And a large order of fries

Food is an issue at our house.
 
For me, food has always been an issue but I’m currently trying to lose weight so… it’s a bigger issue than usual.
 
For Gary, food should have always been an issue but he wasn’t about to let diabetes or a heart attack stand between him and what he wanted to eat.    Over the last two years, as his health has declined, I’ve been struggling with what to feed him.  On one hand, I desperately want him to eat healthier food but, on the other, if I were him – bedridden, confused, and living a joyless life, I’d want to subsist on junk food, too.  So, I think I should just let him eat whatever he wants.  But then the grocery delivery shows up and it looks like my 9-year old nieces are in charge of the menu: cookies, candy, ice cream.  But where’s the harm, right?  I mean, there’s no chance he’s going to get better, so why not?  But still, I find myself trying to persuade him to eat a vegetable – any vegetable….and mentally keeping track of how long it’s been since any protein has crossed his lips.  So I keep trying and then I feel bad – food is the only joy left, why can’t I leave it alone? 
 
It’s because I want him to be healthy.  That’s why.
 
Maybe it's also a little bit because I’m begrudging him his dinner of Nutter Butters while I tuck into a Lean Cuisine heap o’something, still partially frozen in the middle.  But mostly it’s because I want him to be healthy.
 

Yesterday, my quest to get him to eat healthier hit a roadblock from an unexpected source: his doctor.  A new, well-meaning neurologist, trying to explain Lewy Body Dementia, told him it was caused by abnormal protein deposits in the brain.  It’s something he heard before, but yesterday it struck a different chord with him and he thinks his dementia was caused by eating protein.  And, just like that, he has permanently sworn off protein.
 
I’ve tried to clarify, but that was fruitless.  And I’ve been stewing about it all day.
 
Seems like he isn’t the only one with food on the brain.