"For The Nutrients!"

“What did you have for lunch today darling?”

“A smashed grilled cheese on Dakota bread.”

“And breakfast?”

“Bread with peanut butter and banana.”

“Have you eaten anything green today!?”

As a foodie, I am always curious what others eat. When my husband, Matt, gets home from a work (where he mixes dough and bakes breads from early morning to afternoon), I ask him about his day, including an inquiry as to what he ate. For curiosity’s sake!

As a nutritionist-to-be, I also can’t help but analyze the balance of nutrients he gets. Since he started his job at the bakery last year, the amount of food he eats from our fridge has gone down a lot and his bread / flour / baked good consumption has dramatically increased. He eats much less lettuce, dairy (except cheese!), raw veggies and meats because he comes home full of bread. Lucky for him, he also bikes 12 miles to and from work and is on his feet all day, so he needs the carbohydrates for fuel and hasn’t gained an ounce of fat, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t need more balance in his diet!

So it has become a joke in our house that whenever he does eat salads or veggies, he jokes “I’m eating them for the nutrients!” I’ll have a little bit of salad leftover from dinner and will pass it off to him. “Eat this for the nutrients!”I say. He’ll pluck a blackberry into his mouth and smile, “Just getting some antioxidants!” It’s cute. We ate giant zucchini boats recently that were a bit undercooked. I asked him if he was going to eat the whole thing despite it being rather inedible. “Of course,” he smiled, “For the nutrients!”

No, I’m not really that worried about Matt’s nutrient intake, but I’m still halfway serious when I remind him to make the meals he eats at home more vegetable focused. After all, man cannot live on bread alone!

Do you all ever worry about your spouse or partner’s nutrition? Do you eat a very healthy diet with someone who eats nothing but junk? Have you had success improving someone’s diet?