Introducing meat in a vegetarian family

[Anonymous]

We are culturally vegetarian and have been so for several generations (Indian American).
My son is tall and skinny (just like me) and is fairly rigid with his eating and in life in general. I would like to introduce chicken in his diet to help him cope once he is in his own. He has special needs so I need to start with baby’s steps to overcome his rigidity. I think this will serve him welll by expanding his choices when he is in college/living in his own.

What are some dishes / healthy fast food restaurants we could try that may be most palatable to someone new to this? I don’t plan to cook meat at home.

[Anonymous]

What does he like? I think that you are going to have the most luck introducing chicken to a rigid picky eater if you introduce it in the context of familiar flavors and textures. So, if he will eat quesadilla take him to chipotle and have them put a little chicken in a quesadilla. If he will eat vegetable soup sprinkle some canned chicken into it.

I am not sure I understand fully your intention, but that is my best advice.

[Anonymous]

Has he expressed an interest in eating meat/fish/chicken? You can get plenty of variety with a vegetarian diet so I guess I don’t understand the rigidity question. (Indian American who is lifelong vegetarian by choice, but my siblings are omnivores by their choice).

[Anonymous]

There's no such thing as healthy fast food. My old roommate is like you - Indian American vegetarian - and when she started having to travel to Texas for work she decided when she got taken out to nice steakhouses, she was going to eat steak.

All her friends who were over (they are all also Indian American) said that she should start with small amounts of the highest quality meat she could get. So you don't start with a McDonald's cheeseburger because that's low quality. And you don't start with a 12 ounce porterhouse steak because that's too much.

So take that advice and apply it to chicken.

[Anonymous]

Serious question: how will eating chicken help him "cope once he is on his own" better?

I'm not a vegetarian, but I don't see why your son can't eat beans and pulses, and possibly some organic eggs or cheese if he wants, for protein? I would think this would be healthier? Can you concentrate on teaching him to cook balanced vegetarian meals?

I lived in South Asia for a few years for work and really liked the vegetarian meal options: such variety and flavor. I don't think your son is missing anything essential, and worry that a young man who wasn't taught to cook balanced meals on his own but has now been encouraged to eat fast food chicken might fall down an unhealthy rabbit hole of fast food and unhealthy eating when he is on his own.

[Anonymous]

I would start with white fish, not chicken.

[Anonymous]

You have to do it slowly as a vegetarian can have a gut reaction to eating meat for the first time in a while.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are culturally vegetarian and have been so for several generations (Indian American).
My son is tall and skinny (just like me) and is fairly rigid with his eating and in life in general. I would like to introduce chicken in his diet to help him cope once he is in his own. He has special needs so I need to start with baby’s steps to overcome his rigidity. I think this will serve him welll by expanding his choices when he is in college/living in his own.

What are some dishes / healthy fast food restaurants we could try that may be most palatable to someone new to this? I don’t plan to cook meat at home.

I’d like to know more about his rigidity regarding eating, and why you think eating chicken would overcome this rigidity.

[Anonymous]

Get a rotisserie chicken. Put it very sparingly with other things, like in a veggie wrap.

Likewise you can get already made turkey meatballs and cut them up sparingly into a rice or pasta dish.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Has he expressed an interest in eating meat/fish/chicken? You can get plenty of variety with a vegetarian diet so I guess I don’t understand the rigidity question. (Indian American who is lifelong vegetarian by choice, but my siblings are omnivores by their choice).

+1. You could get vegetarian meat substitutes if you really want to—Daring brand chicken substitute in the frozen food aisle, Morningstar Farms, or Gardein are just a few options.

Many of these have equivalent nutritional value as chicken.

[Anonymous]

Do you know how to do feeding therapy with him? I had an OT teach me over about ten sessions. Start with a few bites of rotisserie chicken from Costco.

[Anonymous]

Bacon is the gateway meat!

[Anonymous]

Nothing fast food, I never trust that meat. You need to find a local butcher with grass fed meat. Start with bacon wrapped chicken thighs, just season, wrap, and cook in the oven. Or cheeseburgers. Both are easy to cook.

[Anonymous]

BBQ ribs

[Anonymous]

OP, some of these suggestions like bacon wrapped anything and bbq ribs are absurd. Those are delicious foods but they are going to be too different from what your kid is used to, and also too rich and likely to be hard on his gut.

If you're wiling to have and cut meat in your house, and just not cook it, I'd start with something very plain in small quantities, served with what is familiar. Buy 1 grilled chicken breast, or some of the in house sliced deli turkey, or a bag of turkey meatballs at Whole Foods. Shred with a fork, or cut into tiny pieces, and add a small quantity to something familiar that he likes, and gradually increase from there. Then make yourself a portion of the same food, without the meat, and eat together as you would for a regular meal. Let his system adjust gradually.