Thoughts on conflict that finally surfaced over dietary differences in the household

Date:   11/13/2009 3:10:13 AM ( 15 y ago)

Inspired to blog on this topic from:
http://www.ccitraining.org/fortytwoways.htm


The vegetarians that live here refer to public notices saying the "Kitchen is maintained as Vegetarian". However a few of us realize that this statement needs to be clarified.

I believe it is fair to say there are a number of different kinds of diet under the banner of "vegetarian". One broad definition simply says it's a diet without meat. If that was the defining limits then it seems that fish and other seafood would be an option. I really do not know whether this term was defined when the "banner" was made and I can not assume to know it for several good reasons. The first is that I am not a vegetarian and I can't think of becoming one! I also was not raised in a vegetarian household and did not even hear about vegetarianism until I moved out on my own. All I knew growing up was that Catholics were not suppose to eat meat on Friday but they could have fish. For me that distinguished fish from meat. That makes a lot of sense to me! One can still have the option of high quality protein with fish. However, the people eating fish one day a week did not mean they were vegetarians! So like I said I did not know anything about vegetarianism and when I did begin to be exposed to it the need for certain food combining struck me as making eating difficult.

But I had an experience one day of food poisoning and in aspirations of greater health, I ate a diet that was as free of animal products as I possibly could for a few years. I discovered that it did not give me the superior health I was hoping for; with one exception. I had given up dairy and at that time the only dairy products I knew were all pasteurized & homogenized from grain-fed factory farmed cows. Eliminating those highly processed, nutritionally depleted, commercially-hyped products from my diet cleared me up in a major way! No more eczema! No more colds! Later I discovered all-raw dairy from grass-fed healthy cows (and goats) and that was literally a whole different animal! I also had found grass-fed beef and found that my body loved meatloaf made according to the Nourishing Traditions recipe! Then came bone-broth, regarded as real medicine by doctors and used for healing digestive distress! All in all I recovered from the severe limitations and in some ways the real dangers of vegetarianism! I'm finished with vegetarianism and I'm not going back down that road anymore!

I am so clear about the necessity of animal products in my diet that I would not think of compromising my health to change my diet to be more acceptable to someone else's dietary "preferences". However, I live where the kitchen is apparently suppose to be "maintained as Vegetarian". That status was pre-existing to my moving in. Prior to the most recent house meeting I found that I resented that status. I was inwardly protesting that I should have to refrain from enjoying my (non-vegetarian) food in a kitchen where I lived! Is this my home or am I just a guest here? A housemate pointed out that seven of nine of us are not vegetarian and that we could renegotiate the kitchen status. (Actually eight of us have been known to eat food that is not suppose to be prepared in the kitchen.) We have one housemate who would prefer to have nothing but vegetarianism on the whole plot. Is it possible to renegotiate the kitchen status so all our present dietary needs can be met rather than have anyone block our considering certain foods in our kitchen as necessary nourishment? Knowing what I know, I think my time would be better spent creating another kitchen.

 

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