He’s a meat eater, I prefer grass and berries. That’s what he would tell you when people asked about my eight year common law marriage to my former live-in boyfriend. Being a vegetarian was something that came naturally for me when I was a tween and later an adult. Even as a young child I was the only one that wasn’t excited about going to McDonalds and even made up a story about how the ghost of a cow told me it was wrong to eat living things. My mom tried to rationalize it with saying once stuff was dead it was wrong to waste food, and then just stuck to punishment and made me sit at the table sometimes for an hour or two after the meal until I ‘ate’ the portion of meat. Often I’d stick it in the planters of the dining room flowers, throw it down the vents to the furnace, and the family dogs went well fed. By the time I was almost a teenager my mom had enough of fighting with me and relented to me being a vegetarian.
There was few relationships that I had been in where someone had equal eating habits. When cooking at home I would try to infuse some all natural foods, or find meatless wonders online to bring to the table but unless it was a salad that he could later gunk up with bacon bits, cheeses, and globs of dressing, the food I made was for myself. I didn’t mind. While he clogged his body with butter and meats, I often disgusted sat at the other side of the table eating my faux turkey burger or faux chick’n, or grilled tofu in mounds of steamed noodles and veggies with a vindictive look knowing I was going to live a long happy life free of heart problems where this one might stroke out taking down a steak.
Maybe it was because it wasn’t a good relationship-but I digress.
For grazers and carnivores that are actually in love with each other, dwelling together is possible when you slowly introduce them to good foods and point out the health benefits of having an apple or why Nuttella tastes better than peanut butter. If they are willing to share in a crumble of tofu and feta on their pasta praise them. I’ve heard on cooking shows that the best thing to do is have similar foods so it appears you are eating the same things. If they want hot dogs, try to talk them into at least having Kosher beef and then you can make yourself a soy dog. They want a little ice cream, have yourself a bowlful of soy based ice cream. It’s to die for.
We don’t always have to be at odds with the meat eaters we live with. Find common ground in what you both wiil eat.Share a little steamed broccoli or corn at the the table. You can’t convert the meat eaters to our side. It’s rare so take pride in what you are doing for your own health and hope they live as long as we do.