Are your dietary needs straining your relationship?
February 14th, 2008 by monicaIf you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed or sign up for email updates. Thanks for visiting!
If so, you’re not the only one. The article “I Love You, but You Love Meat” in today’s New York Times illustrates how fundamental food is to our relationships. We want to have our cake, and eat it, too, and share in the enjoyment of that cake with the people we love. If a couple can’t share a meal, the relationship suffers:
“I went out with one guy who said I seemed really great but he liked bread too much to date me,” said Ms. James, 41, a writer in Seattle who cannot eat gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley and rye.
In our household, Tim’s an omnivore while I’m a vegetarian. I don’t mind him cooking meat while I’m around, but he doesn’t because it means we can’t share in the enjoyment of the same food. I appreciate this. He has meat fests when I’m not around, much like Ms. Benson, whose husband is vegetarian:
She cooks vegetarian dinners and makes lunches for herself and her daughter that include meat. She and her daughter have “meat parties” when Mr. Benson goes out of town.
I was warmed by the quote from omnivorous chef, Daniel Ahern, who considers his is gluten-averse wife a “professional challenge”:
“As a chef, it has given me the opportunity to experiment with new ingredients to create things she can eat,” said Mr. Ahern, 39, who works at Impromptu Wine Bar Cafe in Seattle. Ms. James said she fell in love with him after he made her a gluten-free salad of frisée, poached egg and bacon. They married in September.
The article focussed on couples whose dietary needs were dictated by religious or philosophical beliefs. But what about people trying to lose weight? Or training for a marathon? It’s here where I find dietary restrictions can be most taxing, though I struggle to articulate why. If I say to someone “I’m vegetarian”, there’s no question that I won’t be ordering steak for dinner. But if “I’m training for a 10k”, my motivation to avoid high fat foods and alcohol seems somehow less strict in comparison. I know a competitive marathon runner who says his wife gets very frustrated when he’s training because he’s far less social (i.e. he sleeps more and drinks less). This must be quite a difficult situation for his wife, who wants to be supportive but also wants to have fun with her husband.Happy valentines day, everyone!Link to I Love You, But You Love Meat
