Angelina Jolie Nixes Brad Pitt's Plea to Go Veg

I can't believe I'm about to say this, but GO ANGELINA. 

It's been reported that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have come to an impasse concerning the diet of the Jolie-Pitt household. Pitt has been a vegetarian for decades and wants Jolie and the couple's children to become vegetarians, too. He's concerned with the methane gases emitted by cattle, cow farts in layman's terms.

Somehow I think that a woman who used to wear a vial of human blood as a fashion accessory isn't going to just give up red meat. 

The woman is, by all accounts, a maneater. 

I think it's fine if Pitt is a vegetarian or Jolie is a carnivore; I tend to get squirmy when it comes to imposing such eating habits on children before they can make up their own minds and come to their own conclusions as to why they want to follow the diet that they choose. Let them eat what they want, healthy and within reason, and they can sort out the conscientious stuff when they're old enough.

And if they want to wear a vial of blood around their neck then, well, I guess that's OK, too. 

Via, related

Comments

[michele]

interesting. course they can just sort of compromise and make meals heavy on the veggies and such lighten the meat intake. prob to a vegetarian this is not really a compromise but to a omnivore like myself, it is.

[daisybones]

I'm a veg married to a carnivore:) I'm with Michele- reducing meat intake IS a good compromise if the motivation is environmental.

[Emily]

I don't think making a child a vegetarian is any more heavy-handed than "making" them a carnivore. If you raise a child to not eat meat and make sure they have balanced nutrition and a healthy diet, then does it matter that they are vegetarian?

(As a single, not-mother I will add) If I someday have kids they'll share my beliefs until they have their own. Isn't that all you can do? Raise children the best way you know how, and why would meat be essential to that, if I don't believe in consuming it?

Hopefully, I wouldn't be crushed if they chose to eat meat someday, but when it is my house and my wallet paying for the food... it's going to be vegetarian.

I don't know what I'd do in a household with mixed eating views. I'm not going to say it's a dealbreaker, but it would probably have to be local, farm-raised meat for my husband and kids.

[Jessi]

I agree with Jolie. It would be different if they were both veg, but it seems to me a bit pig-headed to try to force the rest of your family to be veg, if you're the only one.

[jess]

Uhm?? Am I in an alternate universe? Isn't Jolie being pig-headed by forcing her kids to eat meat? Kids don't inherently like to eat meat. You train them to do it, the same way you train them to do everything else. It's the year 2009, and being a vegetarian family isn't some crazy radical hippie thing. It's just a responsible environmental, social, justice-driven decision. You can make the case for responsible omnivore families, including organic, free-range meat, but those options are cost-prohibitive for a lot of people. Our teenager has always been a vegetarian, but he has "permission" to eat whatever he wants - he just choses to always eat vegetarian not because we "make him" but because he is making an informed decision, and he knows what is in meat and where it comes from. I wanted to raise a free-thinker, and wow, did we get one.

[TasterSpoon]

I'm an omnivore, but I kind of think that since kids start out ignorant of where their food comes from and have no control over what's made available to them, rearing them vegetarian is more ethically sound.

I feel like a child who grows up vegetarian but learns about the world and makes her own choice to then eat animals doesn't really have anything to hold against her parents. So she missed out on some deliciousness. But a child who grows up being fed meat and then learns to his horror what meat is and where it comes from and perhaps finds it morally repugnant has plenty of reason to be pissed, because they were made an unwilling party to activities they abhor.

In real life I'll probably give my kids everything, just like I eat, but this is something I should probably think about.

[ozma]

Jess: Oh man, no no no. My kid did not have to be trained to eat meat.

Hell to the no on that.

She LOVES meat. In fact, I don't eat meat and when she was little, we ate almost exclusively tofu (I got a thyroid illness and I stopped eating soy). I remember seeing her attack meat when she was a toddler and feeling really guilty. I mean, she went crazy. When she is given beef she becomes like a wild animal. I'm like 'are we not feeding her right?' We just don't eat much beef.

In fact, she went a little crazy on chicken wings tonight at the Whole Foods salad bar. Are we too light on protein in our house? Or is she just growing? (She is five.)

Same with seafood. She went nuts on crab legs. It frightens me how much salmon she will eat. Animal protein is clearly of natural interest to her. I think, if we'd raised her veg and told her it was really, really wrong to eat animals, maybe she would not be so keen on eating them. But seriously, I wonder about that even!

In fact, she told me tonight she was a tyrannosaurus SHARK and poor me, why don't I eat meat? Totally unprompted.

There is no way in hell I would impose my vegetarianism on my kid, after seeing what she does when given pieces of steak.

Actually...I just realized I was like this when I was a young kid. I loved meat. Now I don't like it so much.

[Cobblestone]

Omnivore married to a vegan here with an 11 month old who eats ... eh... whatever. Running theory in this house is that exposure to the social norm is important (commercial cookies etc ...) but that food is supposed to make you feel good, not bad. For me, meat works - for hubby, it does not - for the babe, we just don't know yet.

[DianaCLT]

Tee hee! Good choice of wording - "pig-headed" - when discussing vegetarianism. I appreciate the irony, intended or not!

(Yes...am easily amused.)

[Kai]

Uh, sorry Jess, but plenty of kids DO inherently like to eat meat. I've been an ovo-lacto vegetarian for 15 years now (my husband is way carnivorous), but we decided to let our children try a variety of foods for themselves -- I can't handle spicy food, but my kid will sure as hell be allowed to sample it and decide for herself. And guess what? My daughter. She is a fiend for pork. Sausage, bacon, bratwurst, whatevs. She'll eat a cheeseburger now and again, doesn't like steak, sucks down seafood like nobody's business, and is iffy on poultry, but nothing makes the kid happier than a plate full of italian sausage. A close second: cole slaw. So, sorry. Some kids love meat.