By Abi Copley
It’s a balmy January day. I’m watching my son play, and my husband is lost in the world of podcasts and the occasional viral dog video. The world is still, and I have nothing particularly on my mind; making the most of a rare moment of tranquility!
It was not to last…
Out of the home office stumbles my husband, with a ponderous look on his face. Always unnerving when that happens, as it usually means I’m either in for hard work or a conversation too taxing for days like this! Today it was both.
“I want to try the Carnivore Diet.”
The announcement lingers in the air. Harmless in itself yet misleadingly simple in its suggestion, as I was to soon discover.
He had been listening to Mikhaila Peterson on the Joe Rogan Show and, from there, wandered into talks by her father Dr. Jordan Peterson and others. Both sides of the story had apparently been sought, and a decision to surrender anything but animal products was taken. Might I just add here that my husband, as wonderful as he is, doesn’t cook. So the actual execution of this plan fell to me.
He drops the metaphorical bomb and wanders out as nonchalantly as he had entered, leaving me to grapple with exactly what it would mean to provide this limited dietary lifestyle.
It’s a few days later now, and the full impact of this choice is being felt. Not just on my meal making process but on our wallet and my time. More surprisingly though is the effect on my own thoughts about the diet I provide for my son, myself and our unborn 24-week growing baby.
His lifestyle choice comes up in conversation with family and friends. In our circle, we have many vegetarians (one who is also gluten and dairy intolerant so goodness knows what she actually lives on), vegans, Slimming World devotees, pathologically chocolate obsessed (guilty as charged), typically unhealthy eaters and those who would be considered to have healthy diets. Within each group, everyone has their own allergies and intolerances that mean no two people can have the exact same diet. Everyone has their own opinion, some voiced more vehemently than others, about what constitutes the “best” diet.
His choices for doing this are personal, well-reasoned and reflect a history that has caused him to look for solutions, but they aren’t what’s asked about. Most dismiss him out of hand. Others are intrigued, but ultimately label him as eating unhealthily because he isn’t following the usual 5-a-day or widely accepted balanced diet.
To make sure that my husband isn’t going to be struck down with scurvy, I’ve been doing my own research and it appears that there is a lot of murky water surrounding what we consider to be healthy eating. Even nutritionists, it would seem, are incapable of deciding which foods we should be shoveling down, and in what combination!
