Could you stay seriously romantically involved with someone who didn’t care about food the way you do?
That’s the question posed over at the CNN blog Eatocracy and surprisingly, the majority of respondents say that it is indeed a dealbreaker in a relationship. The gist of the post seems to be aimed more at epicurean foodies who look for like-minded palates in a mate, but it’s worth exploring other aspects of dietary discordance too, like sustainable food or vegetarian/vegan diets. I had been vegetarian for a little over two years when I met Brandon.
Food played a large role in our budding relationship those first few months. I was on the tail end of my recovery from an eating disorder and Brandon was a bachelor who cooked most of his meals in a microwave. I turned him on to sesame rye crackers and hummus, veggie taco salads and homemade healthy pizza. He reintroduced me to chocolate, bread and ooey gooey cheesy pizza from our favorite local pizza parlor. I tried not to evangelize vegetarianism, but since we planned meals and grocery shopped together, our meals tended to be vegetarian. Within six months after we moved in together, he went completely vegetarian. He went vegetarian because he loves me and knew how important it was to me.
We try to prepare dinners that both will like and find satisfying, but often times we’ll also each fix our own dinners, too. A veggie burger or chicken patty for him; a veggie burger or veggie chicken and a side of steamed veggies for me. It may seem odd to some, but it works for us. How about you? Do you and your partner share similar or completely different dietary tastes? Could you ever be in a relationship with someone who isn’t on the same page as you when it comes to food?
I don't have a strict diet when it comes to food; however I do like to eat more healthy than not. You won't catch me reading all the ingredients on every label but I glance at them every now and again to see how much sodium, for example, I'm consuming. I recently went back to eating turkey bacon over the pork loved by my fiance. I would not love him any less just because he prefers something else but one of my requirements is that we try varied menus for dinner. I like to look up new receipes for dinner, especially since that is the only meal we eat together during the day. This takes mutual effort from both of us in terms of selection, creative ideas and a trip to the grocer. Cooking is not my most favorite pasttime but I do see it as a labor of love ;0)
