A flexitarian diet

My dad decided more than a year ago to start a vegan diet. He has Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s and he read that a vegan diet can help with symptoms. He followed it pretty faithfully for about a year (and he’s a lifelong meat lover, so this was a massive shift), but recently as his memory has worsened, he has become what I call “flexitarian.” He still eats vegan a lot of the time, but if he wants a chocolate milkshake and bacon cheeseburger, then he’s going to have that.

To me, this seems healthy and wise. For my mom, who is not vegan and had to start cooking again last year to make sure dad was getting enough protein and a balanced diet, this is good news in that it makes her life less stressful. She’s having to manage all the minute details of his life now, and figuring out his three meals a day on top of that was rough.

So today I stress baked some chocolate chip cookies for mom and Jamie and me. They have butter and an egg in them. I told dad I’d make him another batch of vegan ones but he ate like four of these so I think we are good.