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Login Here Signup Here Signup using FacebookHello! My husband and I and our 2 year old daughter live in Colorado. We are finding it too expensive here and have a very small support circle of friends, so we want to be closer to our family for the emotional ans familial support.
I am a long time vegetarian, gone newly raw and my daughter is a vegetarian. ( try to keep her as raw as possible, and am weening her of her cooked food habits gradually…so she won’t notice!) My husband eats what I make, but is an omnivore and will eat meat whenever he can! We’ll be moving to Texas and my family (in Texas)is big in southern food and behavior …you know biscuits and gravy, hunting, sausage, ribs, smoked meat whatever. Their idea of vegetarian cooking for me is always heavy on the 1/2 and 1/2, cheese and eggs. Ugh.
I love them dearly and want to be closer, but I am so worried about my daughter. I understand why I choose my diet and feed her hers. But at Grandma and Grandpa’s house, at her aunts house, and friends of the family, everyone, I mean everyone will be eating junky, cooked, meaty foods. She doesn’t understand these things yet. She knows she does not eat meat, but is starting to see all these other family members she loves eating meat and asking them about it. “You eat meat?” “That meat good?” and then turning to look at me and saying “Meat is good” AAARGH!
I tell myself that I will feed her what I think is best until she is old enough to understand why we eat, and where what we eat comes from. (meat=animals, etc.)...but I know it will be more difficult once we move.
Does anyone have any similar experience and advice?
My family respects my food choices and I know they will be cool…but at the same time, grandparents are grandparents!! (they gave her an ice cream cone today while they were out…I don’t give her ice cream and they know it!)
HELP! and thank you! Kirsten
Comments
Wish I could help you kirsten. It can be so difficult with non-vegan family good role model for them. They should also respect your views as to how you feed your daughter.
It could be true that when your Grandparents grew up there were still family farms when farm animals grazed in pastures and they were not raised in the concentration-camp factory farming style they are today. Meat & Dairy would still have been unhealthy dietary choices, but less so than they are now. They certainly were not as cruel and disease infested.
The general population is still very blind (or ignorant) regarding how their prime-rib was ‘produced’.
But anyone who is not (already) vegan and views the videos on the Humane Society website would very likely change their meat & dairy eating habits or at least seriously question them.
http://video.hsus.org/?fr_chl=90b8416730090124a… I recommend the video narrated by James Cromwell titled “Overlooked”. But beware – All of the videos on this site are quite graphic and not appropriate for very young children to see.
To quote James Cromwell after he learned of factory farming while working on the film Babe:
“If anyone ever realized what was involved in factory farming they would never touch meat again. I was so moved by the intelligence, sense of fun, and personalities of the animals I worked with on Babe that by the end of the film I was a vegan… I now don’t eat anyone who would run, hop, fly, or swim away if she could.”
But Advertising also plays a huge role for people clinging to the SAD diet.
According to The Food Revolution by John Robbins:
Amount spent annually by the Dairy Industry on the “milk-mustache” ads: $190 Million
Amount spent annually by McDonalds to advertise it’s products: $800 Million
Amount spent annually by the National Cancer Institute promoting fruits & vegetables: $1 Million
Annual medical costs in the US directly attributable to meat consumption: $60-120 BILLION.
“The beef industry has contributed to more deaths than all the wars of this century (20th), all natural disasters, and all automobile accidents combined. If beef is your idea of ‘real food for real people’, you’d better live real close to a real good hospital.” – Neal Barnard, MD & President of Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.
If you could somehow get your Grandparents to read The Food Revolution or Diet for a New World, both books by John Robbins they might come to the conclusion that you are indeed onto something and they might not be so ready to buy your little girl ice cream cones made with cow’s milk.
Sorry for getting long-winded! I wish the best of health for you & your family And Good Luck with the SAD relatives.
PS: I hope this didn’t come off as preaching to the choir – that is not my intention. Cheers! :)
I feel your pain! We live with my parents so I can go to school & get out of debt, and it is hard because my dad eats just like you described your relatives in Texas. My son is six, and he was three and addicted to chicken nuggets, corn dogs, & sugar before I started changing my lifestyle for the better. It has been a struggle for me to get him eating healthier foods (he’s still not vegetarian or raw, but we’ve come light years since then) and it’s even harder now that we live with my parents (my mom eats healthier than my dad but still lots of meat).
greenghost – thanks for your post! I had my mom come and read it :)
I think it helps my cause that my dad is not healthy, and I try to point that out to my son. At family parties, I let him eat what everyone else is eating, and he got sick last weekend from eating a bunch of white flour, sugar, chips, etc. two days in a row. I think he may start to see a difference. Last night at a family gathering, I reminded him of last weekend and had him choose either white bread OR chips, and later he got a piece of cake, but he only ate half of it! That was the first time he ever voluntarily quit eating junk food. :) Yay! I figure if we can do it living here, he can do it ANYWHERE when he’s older & I’m not around telling him what to do. It’s harder that way, but opposition makes us stronger, I guess, as long as we don’t give up.
Being a grandmother and great grandmother, I would like to make a suggestion. First don’t move in your families neighbor hood. Meaning, live 20 miles or more away. Then when you first see them, explain why you and your family eat this way, and you don’t want anything different given to your daughter. Give suggestions of what she can eat. That will help. While you are explaining things, serve them a big bowl of cauliflower popcorn.lol Also, when people are making comments that are contrary to what you are teaching your daughter. I would explain to people why they are wrong. Remember your daughter wants to believe her mommy, but we need to stand up right away when things like, “mmmmm good meat” is mentioned. It probably will mean a thing to the person you are talking to, but it will to your daughter.
So sit back and read her stories like, Chicken Little, Daisy Cow and Wilbur the pig. What little child would want to eat these animals?
When our boy was little every one wanted to give him candy. At times I had to be down right rude. He is now in his 30’s and has very good teeth.
just had to comment…in my opinion that is generally why colorado is the leanest state and well, texas isn’t. I live in CO and the whole atmosphere is so much healthier here. though I agree, it is super expensive. I dunno what part you live in, but especially in the mtns, the cost of getting food out here alone jacks the prices up, not to mention the summer/produce season is maybe 2 months long. urghh.
I live in Durango, so it is BEAUTIFUL! I will definately miss it but…
I am planning on living in an adjacent town about 15 miles away. That was a very good suggestion Beny, thank you. And greenghost…i know! You weren’t preachy, I quote John Robbins and T. Colin Campbell often.
If you all have not read The Chine Study, do! (By T. Colin Campbell and THomas M. Campbell. ) It is awesome!
Thank you for all of your suggestions and comments.
Angie, I am happy to hear your son is starting to make great decisions! Thank you again-Kirsten
Thanks kirsten. Aren’t they good books? (rhetorical question)
I also borrowed the book “The China Study” from the library a couple of weeks ago and recently renewed it so I can read it some more. You’re right – It is very interesting. Cheers and Best Wishes!
My son IS making good decisions. Yesterday, after watching a video on Rawfu, he told me he wants to eat only raw food for 100 days. He started last night, after eating all the cooked foods he said he will miss (except that I refused to let him eat any of his grandpa’s fried chicken, Pop Tarts or potato chips :P). Today he asked, “When can I eat cooked food again?” :P But he is going the right direction for him as he is ready for it.
Hi Kirsten, I raised my daughter vegetarian and the family thing was a problem for us too. Her father and I raise her “together but separate”, meaning she lives with me most of the time but goes to his house every other weekend and every monday (he lives very close). At first it was hard because he was not vegetarian and although he always respected her wishes, he and his girlfriend would often cook meat for dinner. Our daughter just got used to telling him no thank you and would eat all of the other veggie food that was offered. For the most part though, I’m pretty sure that they went out of their way to make sure she had vegetarian food when she was at their house.
It was harder for our daughter to eat differently when she was with extended family members though. When she was little, her grandmother would sometimes practically force-feed her to eat bacon and other things at family get-togethers and sometimes she would eat it and sometimes she wouldn’t. This really pissed me off but there wasn’t much I could do because I would hear about it afterwards when she came home. It did cause a few battles between her dad and I throughout the years though.
I just wanted to say that now she is 12 and she is amazing. She knows what her body needs and she has no problem refusing food that she doesn’t want to eat. Looking back, I see that in a way it was good that both lifestyles were offered up to her during her childhood because it allowed her to choose the one that worked best for her. Now that she owns her choice to be vegetarian (mostly vegan. Actually, mostly raw vegan) it is much more meaningful to her, I think, than it would have been if I had enforced it upon her all along the way.
And the greatest news: her dad and his family not only don’t eat meat anymore, but they are raw foodists now too!
kirsten, what part of Texas, (if you don’t mind my asking)? I also live in Texas, pretty close to family, and they don’t understand AT ALL. It can be so hard. It actually hurts my mom’s feelings when I won’t eat chocolate chip cookies piled high with chocolate chip ice cream, like the rest of the “normal” family members! It would be nice to know someone close by has the same issues! Sorry I don’t have any good advice…just an empathetic ear :)
LizK and kirsten It’s fun to see others from Colorado. I live in Colorado Springs. (I moved away from Texas! And love the Colorado dry air and the mountains!) Just wanted to say hi to others in the same state :0)
Hi! haha, so funny..the connection with Texans and Colorado!
lady 3393—-I will be moving to the Dallas area. Allen, Plano or McKinney, we haven’t decided on the exact location yet. (still have to sell our home in THIS market, eeeek!)
Once we get there, we should definitely try to meet! Have you ever been to any of the raw food “meet-ups”? I saw one in Dallas and one in Plano…perhaps hosted by the same folks? I am not sure.
Wow, I live in Allen!
Overall, it’s a great place to live and wonderful place to raise a family!
Yeah! When we get there, I will be sure to let you know. i would love to have you over for yummy food!