‘Just the meat for me please’ Sunday Lunch issue ’

Its not going to kill him to eat like a normal human for one meal, plus I think it's good for young men to learn that sometimes they are the ones than have to bend, rather than expecting the world to cater to them

Constantly trying to improve definitely involves vanity.

Obsessing over protein is vanity. Obsessing over the gym is vanity.
Eating a healthy diet and getting regular exercise is not the same as obsessing.

I agree. His diet, assuming every meal is like this, is lacking in everything except calories, fat and protein. I don't know what his goals are, but unless he is built like the Hulk and training for an ultra marathon alongside his bodybuilding, or his goal is to become fat and constipated, he is not going to achieve it with his current diet.

Either way, it is the height of cheeky fuckery to expect someone who has generously offered to host you to provide you with an entire animal to eat. He's bringing his own avocado; he can bring his own cooked chicken.

This is good to know...will do this for Christmas as I'm feeding 7 and was a bit concerned about oven room! Thanks for the tip 👌

Starch and grains are not the only sources of fibre; you can eat limited carbs and still get enough fibre.

I quite agree. I also limit my (starchy) carbs.

but as you said: broccoli contains carbs as well. All vegetables and fruits do…. And whilst the carbs may not be essential, vegetables are a part of any healthy diet. A diet based exclusively on animal proteins will not be healthy longterm, whatever OP‘s niece’s boyfriend may be thinking.

Yes, but you've described your diet, @Frequency, and you are making sure you eat a good amount of vegetables and fruit. This lad is not proposing to eat any leafy green veg at this meal at all, just some sliced avocado. Environmentally his diet sounds disastrous, btw!

My macro tracker app counts fibre, I'm getting 107% of my daily fibre needs today.

Starch and grains are not the only sources of fibre; you can eat limited carbs and still get enough fibre.

Sounds delicious

FYI, I tend not to make Yorkshire pudding on the day, as they can be a bit hit and miss / unpredictable. But home made YP freeze beautifully. I make in advance, freeze them. On the day defrost for a few hours and put them in oven for 5 mins to crisp up

To be fair to him he’s not asked it’s his mil to be causing a fuss. If he’s in his 20s he’ll probably be mortified. His plan was probably just to say hi (meeting gf extended family for first time) eat some lunch without everyone staring at his plate - he could easily have just had his portion of meat and a tiny bit of veg on plate and no one any the wiser.
Then at 3.30pm on way home if he was genuinely hungry or his gym macros messed up stop at supermarket buy a cooked chicken (probably reduced as about to close) and eat it. No fuss or drama.

I’m shocked that as a ‘gym bunny’ he thinks it’s healthy to just eat lots of meat and skip the veg…

carbs aren’t the enemy.

chicken and other animal based proteins do however lack fibre…

If Im going to somebody's house for the first or subsequent time I would not have the gall to expect a whole chicken (or a massive pile of boiled eggs in my case being vegetarian) I'd just eat what Im given. How bloody rude.

Perhaps it might be worth starting a new thread focused on the pros and cons of fitness based diets. You’d probably get a broader range of views there.

This thread’s really about whether it’s reasonable to expect a host to cater for a dietary choice made for fitness or physique goals rather than ethical, religious or medical reasons. You could argue there’s some overlap with weight loss diets, but in those cases there’s usually no extra burden on the host. Here, it’s been suggested that the host should provide an additional chicken to support someone’s training goals. Given that context, it’s natural that replies will lean a certain way.

O level Biology is a long way in my past, but surely glucose, which is a carbohydrate, is absolutely essential in the body as our fuel source, transported round the body in the blood cells, levels controlled by insulin. I know we can get glucose from protein and fat but eating complex carbohydrates is an easily digestible way to get it, and for most people easier and cheaper than eating huge amounts of meat, with the added benefit that if we eat wholegrain foods, pulses, raw fruit and veg etc we get the soluble and insoluble fibre that keeps the bowels in good order, helps deal with harmful cholesterol and gets toxins out of the body much more quickly.

A professional sportsperson came to my in-laws’ family dinner as a guest recently. I assume he has an extremely strict diet to be able to compete professionally. Not one demand was made to the host about what he was going to eat. Because he and his girlfriend have basic manners.

He's a guest and bloody rude. I'd ignore any special requests. If they arrive with their own meal in a plastic box,so much the better. You needn't ask them again. Sauce!

That's a fair question. The answer is that in that sport you are competing to improve your own time rather than against other people - so for example he wouldn't care if he finished 10th or 100th, but he would care about his times getting quicker. Is that vanity? I don't think so, if you're not constantly trying to improve, you're probably not a big believer in competitive sport and the training that goes with it

Really sorry if someone up-thread already posted this but ... I'll just leave this here. 😂

There are carbs in vegetables though? Obviously carrots etc but broccoli has carbs as do tomatoes. Mainly fibre rather than starch

Protein has essential amino acids. There is no such thing as an essential carbohydrate.

Cheeky fucker

And possibly thyroid issues. Carbs are essential for the manufacture of thyroid hormones.

But research indicates increased risk of bowel cancer from both red meat and processed meat.

Bowel cancer rates have increased dramatically. Is there a blue zone of longevity anywhere in the world where the secret is eating massive quantities of animal product? I fear for the bowels and kidneys of people who eat this way. I think it's a ticking time bomb of disease.