Veggie husband - how do people manage this?

[macneil]

My husband has been a vegetarian since he was about 12. He always had really nasty cheap gristly food when he was growing up, his mum never made fresh food, and it really makes him sick, the idea of it, the smell, look, taste of it. I know this is very very wimpy of him. I LOVE meat, and think frying a nice piece of fish and serving with veggies and salad is the easiest way to be thin - but, I love him, and have always agreed to eat veggie evening meals with him, and I have meaty sandwiches or whatever for lunch, and eat meat if we eat out.

I'm a bit worried about my (unborn) baby growing up veggie - I can give her meat in the day, but what if she wants it at night? I suppose I could fry her little chicken breast fillets and add them to veggie meals? It will freak my husband out, but I want her to grow up with enough protein and iron. Does anyone have experience of it being this way around - it's usually women who are veggies and men who like meat, but I seem always to have gone out with bloody weedy veggies! - and how did they manage?

As long as they are getting enough iron and that, a diet without meat is possible. So, a diet for the baby with meat only during the day should be fine, diet wise

You & baby could have you larger meal during the day - like a latish lunch. Alot of my family have lunch as their main meal. Then you could have meat etc.

eh?

vegetarians aren't usually short on iron or protein

they live longer

and are not especially weedy

my dp is veggie, i am not really

it is healthier not to eat meat at all imo

It is very, very possible to raise vegetarian children. I've been veggie for almost 20 years and I wish I was weedy but sadly I tend towards chunky!

Have a look on Amazon, there are tons of books like this to get you started.

Alrighty, thanks very much for comments. (I have also found that vegetarianism makes me chunky.) I do worry about iron, etc, because I have become more anaemic since going mostly veggie with DH - iron is more easily absorbed from meat, and although it is obviously possible to eat MUCH more healthily as a veggie, it's also possible to eat big steaming plates of delicious pasta and cheese.

The books look great, and I've used a lot of Rose Elliot's grown up recipes, so I was glad to see another link from your Amazon link with Rose on it. Incidentally, I think my husband is weedy because of his freaking out about meat, not his choosing not to eat it. It's not going to get up and run after him. Also, it is much manlier to eat a big steak than a hunk of tempeh, but as I said, I've always had a weakness for the hay-eating lefties and show no sign of getting over that. I suppose will continue to indulge him, then. (While nagging and insulting him.)

"Also, it is much manlier to eat a big steak than a hunk of tempeh"

each to their own, I think

I personally find it far more of a turn on to watch a man cook tempeh from scratch, using the correct ratio of soy sauce and so forth, than to watch them demonstrate their true hunter gathering roots by driving down to sainsburys, chucking a piece of meat from some miserable, antibiotic ridden animal in the trolley, and then eating it with extruded potato. Personally.

but hey.

rose elliot good

Although it's easier to absorb iron from meat, you can still get it from veggie food. I can't remember the whole list off the top of my head but I think eggs, pulses, green veg and dried fruit contain iron. The easiest way though is to eat fortified breakfast cereal. In all my years of giving blood I've never been anaemic, even when pg (like now!)

I dont' give blood when pg btw!

My two were both vegetarian until they were about two. DP and I aren't veggie, but we don't eat much meat and I found that for some strange reason, I couldn't feed them meat. They seemed so little and pure and precious that I just couldn't let them eat other animals. Hormones really do do strange things to you! Anyway, they are both healthy and happy omnivores now. Why not get your dp to do some research on feeding vegetarian children. It's not hard, you just have to think about it a bit more until you get used to it. After all - a significant proportion of the world's population is vegetarian..!

at Filly

is this a windup? You are being extremely rude to vegetarians, so much so that I don't feel like answering your question tbh. How does your dh feel about you being so insulting and dismissive of his lifestyle choices?

He laughs, would you believe? I don't think he's particularly worried about being called an unmasculine hay-eater by the woman he married.

DH and I are both veggies (neither of us weedy!) and have 3 dds who are being brought up on a vegetarian diet and are perfectly healthy.

I'm not really sure what the problem is - the baby's not going to be brought up veggie, is it, if you are planning on feeding him/her meat throughout the day. You don't HAVE to give a child meat at every meal - perhaps you could get your dh to feed the little one when the meal is a veggie one? Also, perhaps you could explain to your dh that you will only be using the best quality meat to feed your little one, rather than him fretting about your child getting the same kind of "meat" meals as he got when he was a child.

Was very close to posting something like that Franny, but decided to give the benefit of the doubt!

My dh (and all of his close family) are veggie - I am not. Pre-kids we had the same deal as you and your dh - I would eat meat during day and veggie with him (unless we went out for a meal somewhere).
Both our children have been brought up veggie - absolutely no problem with them getting enough protein/iron, both are bouncing with energy etc.
My only problem is that I find it easier to lose weight if I can eat meat, and I am getting bigger and bigger. I get a bit fed up with trying to make interesting veggie food (my kids won't eat pizza, veggie burgers/fingers, or any convenience type foods so it means cooking from scratch each night after work - but I guess that could happen even if they ate meat!)
Ds was given the choice of eating meat or not when he was 4 - he ate it for about a month and then decided he would rather be veggie, but we let him eat whatever he wants if there is a choice on the menu now, rather than 'force' him to be veggie.

Ah well I will leave to this delightful thread macneil - I can see it causes you a lot of amusement, but personally I find it usually better to avoid insulting the people I am asking for help Vegetarians are the people who are going to have the knowledge to help you out here.

Oh, Bluebear, tell me about it - the endless chopping of ten different types of vegetables, softening beans and lentils, stirring risottos for half an hour after decimating onions for half an hour before that. When I was single, I used to throw a piece of salmon in a pan for two minutes, toss it on some lettuce/sugar snaps, and feel full on 200 calories. But I'm delighted to hear your kids are so energetic and healthy and I'm glad this is workable.

It's too early in the morning for this kind of rubbish. See ya

Personally, I can't imagine feeling insulted by someone saying eating meat was bad. This is just food we're talking about, right? I'm really perplexed, but there we go - apologies to anyone I offended by saying my husband was a wuss who made me fat. My husband is laughing at me right now as I narrate the offence I caused. He wants you to know he's glad people are sticking up for his lifestyle choices. (But I'm afraid he's just teasing me.)

WWB - I thought it was just me....

You're not really seriously worried that meat once a day will not be enough? A nutriotionist may well tell you it's more than enough.

The healthiest people I know are long-term vegetarians.

Tempted to prove to macneil that I COULD insult her by telling her eating meat was bad - it's not what you say, it's the way that you say it!

But it's a peaceful Sunday morning in the Curlew household and I'm not in the mood. So I won't.

It is perfectly acceptable nutitionally to be vegetarian, humans don't need meat in order to be healthy as long as your child and husband get a balanced diet. I don't think your husband's a wimp, I think you should respect his wishes on this. My son was vegetarian for the first 8 years of his life (he chose not to be fairly recently) and my ex husband and his family are all vegetarian and have been from birth (their branch of hinduism is veggie). Some insurance cos give lower premiums to vegetarians.

There is iron in lots of vegetarian food and protein can easily be obtained from non meat sources. I'm also wondering whether this thread is a wind up though since you're being so dismissive of veggies in general.

Anyway, your baby won't eat food until 6 months at the earliest and no-one recommends meat at that early age so you've got plenty of time to research this. I found Carol Timperly's book useful and I've posted loads of times here about my son being vegetarian.

My hubby's been vegi for over 30 years. I eat meat, he wanted dd brought up as a vegi. I was happy to try it - got al the vegi toddler books, worked out food pyramids, etc to ensure she got enough protein. Well she was such a fussy eater, she was losing weight, pale, etc - I gave up when she was about 15months and cooked her some sausages - haven't looked back since.

So I cook dd seperate food to us maybe 3 or 4 times a week - chicken curry, bacon and eggs, chilli. Stuff like the chilli and curry I make a big load of and then freeze them in individual portions. Then its not like I'm cooking 2 meals every evening (I work ya know)
Sometimes if we're having vegi pasta stuff that I know she will eat then she has the same as us.

I think if you're kid isn't a fussy eater then its possible to raise them perfectly well as vegetarian.

I was veggie for 25 years and have only started eating meat in the last 18m; just because i fancied some when I was pregnant. My dh has always eaten meat but he never felt the need to belittle my choices or think it was in some way hilarious. Your attitude seems very much of our parents' generation I think where vegetarianism was seen as a bit 'funny' or somehow inconvenient or even dangerous!

Dd1 was veggie until she was 4 when she started eating a bit of meat because she wanted to try it. She is one of the most robust, healthy children I know who has a great immune system and is rarely ill. We eat a mix of food in this house; as veggie meals were the norm for such a long time we eat veggie at least 4 or 5 times a week. We also eat fish and chicken (free range and/or organic) and no processed stuff. To me, these days, where our meat comes from is more important than whether we eat it at all.

I think you need to do some reading, take some advice from people who know more about it than you (there will be very many of these I am guessing) and try not to snigger like Frankie Howerd everytime someone mentions a lentil.