Hi miss knife you are so very smart and funny really love your talk about the book and our friend shane today! will trade anything to get a chance to read more.
I would like to ask a question how do you feel about shane's diet? I personally don't trust Reid because it is almost impossible to have a diet like that and play hockey at the same time. Have a strong feeling she chose it because technically it was from japan, but doubt that she might not even do research about it. but I am still curious about how other people feel about it since it is still canon...right now I am avoiding writing about food in fanfic, really sad!
terrific question. shane appears to be on what is already a "modified" macrobiotic diet, since we see him eat fish at dinner with his mom, and we know she is a huge proponent of his lifestyle and wouldn't order something he couldn't eat. so he's already kind of changing it a little bit. this is good.
the thing about a macrobiotic diet is that it's low protein on purpose. so he'd need to be supplementing. he'd have to get his protein from somewhere else. if we go off of tv show shane's size/weight which is around 6' and probably (?) 180+lbs of mostly muscle, then he'd need like 2g of protein per kilo of bodyweight which i THINK is the medically accepted ratio for a performance athlete looking to at least MAINTAIN his body mass. and so we're looking at like a minimum 180g of protein per day? like for example connor was like "i'd eat 2lbs of ground beef on set every day" and that's like... 130g of protein right there depending on your beef. and so if shane is eating that much protein he'd need to be supplementing with fiber.
the things we see him eat in canon are, admittedly, a little odd. we see him eat bread, cheese, french fries, pasta, and drink beer when it's offered to him. also the ginger ale that's used is not the sugar free kind, so he's also apparently okay with consuming refined sugar + carbs. which is not Bad, it's just not macrobitioc.
the other thing about a macrobiotic diet is that it's not just, like, a diet. it's a whole entire approach to living and eating. you can't eat tropical fruit. you're supposed to only eat locally sourced foods. you have to chew every single bite "until liquid". so for shane it's kind of pushing the boundaries of what's realistic. he could definitely survive, but he'd have to be supplementing it like crazy.
now moving on to the thing about shane: the thing about shane and his eating is that i honestly don't think he's on a Real macrobiotic diet. he's orthorexic. if you don't know what that is: here you go. a case also could be made for ARFID, but he seems pretty textbook orthorexic to me. he has control issues. he has self image issues. he went online and found the most restrictive thing he possibly could make work for himself, and went with it. he has an eating disorder.
i am not saying that every person on a macrobiotic diet has an eating disorder. if you're doing it right, it's 100% a sustainable and healthy way to live. shane is not doing that. his relationship with food is not normal. there's a GREAT post here detailing every time he addresses his diet in the books. it is not normal to be so upset about a cookie. the way his diet affects his life is NOT a lifestyle. it's a disorder. his eating is profoundly disordered. i don't know how on earth she "accidentally" gave him one of the most severe cases of on page orthorexia i've ever seen, but she did.
if it fucks with your life to this degree, it's a disorder. if it fucks with your brain to this degree, it's a disorder. he is blatantly and explicitly struggling with a mental health condition that is damaging his self esteem, his social life, and his body. the fact his self-worth and his belief in his ability as an athlete is tied so tightly to what he eats is disordered. the fact he YEARNS on page for tacos and a snickers bar and a cookie and pizza is a disorder. the fact he lies OPENLY, BLATANTLY, and says to himself HE IS LYING to his friends and loved ones about his diet IS A DISORDER. the fact he mentions that he misses out on cooking, parties, socializing, etc is crazy! it's running his life! it's running his whole entire life! like idk what we're seeing that RR is not. he is not "really" on a macrobiotic diet, because he eats refined/processed carbs and cheese and fruit and snacks and alcohol. he refuses white wine "because of training" in one scene, then drinks multiple beers in another scene in the same episode. he can force himself to eat "dangerous" foods if he feels that it'll help him fit in better or if the "danger" will be worth it. he drinks to help himself cope with overwhelming social situations (which is a whole 'nother topic you didn't ask me to get into so i won't).
like i don't doubt that he tells himself it's a macrobiotic diet, and i don't doubt that he adheres to some of those guidelines, but that's just because the parameters of that diet happen to most closely resemble the rules he's made up for himself in his head. he has an eating disorder, and he is lying about it, and he is trying to pass it off as something that helps him that he enjoys because that is what someone with an eating disorder like his would do.
for the sake of giving canon the benefit of the doubt, we have to assume he's supplementing. in order to make sure he's building or at least maintaining muscle, he'd need protein and iron supplements. in order to keep his fucking bones from breaking every time he gets checked, he'd need vitamin D and calcium supplements. in order to make sure his body functions and he's able to be sexually active, he'd need fiber supplements. we don't ever see him do any of this, but i guess that's not really what the show is about. even though they take time to mention it once or twice, it's not really a show about what supplements shane is taking. and this is only assuming he has found supplements that are "safe".
anyway. tl;dr: he's a control freak with an eating disorder and he's wrapped it in the socially acceptable package of a strict performance diet and it's actually actively both completely dominating and totally ruining his life. ty for asking
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