To be bothered by DH's new "food militancy"??? He's turned vegan and gone a bit nuts really.

[MrsMushroom]

He's always been into healthy eating and working out...it's part of his personality. Fine.

But...a friend of his (big into uncovering government plots and all that...lizard people you know)

Well this friend sent DH a copy of something called The China Study which is a big expose on our food chain etc.

All this happened BEFORE the horse meat thing.

DH is now vegan. He's constantly asking me to read the report...telling me things like "When meat protein mixes with milk protein that is what causes some cancers"

And the latest is that cheap peanut butter has mold in it...which causes cancer.

So we can only buy organic.

He won't eat any processed foods...we hardly have any anway! As a family we didn't eat a lot of meat...one roast chicken a week which we got 3 meals out of...and maybe a bit of bacon.

That was it...no red meat really as we're on a small budget.

I'm frigging SICK of hearing it all!

he's now on Skype with his paranoid mate and they're discussing the evils of that fake meat...what's it called...you know soy stuff.

I cooked a chicken yestersay which I ate with the DDs...he came in from work and asked me to cover the chicken up...I suspect because he was tempted.

AIBU to be bored and a bit annoyed?

[StitchAteMySleep]

The China Study is an interesting read and the author does say to not go overboard e.g if a food has some chicken stock or fish sauce in it eating it is not a problem.

It is IMO quite natural to share information that is in your family's best interest with them, that shows that you care. It is also normal to be enthusiastic about a new interest and want to talk about it with your partner.

To go on and on about it is a bit obsessive, especially if you have told him you are not interested. If he wants to discuss and debate it with his like-minded friend, fine, at least then he is not banging on to you about it.

If he wants you to buy foods of better quality that he eats fine, as long as your budget stretch to it. If not and he wants them, he needs to cut back elsewhere in order to fund it.

The issue here is his need to control to such an extent that he wishes to extend that to you. Tell him in no uncertain terms that you will be eating the foods you like and while you appreciate his concern he needs to respect your choice. If he tells you something new about a food say thank you for the information. If he tells you a second time, say I heard you the first time, I have made my decision I do not wish to discuss it further. Repeat every time he tries to engage you in conversation on the issue and walk away.

[misscph1973]

Thanks, ppeatfruit, I will take a look!

Sorry about the link with no reference to author, ivykaty44 , it's Tim Ferriss, author of The 4 hour work week and The four hour body. He's really good at disecting research.

[multitask]

It shouldn't be hard to eat vegan as a family we do, I'm the only Vegan but we they eat 5 out of 7 maybe more days a week same as me and love it.

I love my way of life but don't preach on it, family know my views.

Instead of isolating him embrace his diet for a week or two make new different foods, cook with spices and get out of the mindset that meat is the center of all meals and you'll all enjoy it! Vegan food is cheap and there are tremendous health benefits. :)

[misscph1973]

My food budget doubled when I started eating meat again! I do miss that aspect and also, I quite like lentils and beans ;)

I always enjoyed cooking vegan, it's fun to use loads of herbs and spices.

[ppeatfruit]

misscph If e.g. you bought an organic turkey then you could make it last a long time by freezing some and mincing, cooking for the freezer when you have the time etc. it's not necessary to have meat that much anyway is it?Take a good B12 supplement and also kelp which provides many of the vitamins and minerals that we need.

[LentilAsAnything]

So many silly comments here. Like because someone minds what they eat, and exercises, they have a disorder, or an obsession. Oh dear, what a sad and sorry state of affairs. Credit to him.

[ppeatfruit]

lentilAsAnything IKEWYM Our doctor who was the best one in the group practice,who I see very rarely indeed, told me that I was one in 35000 who ate for my health and she sighed hugely!!

[ConfusedPixie]

Leave him to it. I hate evangelist eaters of any kind, vegan, paleos, vegetarian, raw foodies, etc. Tell him you'll look into it if you want to, but you don't. Why can't people let other's live? DP would murder me if I tried to get him to become a veggie, he likes bacon bits too much

I'm a vegetarian. DP isn't. He eats mostly veggie but the only thing I ask is that he warn me if he's cooking bacon or fish so that I can leave the room! The smell of both makes me feel queasy. We lived with two vegans and their 2yo for three/four months at one point. They had the most boring diet I've ever seen. Pasta, ketchup, tofu sausage and peas. Every. Single. Night. The Mum wondered if he was getting all of the right nutrients. I tried to explain to her that he needed a more varied diet but she didn't really get it. She also insisted that the Dad take up veganism when he moved over here or he couldn't be with her and their son

I can't find the China Study for free anywhere though Only something from the Four Hour Work Week guy stating it's a bunch of tosh.

[veganvenelope]

'he should be ashamed and embarrassed of being this gullible, and so ignorant about science.

he is a member of a species which is designed to be omnivorous. If he wants to eat differently he needs to ensure that he gets the right nutrients. Without using food supplements which are not 'natural'. Let him get on with it as long as he cooks his own food. If the sight of a chicken upsets him, he needs to grow up.'

specialsubject, I don't say this lightly, you should be ashamed of how deeply, deeply stupid and ignorant you sound. Your post is the most utterly ignorant and uneducated thing I have ever read on mumsnet. Are you honestly this dense, not to mention uncaring, about most things?

Imagine making a choice about your diet that shows you care about your health, and animal welfare! How shameful. OP, you should be proud of your husband. A vegan diet is one of the healthiest on the planet.

Sadly, as evidenced on this thread, most meat eaters will desperately cling on their 'belief' that humans should eat meat and that the little cows and lambs they eat frolic about in a pretty green field before trotting off to the lovely slaughterhouse where a kind man gently puts a bolt through their head. It's about as real as Santa, but admitting that would mean facing the truth about the absolute horror that goes into the meat and dairy that we consume. Far easier to label vegans freaks and weirdos. Even though you're the ones stuffing dead animals and their produce in your mouths.

Oh, I forgot. We're meant to eat meat, because we always have done. There are lots of things that humans used to do, because it was necessary, that we don't do any more. We don't think it's ok for husbands to rape their wives, or for white people to enslave blacks. We move on, and progress as humans. But some people insist in remaining cavemen, and insisting we 'need' meat. We don't. Educate yourselves.

Some of the worlds healthiest, strongest athletes are vegans. You do not need meat or dairy to be healthy, and it can make you incredibly unhealthy. There is nothing you can't get in a vegan diet, except for vitamin b12 which can be taken in supplement form, and plenty of shit you can get from a meat eating diet that vegans rarely suffer from - heart disease, types of cancer, and other disorders. If people just had the courage to find out where their food actually comes from, and what it's doing to them they'd be far less quick to call vegans, weirdos. But they prefer to sling pathetic insults at the few people who do choose to stick to their principles, and who know that we have absolutely no right as a species to inflict pain and suffering on another species just for our own enjoyment - because, as I said, we have no need to eat meat and dairy.

There is so much you can eat as a vegan, and in the five years I have been one I have never felt so energetic and healthy. I do not miss meat or dairy at all. It incenses me to see the mind blowing ignorance around veganism though.

[veganvenelope]

Confused, are you serious?
'Why can't people let other's live?'

Why can't you let animals live, instead of deciding they should die so you can stuff their chopped up corpses in your gob? I have no problem with how others live their lives, as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else. But as a meat eater you are supporting appalling cruelty and suffering.

[ConfusedPixie]

I am a vegetarian, I stated that in my post

You're contradicting yourself massively there. I think people should let others live, in context to what is being discussed here of course. If they want to eat meat, then so be it.

[ConfusedPixie]

Oh, have you taken offense to me saying that the vegan's I lived with had a boring diet? Because they did, I'm sure even you can see that pasta, tofu sausages, ketchup and peas every night is boring. I didn't say every vegan had a boring diet DP and I eat vegan 4/5 days a week coincidentally enough, we have a very interesting diet if I say so myself!

[ArielThePiraticalMermaid]

veganvenelope there is no use ranting about people educating themselves. Most people just don't care enough, and that's the truth, even if they do know.

[SonOfAradia]

plenty of shit you can get from a meat eating diet that vegans rarely suffer from - heart disease, types of cancer, and other disorders.

The Masai have a diet derived almost exclusively from animal protein (milk and meat from their cattle), yet are very healthy and suffer from very low rates of heart disease, cancer etc.

Things are never as simple as they seem.

[ArielThePiraticalMermaid]

In fact they drink milk mixed with blood.

[SonOfAradia]

Indeed. It's the processed crap we eat that gets us, not the meat.

[claig]

Nothing wrong with looking out for one's health, but unfortunately he has got it wrong.

Give him a copy of the Meat Fix and that will make him understand where he has gone wrong.

www.independent.ie/lifestyle/books-arts/review-food-the-meat-fix-by-john-nicholson-26843253.html

[HecateWhoopass]

re the friend, if there is a possibility of a mental health issue then your husband is doing him a HUGE disservice by buying into it. He's validating it for this man, making his thoughts seem more rational for being shared. If that makes any sense. X agrees with me... We think...

Perhaps your husband should have a chat with this man's wife? See how he's doing?

[claig]

'he's now on Skype with his paranoid mate and they're discussing the evils of that fake meat...what's it called...you know soy stuff.'

He is right about soy, but soy is what they tell you is good for you.

They tell you meat is bad and they want you to reduce your meat consumption. They tell you it will help "save the planet". If his friend is a conspiracy theorist, he will be aware that this is bunkum, and that therefore meat is good.

www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/apr/13/less-meat-prevent-climate-change

[claig]

Ask his friend if he believes in climate change? If he does, then he hasn't got a clue and he needs to start learning the ropes before he believes what they tell him.

[ArielThePiraticalMermaid]

Perhaps you mean man made climate change as opposed to climate change per sé claig? Given that only a fool would disagree with sea surface temperature increases in the data gathered since the 1930s in the continuous plankton survey?


Short digression.

[claig]

His friend calls himself a conspiracy theorist. Any conspiracy theorist worthy of the name knows that what they want you to believe is not what you should believe for your health.

[claig]

If his friend doesn't wise up he will soon be following their advice and eating ants in order to "save the planet". Tell him to stop reading the Guardian and start reading some real info

www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2012/jan/22/future-of-food-john-vidal

[claig]

His mate will start believeing this type of stuff mentioned in the Guardian article

'Not only are many bugs rich in protein, low in fat and cholesterol and high in calcium and iron, but insect farms need little space. Environmentally, they beat conventional farms, too. The creatures are far better at converting plant biomass into edible meat than even our fastest growing livestock, they emit fewer greenhouse gases and they can thrive on paper, algae and the industrial wastes that would normally be thrown away.'


Ask him straight if he thinks that that is better than cows which eat grass?