Disagreements over the correct diet for a twelve-year-old boy became so heated for one divorced Italian couple, the father took the matter to court and won, meaning the mother must now cook him meat.
The battle over the health of the young boy began in 2006 when the mother began eating what she identifies as a ‘macrobiotic diet’ – an extremist form of veganism in which the main food is grains, to the exclusion of almost all else. The court heard that the main food in the mother’s house was boiled, plain rice – but when the father took custody of the child at weekends he was determined to give him a proper diet.
When away from his mother, the boy visited his paternal grandmother with his father and they would eat “great feasts”, including polenta, Italian sausages, and Gorgonzola, as well as McDonalds burgers. The mother in turn accused her former husband of harming the child by feeding him meat, which she claimed gave him stomach-ache, reports L’Eco di Bergamo.
The court has now ruled the mother must cook meat for her son at least once a week.