My Vegan Boys
My children (now 12, 10 and 8 years old) have been raised as vegetarians. Being vegetarian is very natural for them; they have always eaten this way and have rarely questioned our often unconventional fare. So six months ago, when we transitioned from a vegetarian to a vegan diet, I was expecting an easy adjustment.
I was wrong.
We’d never had cow’s milk in our house, and only ate eggs on occasion, so the lack of their presence in our kitchen went unnoticed. But it quickly became obvious that cheese had been a staple in our diet and I hadn’t been conscious how much we ate, until I cut it out. My children were unimpressed. They begged for cauliflower and tomatoes with cheese sauce, my oldest son started fantasizing about the gooey mess that used to melt on top of his pizza and all three boys went into mourning over the “death” of one of their favorite restaurant meals – grilled cheese sandwiches. The demise of this food in our house was devastating for them. I was shocked.
In order to avoid the impending mutiny, my husband and I began to explain why we were making these changes. Over dinner, we shared what we know about the importance of eating
healthy food and why some foods are healthy and others are not. At the grocery store, we taught our boys how to read labels and make good whole food choices. After school, we discussed factory farms and the devastating effects of the dairy industry. In the evenings, we learned together as we watched movies like Food Inc., Forks Over Knives and Super Size Me. Food became a great topic of conversation and debate and through these lively discussions something magical happened. Our family went from “eating this way because it is what we have always done” … to eating with a purpose. The pleading for cheese became less and less, until finally one day, it stopped.
Dinner at our house does look different since we’ve become a vegan family. The cheese sauces in our house have been replaced by cashew nut sauces, pizza is now topped with spinach or kale, and we have many new favorite foods, but these are not the only changes that have occurred around our dinner table. New to our family is a shared interest in our relationship with food and how it affects our health, animals and our environment. Although I will never eat cheese again, it will always hold a special place in my heart as the food that changed our family.
Was there a food that changed your family? Tell us in the comments box below!
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All in the Vegan Family is a column that focuses on issues to do with veganism and families. Do you have ideas you’d like to read about in this column? Email editor@veganmainstream.com.
