We both agree that Finn should eat meat. It is easier for his body to build muscles as well as the thousands of enzymes, proteins, organelles and other cell structures if he has a consistent source of animal protein (which provides a reliable source of all essential amino acids) and fat. If he will actually eat it is a different story... but we try.
I will say that we humans are born to eat meat. Humans were hunter-gatherers long before they were farmers. Anthropologists have no trouble determining whether a past civilization was agricultural; there teeth look nice and sharp, but are littered with cavities from all the plant-based sugars. Also, primitive farmers may be shorter or have other tell-tale signs of nutrient deficiency (some of which are linked to a reduction in the diversity of plants being used rather than in a reduction in meat consumption). This is because unlike carnivores (or, more precisely, omnivores) vegetarians have to be careful to eat complimentary foods in order to obtain all their essential amino acids.
At the total opposite side of the spectrum are the Maasai of Africa who truly represent the idealized image of a healthy body: tall, lean, toned, athletic, handsomely bald. Their traditional diet consists almost entirely of milk, meat and blood from cows, sheep and goats. Do they worry about cholesterol or getting fat from all that "whole" milk? Nah. These folks walk more in a day than the average American does in a fortnight.
What kids don't need is a daily dose of grade E beef patties, chicken-ish nuggets and bbq pork-in-a-can. And not to sound too judgie, I do know that eating healthy is a luxury in America as it costs about 1/3rd as much to get 1000 calories from McDougles as it does to get 1000 calories from a farmers market.
All this back story aside, for me vegetarianism is a choice. I do it for two specific reasons, neither of which is health related. First, I do it to eat lower on the food chain, to lower my impact, to live a more sustainable lifestyle.
Second, I realized that for me, personally, eating animals is inconsistent with being an animal lover. Some medical issues with my pets forced me to think about their mortality and got me thinking that the only thing that's different between my cat and a chicken is that I had not lived with (named, fed, petted, played fetch with, taken to the vet, spent a small fortune on...) the chicken I was about to eat. For me, that is a pretty fine veil separating the critters I would freely bash in the head, deglove, dismember, grill to a nice medium rare and cover in a homemade raspberry vinaigrette, and the critters I shared my bed with. Farm kids have no problem with naming a cow Christmas (as in Christmas dinner). And I have no problem with that.
My boy will know how to hunt, will know how to skin a rabbit, will eat chicken on the bone. And after he knows all about the cycle of life, he can decide how involved in it he wants to be.
But this all brings up some real parental dilemmas. If Finn looks up to me, will he think that it is bad of him to want to eat meat? Will he see the glaring inconsistency in the fact that I don't want to kill animals, but that I will inevitable need to in order to properly train him to hunt and fish? I suppose I could train him to shoot sporting clays and to only practice catch-and-release fishing. But I don't want to! I want him to really, truly have these skills. I want him to be able to bond with friends and family members in the very special way that only these activities can bring about in their full glory.
So, we plan to tell him that eating meat is normal and needed for his development. We will tell him that we are hunters at our core and that it is perfectly fine to enjoy hunting and fishing in its full glory. And we will teach him about sustainability and being kind to Mother Earth. So you see, we still have a dilemma. But I have faith that even his juvenile brain will be able to handle one of life's great truths; sometimes you have to pick sides.
Tim,
ReplyDeleteI struggled with a similar issue as a mom when you were growing up. I wanted you to be a kind and caring person to all living things. I didn't want you to become a 'killer of deer'. I never wanted you to carry a weapon that can take away life. However, I decided I needed to put that aside and let you have the experience and allow you to make your own decision. And, that is basically what parenting is all about - exposing our children to all that we can and then allowing them to make their choices. Over and Out - Your Mama