For my family food has always been an impetus for order. Anytime we become -as a group or as individuals- too disjointed or chaotic, my family institutes some drastic changes in our eating-as if this will be a solution to all of our problems. It has been this way since I can remember. I can recall a time when I drank milk on the regular- now I am banned from the terrible liquid. Now, our fridge has a corner exclusively for almond milk; which is “Cordi’s drink.” Before almond milk it was rice milk. Before rice milk it was soy milk, and so on.
When my brothers were little it seemed like maybe they would escape the brunt force of my parent’s “food meddling.” They didn’t. My youngest brother, Leo, had developed a penchant for vegetables and coffee at an early age, which was basically a formula for perpetual skinniness, something my dad and I envied - but was not healthy for a growing 7 year old boy. As for my middle brother Oliver, his appetite was only rivaled by his rising height- something which shocked my whole family (a family of short people) and had my mom rushing to the doctor's office when Oliver couldn’t get out of bed due to his legs literally growing so fast that he could feel immense pain in his knees. Every year the doctors would tell my mom the same thing; Leo-underweight, Oliver-overweight, Cordelia-average. So naturally my mother realized that cooking for all three of us as a unit was not going to work- we each had to be rehabilitated individually- through our diets, of course.
For Leo it was a diet rich with candy and “healthy-unhealthy” snacks, by which I mean 1000 calories wrapped up in a package with more muted colours from Trader Joe’s, which apparently signaled (to my mother) that these foods were superior- organic and over expensive. For Oliver it was the sudden decision that he go gluten free. The fridge and pantry filled quickly with gluten free brownies, gluten free mini muffins, gluten free waffles, etc. It should be noted that just as I was never allergic to lactose, Oliver has never at any point been allergic to gluten.
I was told, as a girl who was still growing (actually I wasn’t, the doctor had said that I was done growing forever) to eat plenty of protein. While I took that as a light suggestion, one to be followed at my own discretion, my parents interpreted it differently. I regularly hear cries of; “Protein! You need to eat some protein with that!”, ringing through the house. No joke, I hear it when I sleep. My parents were not content with average. I began to develop the discreet suspicion that they were trying to fatten me up for some sort of experiment of the most evil kind. (I still have that suspicion)
But alas- I discovered something far more calculated lurking under my parent’s food revivalist attitude. Upon contemplation of the strange patterns of diet, I noticed that all changes in food roughly coincided with changes in our lives. For Oliver, entering middle school was the catalyst for his sudden gluten free lifestyle. For Leo, it was his struggles in school and his anguish once he could grasp the concept of “adopted.” For me; it was a little more complicated. The many changes could be connected to many things, but the most significant ones started taking place in sophomore year when I was finally feeling the stress of challenging coursework, college plans, and an unclear future. I was pissy and reclusive (I still am, but in an okay way) and my parents were not prepared to deal with a hormonal teenage girl at the emotional level. Those mood swings... lets just say I’m glad I’m not a parent. Anyway, my parents way of dealing with that was to decrease the amount of “agitating” foods in my diet. I was restricted from foods with corn syrup because my mom once read somewhere that it caused aggression. I was also given more protein and more iron because a homeopath told my parents that this would reduce my stress levels and my constant fatigue.
The worst part is that they were right. My parents food meddling, no matter how irritating, actually helped me in significant ways. I increased the protein and iron in my diet and I found myself with more energy to get through the day. I decreased the hydrogenated corn syrup filled foods in my diet (aka candy) and I felt much less irritable. And even if I stole over to friends houses on the regular to eat Lucky Charms and Poptarts, I felt a constant reminder of my parents love whenever I thought of my food restrictions- which were really just a subtle guiding hand, symbolic of the care of my parents.
I still drink normal milk on the sly though.
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