain and adverse reactions, I suppose the morality of eating meat is something many of us can't afford to consider.
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