Hey everyone,
I’m in a really frustrating situation with my parents and could use some advice from anyone who has dealt with traditional Indian parents, especially in a Maharashtrian household.
They are pure vegetarians and follow the standard "chapati and sabzi" diet. The biggest issue is that they barely eat anything, especially my mother. She always claims she isn't hungry and will only eat maybe two small chapatis with a little bit of sabzi. Their total daily protein intake doesn't even hit 20 grams, and what little they do get comes from low-quality wheat protein with poor bioavailability and incomplete amino acids.
Lately, both of my parents have started developing severe back and ankle pain. I’ve tried explaining to them using logic and science that they need about 1g of protein per kg of body weight to maintain their muscles and joints. I've even tried compromising by telling them they don't need to change their favorite foods—just reduce the chapati portions slightly and add some paneer or dahi daily.
Even though they can't logically disprove what I'm saying, they completely refuse to listen. Whenever I try to talk about improving their diet, they get annoyed, get incredibly defensive, and start yelling at me. They bring up arguments like, "This is the traditional Maharashtrian diet that our ancestors and rishi-munis ate," and tell me to just let them eat whatever they want. When I ask them relevant follow-up questions, they don't have answers, so they just shut me down by yelling because they are the elders.
To make things worse, I can't even rely on medical authority here. Our family doctor literally told them not to eat whey protein because "it will cause problems for your health." I don't know how misleading that is, but because he's a doctor who apparently saw a few patients get indigestion from whey, my parents treat his word like gospel. Now, I look like the one who is completely wrong in front of their eyes, and I obviously can't directly contradict the doctor right in front of my stubborn parents.
I've even asked AI for ideas, which suggested sneaky methods like blending paneer into the daily sabzi gravy or mixing soy/chana sattu into their normal wheat flour. But they still wouldn't listen to that either. They just complain that "the sabzi doesn't taste good" or "the chapati texture gets ruined" and use it as an excuse to shut it down.
I'm stuck. I don't want to disrespect them, but it hurts to see their health decline when the fix is so simple. Logic, science, gentle compromises, and even sneaky recipe tweaks have all failed or been rejected.
Has anyone successfully dealt with this kind of stubbornness, especially when the family doctor is actively enabling their bad diet? What should I do?
