NYTimes: I Love You, But You Love Meat

[kyrasdad]

I Love you, but you love meat (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/13/dining/13incompatible.html?_r=1&oref=slogin)

February 13, 2008
By KATE MURPHY
www.nytimes.com

SOME relationships run aground on the perilous shoals of money, sex or religion. When Shauna James’s new romance hit the rocks, the culprit was wheat.

“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.

Sharing meals has always been an important courtship ritual and a metaphor for love. But in an age when many people define themselves by what they will eat and what they won’t, dietary differences can put a strain on a romantic relationship. The culinary camps have become so balkanized that some factions consider interdietary dating taboo.

No-holds-barred carnivores, for example, may share the view of Anthony Bourdain, who wrote in his book “Kitchen Confidential” that “vegetarians, and their Hezbollah-like splinter faction, the vegans ... are the enemy of everything good and decent in the human spirit.”

Returning the compliment, many vegetarians say they cannot date anyone who eats meat. Vegans, who avoid eating not just animals but animal-derived products, take it further, shivering at the thought of kissing someone who has even sipped honey-sweetened tea.

Ben Abdalla, 42, a real estate agent in Boca Raton, Fla., said he preferred to date fellow vegetarians because meat eaters smell bad and have low energy.

Lisa Romano, 31, a vegan and school psychologist in Belleville, N.Y., said she recently ended a relationship with a man who enjoyed backyard grilling. He had no problem searing her vegan burgers alongside his beef patties, but she found the practice unenlightened and disturbing.

Her disapproval “would have become an issue later even if it wasn’t in the beginning,” Ms. Romano said. “I need someone who is ethically on the same page.”

While some eaters may elevate morality above hedonism, others are suspicious of anyone who does not give in to the pleasure principle.

June Deadrick, 40, a lobbyist in Houston, said she would have a hard time loving a man who did not share her fondness for multicourse meals including wild game and artisanal cheeses. “And I’m talking cheese from a cow, not that awful soy stuff,” she said.

Judging from postings at food Web sites like chowhound.com and slashfood.com, people seem more willing to date those who restrict their diet for health or religion rather than mere dislike.

Typical sentiments included: “Medical and religious issues I can work around as long as the person is sincere and consistent, but flaky, picky cheaters — no way” and “picky eaters are remarkably unsexy.”

Jennifer Esposito, 28, an image consultant who lives in Rye Brook, N.Y., lived for four years with a man who ate only pizza, noodles with butter and the occasional baked potato.

“It was really frustrating because he refused to try anything I made,” she said. They broke up. “Food is a huge part of life,” she said. “It’s something I want to be able to share.”

A year ago Ms. Esposito met and married Michael Esposito, 51, who, like her, is an adventurous and omnivorous eater. Now, she said, she could not be happier. “A relationship is about giving and receiving, and he loves what I cook, and I love to cook for him,” she said.

Food has a strong subconscious link to love, said Kathryn Zerbe, a psychiatrist who specializes in eating disorders at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland. That is why refusing a partner’s food “can feel like rejection,” she said.

As with other differences couples face, tolerance and compromise are essential at the dinner table, marital therapists said. “If you can’t allow your partner to have latitude in what he or she eats, then maybe your problem isn’t about food,” said Susan Jaffe, a psychiatrist in Manhattan.

Dynise Balcavage, 42, an associate creative director at an advertising agency and vegan who lives in Philadelphia, said she has been happily married to her omnivorous husband, John Gatti, 53, for seven years.

“We have this little dance we’ve choreographed in the kitchen,” she said. She prepares vegan meals and averts her eyes when he adds anchovies or cheese. And she does not show disapproval when he orders meat in a restaurant.

“I’m not a vegangelical,” she said. “He’s an adult and I respect his choices just as he respects mine.”

In deference to his wife, Mr. Gatti has cut back substantially on his meat consumption and no longer eats veal. For her part, Ms. Balcavage cooks more Italian dishes, her husband’s favorite.

In New York City, Yoshie Fruchter and his girlfriend, Leah Koenig, still wrestle with their dietary differences after almost two years together. He is kosher and she is vegetarian. They eat vegetarian meals at her apartment, where he keeps his own set of dishes and utensils. When eating out they mostly go to kosher restaurants, although they “aren’t known for inspired cuisine,” said Ms. Koenig, 25, who works for a nonprofit environmental group.

Though the couple occasionally visit nonkosher restaurants, Mr. Fruchter, 26, a musician, said he has to order carefully to avoid violating kosher rules. “We’re still figuring out how this is going to work,” he said. “We’re both making sacrifices, which is what you do when you’re in love.”

Even couples who have been eating together happily for years can be thrown into disarray when one partner suddenly takes up a new diet. After 19 years of marriage, Steve Benson unsettled his wife, Jean, when he announced three years ago that he would no longer eat meat, for ethical reasons.

“It had been in my head a long time, but I could have done a better job of talking about it,” said Mr. Benson, 46, a math professor at Lesley University, in Cambridge, Mass. Ms. Benson, who is also 46, and devises grade school curriculums, said she worried her husband would judge her if she continued to eat meat, “but we talked it out and he is not proselytizing.”

Another concern was whether she would be able to cook vegetarian meals that would meet the nutritional needs of everyone in the family, including their teenage daughter. “I wanted us all to eat the same thing for pragmatic, household economy reasons, but also because that’s part of being a family,” Ms. Benson said.

So, 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, she said.

“There’s this feeling that if we eat the same thing then we are the same thing, and if we don’t, we’re no longer unified,” Dr. Zerbe said. She and Dr. Jaffe said sharing food is an important ritual that enhances relationships. They advise interdietary couples to find meals they can both enjoy. “Or at least a side dish,” Dr. Zerbe said.

For people who like to cook, learning to bridge the dietary divide can be an enjoyable puzzle. Ms. James, the gluten-averse writer, eventually found a man who did not love by bread alone. On her first date with Daniel Ahern, in 2006, she told him that she was gluten-free; he saw it as 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.

Since then, Mr. Ahern has given up eating bread at home, though he still eats it when he goes out. For her part, Ms. James has begun eating offal and foie gras, which were once anathema. “We’ve changed each other,” she said.

[Nancy LC]

Gluten issues can definitely be a difficulty. Not just in dating but in married people too.

I love the term "vegangelical". :lol:

[rightnow]

That's hilarious! True, though -- it really is tough to eat differently than your mate.

No-holds-barred carnivores, for example, may share the view of Anthony Bourdain, who wrote in his book “Kitchen Confidential” that “vegetarians, and their Hezbollah-like splinter faction, the vegans ... are the enemy of everything good and decent in the human spirit.”
That made me giggle. He certainly got the political faction analogy right, anyway.

I eat lowcarb. My boyfriend is celiac. So... everything that is "gluten-free" is also insanely high carb. He actually likes living on GF versions of pancakes, pasta, bread, pizza dough and breads, etc. I bought him a huge GF cookbook and bread machine so he could have decent food, but I think half of it was living vicariously because I can't eat the stuff he eats.

Last time we were together I just abandoned lowcarb so we could eat together. Next time we'll just be living on meat, eggs and veggies instead, I hope.

PJ

[kaypeeoh]

Gluten issues can definitely be a difficulty. Not just in dating but in married people too.

I love the term "vegangelical". :lol:

Me too. But eating offal? Isn't that like eating cow anuses?

[moggsy]

I had to introduce my husband to this WOE for it to work for me. He, like PJ's boyfriend, has a gluten problem. Coeliacs runs in his family, but his blood test for it came back negative. Still there's a big difference between Gluten-free and gluten-free low carb. He's done well cutting out the complex carbs, and is actually eating veggies. I wouldn't dump him, but if he went back to high carb eating, I'd probably let him cook his own carby stuff.

[moggsy]

Me too. But eating offal? Isn't that like eating cow anuses?

Offal has different connotations depending on the country. In the UK, it's often used to denote variety/organ meats as well as parts of the animal that people don't always consume.

[rightnow]

Moggsy, I believe the best test for celiac -- for several reasons -- is the stool sample done by entero labs (google it). It's a few hundred bucks, but the blood test and even the surgical sample approaches both have a lot of false negatives from what I've read. The lab mentioned gives a lot more info than just yes/no.

PJ

[costello22]

Did anyone see the episode of House where a couple comes into the clinic because the man's BM's are floating instead of sinking? House has to break it to the vegan gf that her bf has been sneaking cheeseburgers. The fat was making his BM's float.

I hope it's not TMI, but I was a vegan for 4 years and my BM's were always floaters. Now I'm on a low carb diet, they're sinkers.

[moggsy]

Moggsy, I believe the best test for celiac -- for several reasons -- is the stool sample done by entero labs (google it). It's a few hundred bucks, but the blood test and even the surgical sample approaches both have a lot of false negatives from what I've read. The lab mentioned gives a lot more info than just yes/no.

PJ

Problem is that NHS will only cover so much. His mum's blood test came back negative, so they did the biopsy because everything was pointing to coeliacs at that time and it came back positive. They might not have done the test if she hadn't miscarried at the time that she was having all the other problems.

They basically think he's a hypochondriac. Funny thing is all his problems (GI distress, abdomen sensitivity, chronic fatigue) all decrease to disappear when he cuts out gluten. He feels he's even better with low carbs/no grains. If he were a hypochondriac, I doubt this would help him or he'd develop something else to take its place. He's known about this for years, but it wasn't until he adapted low carb that he was able to stick to not having gluten once in a while and blowing things.

I'd love to have him be able to show the result to his GP and vindicate himself. I will look into that test.

ETA: I don't want anyone to think that I am mounting this as a critique of the NHS. I think there are strengths and weaknesses to both the US and UK system, and good and bad people in both. Personally, I've lived with both, and prefer NHS. I think that in this particular case, he wasn't served to the best of the system's abilities.

[tom sawyer]

I think this is one reason why my ex and I didn't get along. She was extremely unadventurous when it came to cuisine, and I loved to cook. I do recall feeling snubbed when she wouldn't appreciate or even sample my food. This aspect of relationships is addressed by a book called Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman. We all place different values on the ways to show love, and if your spouse doesn't value the ways you find important then it makes it hard.

Bourdain had a show and one commercial showed him eating raw meat on a kitchen floor with some Inuits (at least I assumed they were Inuit).

[vavcon]

My husband is so cool. He's not at all overweight, but totally supports my low carb WOE and happily eats the (incredibly delish) meals I prepare. He never asks for high carb foods in the house. When we go out, he'll eat some bread or whatever. We both love to cook, and I love pasta. I'm having fun with subsitutions (spag squash being my fave by far) and he loves it too. When he cooks, he cooks low carb.
Chris

[Sandollar]

but flaky, picky cheaters — no way” and “picky eaters are remarkably unsexy.”
Food has a strong subconscious link to love, said Kathryn Zerbe, a psychiatrist who specializes in eating disorders at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland. That is why refusing a partner’s food “can feel like rejection,” she said.. So true!

In the 5.5 years my ex-BF and I were together, he never ate dinner ONCE in my home. Never came over to cook...didn't like desserts either...If we went to a restaurant, he would never try anything off my plate. Just weird.
I know NOW that I felt COMPLETELY rejected...and when he wasn't around I'd eat to fill an emotional void.

I will NEVER get involved with anybody again who has no interest in food. It's just depressing.

[kyrasdad]

In my case, my wife tried and could not do low carb, and we have mostly come to an accord that I will eat differently than she does. It feels no less communal to us, that I can tell, not to be eating from the same pot. She currently is on WW, and we have pretty much totally separate menus most of the time.

I'm a pleaser, and I'd love it if she liked the things I like. I love fatty meats and they gross her out. I love smoked brisket, she can't stand it. I can make a couple racks of ribs and think they're great, but she wouldn't try them, even pre-WW. It doesn't bug me, not really, and I've come to understand that she just does not appreciate the food like I do. We had gotten into arguments in the past about her keeping high carb crapfood in the house, and she's mostly gotten away from that.

[LessLiz]

My husband doesn't care about food, is quite thin and eats a lot of carbs. I do not understand how this is my business, other than making sure when I cook that there are foods available for him to eat.

We eat together and share our separate days during meals To me, that's what counts.

[tom sawyer]

The nice thing about LC is you can add an extra side dish and/or a roll, and feed the high-carbers too, at least some of the time. We give the kids more carbs than we eat. They eat tacos, we eat taco salad. They eat burgers on wheat buns, we eat them on lettuce leaves. Just last night we cooked up some "everything sauce", my version of marinara sauce with pepperoni, sausage, shrimp, mushrooms, onion, garlic, green and black olives, asparagus, you name it, it's in there. They got a small helping of spaghetti noodles with theirs, we ate ours as an Italian soup. They get a lot less carbs than the average kid this way but aren't on a hardcore LC diet.

Our kids seem to crave carbs, be it starches or sugar. Wonder why that is?

[KvonM]

My husband is so cool. He's not at all overweight, but totally supports my low carb WOE and happily eats the (incredibly delish) meals I prepare. He never asks for high carb foods in the house. When we go out, he'll eat some bread or whatever. We both love to cook, and I love pasta. I'm having fun with subsitutions (spag squash being my fave by far) and he loves it too. When he cooks, he cooks low carb.
Chris
my husband's the same way. he loves my cooking, and while i'm more adventurous with substitutions for my own meals, he's at least willing to try what i've made. i adore my mashed cauliflower, he hates it, but at least he TRIED it. when i make it, i don't ask him to eat it. when it comes to meals together, for something like chicken alfredo i'll serve his over pasta and mine over steamed broccoli.

if he does happen to cook, he makes sure to make something i can eat... then again, that usually involves ordering buffalo wings for me along with his pizza ;).

[Nancy LC]

I've been toying with the idea of making a dating/socializing service catering to people with special diets.

One reason I strongly hesitate to try to date is because of my dietary restrictions...

Low carb, gluten free, mostly paleo, middle-aged single woman looking for a Caveman!

[Sandollar]

Low carb, gluten free, mostly paleo, middle-aged single woman looking for a Caveman!
:lol: :lol: Yeah.....and on top of that, I need to find a man who will "overlook" my soon-to-be saggy belly!! :lol:

Talk about a needle in a haystack!

[Bat Spit]

Bourdain had a show and one commercial showed him eating raw meat on a kitchen floor with some Inuits (at least I assumed they were Inuit).

That particular show was filmed in Greenland I believe. I'm not sure if the indigenous population is considered Inuit or not. He went out with them on the boat to hunt the seal, helped drag it back, and gave an extremely respectful dialog while they butchered it on drop cloths spread on the kitchen floor. They saved every scrap and Tony smiled while he at the eyeball.

I love that show.

I've been toying with the idea of making a dating/socializing service catering to people with special diets.

I think thats a brilliant idea. Finding someone with a personality you want to date is hard enough without having to first sort for people who won't accidentally poison you by putting bread crumbs in the butter.

I'm lucky that I'm the cook in this house and my DH is extremely respectful of my current dietary weirdnesses. We've narrowed our eating out choices to places where I can eat safely and he's never once voiced a regret about somewhere that got crossed off the list.

[KvonM]

I'm lucky that I'm the cook in this house and my DH is extremely respectful of my current dietary weirdnesses. We've narrowed our eating out choices to places where I can eat safely and he's never once voiced a regret about somewhere that got crossed off the list.
oh hell yes... the fact that my hubby isn't picky about what he eats in the first place and is mindful of what i can and can't have makes me that much more willing to go to places like olive garden when he's really craving it. it's all about the give and take.

[rightnow]

You guys are thinking about it all wrong. You need to focus on what is important:

Experienced, enthusiastic woman who loves sex and barbecue, looking for a good man.

All that other stuff is just the details. ;-)

PJ

[Citruskiss]

My cousin got married the same year I did - and his wife is a vegetarian (not sure if she's vegan or vegetarian or whatever)...

Anyway, he was never 'allowed' to eat meat. The only time he could have any meat was at a family gathering at someone else's house, and even then - she'd give him a really hard time about it. He got very thin and gaunt looking, not very healthy looking at all.

People at work would bring him food. On the sly at lunchtime sort of deal.

Anyway, they're separated now. She's got his place, and his car. He ended up having to camp out in my Mom's basement for awhile while still paying the rent on their apartment.

Anyway, he looks a lot better these days. Got a new place, still doesn't have a car, but eat least the guy can eat whatever food he wants. He's not having to scarf down junk food at work anymore either.

As for me, it was my husband who introduced me to the idea of low-carb after watching me struggle with a series of useless and insane 'diets'. That said, he didn't go on low-carb with me right away - that happened several months later. He made an effort not to eat high carb foods that might be overly tempting, and I made the effort to add carby sides to our meals and so on. It worked out just fine.

Now we're both 'on' low-carb, but I don't care if he strays off it, and he doesn't care if I decide to have an off-plan meal. We're pretty easy going with each other that way, and we like most of the same foods.

The thing with my cousin's wife ...well her controlling nature about food extended to other areas as well. She didn't like his Mom, and would try to prevent him from getting together with her or go to family gatherings. In fact, they didn't even come to my wedding. Over time it became clearer to all of us that it was mostly because of her that he stopped showing up for things.

I'm not sure that being 'militant' about food is such a great idea. I think if I were to start a new relationship with someone who was that militant about food, I'd remember my cousin's experience and back away. Fine if you want to eat a particular way - but don't push it on the other person or make them feel bad for not following along.

That said, it *is* really nice if two people enjoy the same kind of food and like to cook together and shop together.

[FenwayGuy]

I've been toying with the idea of making a dating/socializing service catering to people with special diets.

One reason I strongly hesitate to try to date is because of my dietary restrictions...

Low carb, gluten free, mostly paleo, middle-aged single woman looking for a Caveman!

Where have you been?? ;)

That BTW is a great idea, you should certainly pursue it. Recently I was out with someone, it has never really materialized into anything, but she did find it odd that I would not touch the bread and that I had extra vegetables with my steak instead of the usual potato or rice. It was our third time out, but the first time in a restaurant/eating situation and trust me, I was thinking about it long beforehand.

The world is not a simple place anymore......

[cartersg1]

Usually, I don't find much interest in anything Bourdain says so I can't believe I'm agreeing with him! :) Good quote...I don't like killjoys of any kind in the kitchen but especially people who won't keep their pointy little noses turned away from my plate.

It is hard to be WF/GF and low carb. I do have "flours" that I can use and I do. I still love pancakes once in a while - some banana bread (with flavoring) and WF/GF/SF cookies (yes, there are such things). I can't give it up entirely. Again, there is a balance. I was a vegetarian when DH and I met and married and it was a bit of a struggle. DH was happy when I had to add meat back into my diet and it has turned out to be a good thing.

I'm thoroughly happy with DH and wouldn't trade him for ANYONE. I can't always make what I want and have him eat it but 95% of what I make, he will eat. I take his likes and dislikes into consideration before menu planning. DD - not so much. She's still developing a palate and I want to be far-reaching (further than a Happy Meal box in any case). Relationships take work - if food choices are a deal-breaker, then there may be other issues involved. Cheers!

[MizKitty]

I get this....
I'm still trying to figure out how my son could have picked a girl who won't eat pork. :lol:

[rightnow]

I suppose when it comes to other people opining (or acting-out) about what other people eat, it really becomes an issue larger than food.

Someone invasively rude about your eating animals, for example, is just invasively rude, period. Right now it might be about your steak, but eventually you'll find it's about plenty of other things as well.

I was once reading an article that quoted some woman chef as saying that what a person was and wasn't willing to try when it came to food, she felt said a lot about the person across the board, that food was just 'representational' of a larger character issue. I found that interesting.

I decided I wouldn't care what she thought about my unwillingness to try snails. ;-)

I don't mind people being picky about food. I don't mind people eating completely differently than I do. I do mind having to stock a house full of crap I can't eat and that tempts me. And I definitely mind having anybody get in my face about what I am eating -- or not eating, as the case may be.

If I had a dime for every person (nearly always women) who has spontaneously lectured me in a restaurant where I happened to be dining with others, about what she thinks is important to staying thin -- even if she is 40 lbs overweight herself -- and how I simply must eat this or that because it's all about (portion size, or exercise, etc.) I'd be much more rich and much less impatient after all these years.

PJ

[ValerieL]

If I had a dime for every person (nearly always women) who has spontaneously lectured me in a restaurant where I happened to be dining with others, about what she thinks is important to staying thin -- even if she is 40 lbs overweight herself -- and how I simply must eat this or that because it's all about (portion size, or exercise, etc.) I'd be much more rich and much less impatient after all these years.

Yes, there are an awful lot of people in the world that think that their size & shape has more to do with their moral character than their good genes. They would be wrong. With the exception of those who genuinely work at it (and there are some, obviously), most people are thin through luck, not virtue. Even those that point to the larger portions of the average obese eater and their own smaller portions don't get that it's not willpower that lets them eat less, it's that their bodies aren't screaming at them that they are hungry, feed me!

[Nancy LC]

I decided I wouldn't care what she thought about my unwillingness to try snails. ;-)
They're low carb, chewy, garlicky, buttery. Kind of like shrimp. :)

[Frederick]

I've been toying with the idea of making a dating/socializing service catering to people with special diets.

One reason I strongly hesitate to try to date is because of my dietary restrictions...


I can empathize fully here. For the past several years, every date I've had always asks incredulously, "what? you don't eat veggies?!"

It is next to impossible finding a girl who eschews veggies!

[Needlehole]

Jack Sprat could eat no fat
His wife could eat no lean.
And so betwixt them both between,
They licked the platter clean

I do eat the lean, so this isn't completely accurate. My DH loves his breads/grains though. It would be so much easier to have everyone on board. http://smilies.vidahost.com/otn/ez/ezpi_wink1.gif

[Shoush]

Very interesting .
thanks for posting this!

[CindySue48]

Offal has different connotations depending on the country. In the UK, it's often used to denote variety/organ meats as well as parts of the animal that people don't always consume.Here in the states too....but it's a term many are not familiar with.

I've gotten all kinds of weird looks when I've said that i feed my dogs meat, bones and offal....and that we, as earlier prehistoric humans, felt that offal was considered the best part.....no wonder! :lol:

[rightnow]

Here in the states too....but it's a term many are not familiar with. I've gotten all kinds of weird looks when I've said that i feed my dogs meat, bones and offal....and that we, as earlier prehistoric humans, felt that offal was considered the best part.....no wonder! :lol:
Yeah, boy language in a different place can really trip you up.

I remember hearing a story from a missionary one time (or about one, I forget). They were on the African continent and working to learn the language, dutifully recording everything they could in their little notebook. The people in the village were kind and were putting up with them and helping them learn. At one point, the man wants to know the word for "running", so he gets their attention, and then furiously runs in place, arms pumping, and they look a little mystified, but they give him a phrase. For awhile, when he uses the phrase, he runs in place to make sure they're getting it right. They always seem to find it kind of funny for some reason. He eventually finds out that of his conversations were misinterpreted by the fact rather than saying, "I am running," he was consistently saying, "I am a crazy idiot". :lol:

PJ

[neverwhere]

Where have you been?? ;)

That BTW is a great idea, you should certainly pursue it. Recently I was out with someone, it has never really materialized into anything, but she did find it odd that I would not touch the bread and that I had extra vegetables with my steak instead of the usual potato or rice. It was our third time out, but the first time in a restaurant/eating situation and trust me, I was thinking about it long beforehand.

The world is not a simple place anymore......

We can date if you want. We can eat steak and drink bacon grease while talking about the red sox. Doesnt get more simple than that ;)

:lol: :lol:

[waywardsis]

My fella has been with me 12 years, through my vegetarian stage, weight gain stage, and now my low carb, gluten-free stage. Been supportive the whole time. We do argue sometimes about food (he has issues :)) but usually, we tease each other about what we eat - he with his Coke and cookies, I with my fat and NY Strip. Really, it's perfect bc he likes chicken breast, so I get all the good bits! I always get his fat.

It would be nice to share more meals. It used to bother me that he wouldn't eat most of the stuff I make, but I've come to appreciate that just because we're having two separate dishes, we're still sharing a meal. It's the time together, not the food, that matters.

That said - I love the dating service idea Nancy! I think it would take off, big time.

[arc]

I am late to this thread but had to comment. It really bugs me that this article lumped celiacs in with the dietary lifestyles that people choose. It is a medical condition, not a choice.

One can choose to be a vegan or a carnivore or to do low fat or low carb, but you don't choose to be Celiac (I wouldn't, anyway). I think it is almost impossible for a wheat eater to live with a Celiac and have the Celiac stay healthy. We tried it at our home for a while and it was a disaster, no matter how careful we were. Any time my wife would bake, I would be sick for a week, even though I didn't eat any or it, just from the cross contamination (flour in the air settling on counters, etc).

With both of my sons and myself having Celiac disease, it just became necessary for my wife to go gluten free and to completely purge it from our home (including pet food). She was completely willing to (bless her heart) and has completely jumped into the gluten free lifestyle, including coming up with GF replacements for some of the foods my sons like (not exactly low carb, though). I am not sure how it would have worked out if she hadn't been willing to do that.

[FenwayGuy]

We can date if you want. We can eat steak and drink bacon grease while talking about the red sox. Doesnt get more simple than that ;)

:lol: :lol:

;) OK. Medium rare New York striploin, good glass of red wine and discussing best baseball team on the planet, yes, that bacon grease thing, no!

Funny enough, just going out with friends now, they do not even flinch at my low carb ways. They could care less as they have gotten used to it. Some will even ask questions now, you know,like they are considering a change in eating habits themselves.