Okay, here's the story. (sorry that it is SOOOO long!) My dad is as old-fashioned as they come. He can grill anything you'd like (including veggies!) and he makes the best Belgian waffles on the planet. But he can't even make Cream of Wheat without causing kitchen fires & messing up the "recipe." So he is just short of completely dependent on my mom for his meals. Mom is one of those typical "love me, eat my cooking" women who cooks WAY too much, and is still coming 'round to late 20th century cooking ideals. (like cooking with Crisco is not healthy, and that whole milk just might not be healthy for overweight middle-aged adults) She loves to cook four times as much food as she needs to for every meal, and hates putting more than 1/4 of it away as leftovers. Dad has been trying desperately to lose weight for about 5 years now. He's 5'11" and right around 200lbs... and his blood pressure & cholesterol have been a problem for years now. He's on medication for the cholesterol and is currently taking a baby aspirin each day to help prevent heart problems... which run in the family, along with aneurisms. He turns 59 today, and he is having a tough time because his uncle died at 59 from heart disease. And he can see that his diet & lifestyle are taking him down that same road. But it's my MOM that's the real problem here. She thinks that if he doesn't have red meat at least once per day, he'll waste away to nothing. She's into "fad diet" type things, and read a book a few years ago about different diets being appropriate for certain blood types. And while her blood type was suggested as one that could benefit from red meat, dad's blood type was actually recommended as one who should be vegetarian! Yet it's that red meat that's on their table just about every single night. Dad doesn't like a lot of red meat. He eats what Mom serves up for him, but if they go out he will choose a chicken (or occasionally vegetarian if I'm there) meal. And just this weekend he confided that my vegetarian "lifestyle" is looking rather tempting, but that he doesn't know how to bring this up with Mom. Can y'all help me? I think that it would be easiest to appeal to her "fad diet" obsession, but I can't come up with how or where to find proof to show her. Are there books or websites that deal with how a vegetarian diet is better for people like my dad? Something backed by several "known" medical doctors would be ideal, but I'd take just about anything. I KNOW it's healthier, I just don't know where to go to prove it! love, mom
The good news is that there is a wealth of good information about the benefits of eating a vegetarian diet. Dr. Dean Ornish did a study that proved that heart disease could be reversed with a near Vegan diet. He has a couple of books. The American Dietetic Association has this position: http://www.eatright.org/cps/rde/xchg/ada/hs.xsl/nutrition_8053_ENU_HTML.htm. Now for the bad news. You cannot fight this battle for your dad. You can present your mom with the information, but if your dad wants to eat differently, he has to take charge of making that happen. Trust me on this: the chances of you convincing your mom are slim to none. This is an issue between husband and wife.
Hey Mom, my sister lent me a book called The Eat Right Diet which is based on your blood type, I'm guessing your dad is an A type? Anyway, the book takes each blood type and gives detailed info on 'what you should be eating' and what exercise would be right for you, it goes into every food group for each type. eg - soya milks are more beneficial for A types while goat and cow milk is more beneficial for B types. It's really indepth, and although I don't know whether I believe it all (plus I don't know my blood type!) a book like this could steer your mother in the right direction. This book is 8 yo so I don't know if it's still published but I'm sure there are a load of books like this out there. Hope this helped and that I didn't ramble on too much!
Mom should go along the next time Dad goes in for a check up. She would probably be willing to believe that "He needs your help taking care of himself." The doc will say things about weight, cholestorol and diet and probably hand them some pamphlets. Its unlikely that they will become vegetarian, but your Dad might eat healthier if mom hears it from a doctor. (My guess is that a male doctor would be more impressive to your mom.)
Yeah, I know it's between Mom & Dad... but he asked if I could help and I was wondering if there was a site or book I could point out to her to help him. Dad doesn't like to step on Mom's toes in the kitchen and is really worried that she's going to take this personally. Lazuli, I think that's the book Mom read, and yeah Dad's a type A. (sigh) Thanks, I'll send the link to her & see if that helps... but I think having her have to sit through a doctor's lecture with Dad might be the way to do this. 'Cause yeah, she's easily swayed by doctors. Even if this doesn't convert my parents to vegetarianism, SOMETHING has to change. Mom doesn't use a lot of processed food. Just about everything she cooks is from scratch. But it's that "old-fashioned" cooking that just isn't healthy. Skillet-fried chicken & mountains of mashed potatoes made with real butter & whole milk, biscuits & sausage gravy... today she had fish (well that's healthy, right? she said) for Dad's birthday and they each had about 12oz of salmon with 1.5 cups of rice pilaf (heavily buttered) and green beans, and cheesecake AND ice cream for dessert! When I pointed out to Mom that they'd each eaten roughly 2000 calories in that one meal she was quite defensive & insisted that I made it up. Well no, that's what she served herself & Dad! (None of us eat fish, so we helped her with some much lower-calorie leftovers) Thanks so much for the pointers. I'm just rather ill at the moment thinking of the concept that my parents just ate in one meal the caloric equivalent of 3 full DAYS of my diet! love, mom
