For the love of God, stop it with the special diets

[Anonymous]

Searching for AP#7! I cannot believe some of the diet specifications:

"I eat fish and occasional free-range chicken. I prefer a primarily vegetable and grain-based diet"
"Organic foods are important to me"
"Pescatarian and gluten free"
"No dairy or gluten"
"I want to avoid junk food and eat a whole food diet"
"I'm allergic to meat" (??)


Look: a request here and there or an allergy? Sure. We can work around that. My husband and daughter don't eat meat so vegetarians aren't an issue for us. But really? I have to buy organic free range chicken if I want her to eat it????

There was one AP who said she had a lot of food allergies and that she would be happy to do the bulk of family cooking to help her avoid her allergens. cool. I really just immediately discount the candidates with weird, specific food preferences.

[Anonymous]

Well, at least they are upfront about their diet.

What you can do or say is that she's welcome to use any staple in your kitchen for her meals and that anything else is on her.

I think it's good that people are more careful about what they eat, many cancers come from what you eat.

Just don't make it your problem and let her organize her meals.

Good luck

[Anonymous]

I saw a recent CCAP rematch profile with the stated reason for rematch being “host family didn’t provide organic foods”.

I just switched to APC, and they have a search feature that allows you to filter by diet types. I was so grateful to see this after having been though so many CCAP profiles that looked promising until I stumbled across the diets (ketogenic, organics only, etc.).

[Anonymous]

A high maintenance diet = high maintenance AP. Swipe left and preserve your sanity.

[Anonymous]

Almost every AP I'm in touch with this year is a vegetarian.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Almost every AP I'm in touch with this year is a vegetarian.

Our vegetarian AP asked for a bunch of frozen vegetarian things like veggie meatballs, various veggie burgers, veggie cakes, etc. She ended up eating Honeycrisp apples (had to be Honeycrisp), toast with jam, sugary cereal she requested, and the occasional bowl of mixed vegetables. Then she left the program early, returned to her home country, and left us with a freezer full of uneaten vegetarian specialty products. Sigh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Almost every AP I'm in touch with this year is a vegetarian.

Our vegetarian AP asked for a bunch of frozen vegetarian things like veggie meatballs, various veggie burgers, veggie cakes, etc. She ended up eating Honeycrisp apples (had to be Honeycrisp), toast with jam, sugary cereal she requested, and the occasional bowl of mixed vegetables. Then she left the program early, returned to her home country, and left us with a freezer full of uneaten vegetarian specialty products. Sigh.

They‘re nice drained in gravy from Sunday roast.

We only cater for vegetarians who are willing to eat seasonal AND regional products within the equivalent budget. There‘s nothing more annoying (or costly for that purpose) than a vegetarian who can‘t cook and/or is very restricted regarding which veggies they will eat.

By the way oreos are vegan.

[Anonymous]

This would not be a big deal to me since we eat mostly organic and any animal products we eat come from hormone-free, free-range, organic, etc. animals.

[Anonymous]

Yes, and while we are at it, enough with the fad diets too. Gobs of protein powder, green tea followed by coconut oil in coffee (because apparently it helps people lose weight in the tummy)....all in the name of health, but then asks for white rice because our brown rice is too weird.

[Anonymous]

“I don’t eat pork because it’s unhealthy.”

Pass me your bacon and watch me wallow in unhealthiness. Mmm...

But yes, I agree with you that there seems to be a lot more ridiculously picky eaters in the pool.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This would not be a big deal to me since we eat mostly organic and any animal products we eat come from hormone-free, free-range, organic, etc. animals.

Slow clap.

Eye roll

[Anonymous]

Organic foods are a gigantic scam anyway

[Anonymous]

Yeah! I still remember how our vegan AP discovered bacon! She thought it was a vegetable! She stopped being vegan in about a week

[Anonymous]

Canadian here/ I was an au pair in the US and Europe, and to be honest I’d probably make those dietary requirements as well, because you would not believe how a lot of Americans eat! We may sure a border but we do not share food and lifestyle choices. I won’t/can’t drink American milk because it tastes weird unless it’s organic. I think a lot of Europeans feel the same way, we eat healthier outside the US.

[Anonymous]

You see, I find it kind of insulting that Au Pairs would think that all Americans eat unhealthy foods.

The milk we buy by home delivery is not organic. But that's because it's not certified organic which is more expensive. It's the same milk as the one labelled organic, it's just cheaper because they don't have it certified. It tastes just the same.

Anyway, I was an exchange student in Germany for 3 months in high school. My mom told me I had to eat what was served to me and so I did. My two favorite Au Pairs that we had were willing to try absolutely anything and while they definitely preferred healthier options (as our family does) they also enjoyed the awesomness of a Costco hotdog or an elephant ear at the fair. Neither gained weight while here and one went on to become a vegan (for animal rights reasons, not so much because she wanted to for health reasons).

Bottom line is: it's a year. If you have an allergy/sensitivity or a special diet due to religion, that's ok. But to get the most out of your year, it seems ridiculous to restrict your eating to some arbitrary "lifestyle" diet. Keto, vegan, gluten free, etc. Boring.