Okay, first off, I have no problems with Vegans in general. I’m a long time vegetarian myself. However, I think this situation crosses a line…
Some members of my class recently set up a dinner club. We are randomly arranged into groups and the group members take turns cooking and hosting a dinner. It is all voluntary, and no one has to participate. I thought, “cool, I can make a decent lasguna, this sounds like fun.”
But my group got assigned TheVegan. The Vegan then sent out an e-mail informing the group that she doesn’t eat meat, gluten, flour, salt, butter, cheese, eggs, baked goods, etc. etc. But hey, most plants are okay. Thank goodness, I thought we were in trouble for a minute there.
So, what the hell are we supposed to cook? A salad? Good grief. I don’t know how to do this. Why in the world would you join a cooking group with such severe dietary restrictions*? Okay, you want to meet new people. Then join a group whose focus isn’t cooking!
The more patient members of the group are suggesting that she just bring a side dish to each meal and not be responsible for cooking an entire meal herself. Bravo, but I still pit the ditz for joining a group she is inherently unsuited for.
*I’m guessing part of her diet is a result of allergies.
Sounds pretty clueless. I think the Miss Manners thing to do would be to send out a follow-up email: “I think this is a great point, Vegan, although we should probably handle it in a different way. Why don’t we let folks know in advance what meal we plan to make–that way, if other folks will be unable to eat it, they will know to bring a dish for themselves to that particular dinner? For example, the lasagna I’m going to make will violate every single one of your restrictions, so that may not be the best dinner club meeting for you to come to.”
That way, she’ll get the picture without a confrontation being necessary.
She could have (or suffer from the delusion that she has) celiac disease, which would mean that flour is out. Her veganism could account for most other restrictions. But the salt thing is pretty bizarre. Maybe she means that she tries to minimize her salt intake?
In any case, I think that making clear to her that it’s her responsibility to avoid eating these foods, and not yours to avoid serving her these foods, is necessary.
Whoah man. I’m a vegetarian. It’s never a factor. It almost never ever ever even comes up. And when it does, I don’t mention it- it’s my problem for being such a weirdo, after all.
Unfortunately, I end up around a lot of vegans. Let’s face it, if you are vegan, you just have to give up on the idea of food being a social thing. You arn’t going to be able to go to restraunts. You arn’t going to be a big hit at dinner parties. You are going to end up either being very hungry or very annoying.
Food allergies are rather rare and certainly don’t account for all the people who claim to have them. For example, most people will tell you they are sensitive to MSG. But when they did a study of “sensitive to MSG” individuals where they secretly fed them massive amounts of MSG, most people did not report any reaction.
Anyway, I’m all for taking people’s words for things, but since veganism (and vegetarianism, for that matter) is a bit of an eating disorder on it’s own, anyone who has a further restricted diet is a little suspect to me.
Ah yes, I also forgot that sugar isn’t allowed either. There goes 70% of my diet.
Apparently, she eats a lot of plants. She’s brought some strange things to school (veggie smoothies? ewwww). I’ll probably learn more after the first dinner club meeting - presumably she won’t be eating and will have plenty of time to explain how she came up with all this.
I just assumed the white flour/glutans thing had to be an allergy. I certainly can’t fathom the reasoning behind it if it’s voluntary.
I suppose. I just kind of resent having to restrict the meals that severely. I like cheese, milk, salt and sugar. I’m also fairly busy - with the recipes I know I can get them going and then wander off because I know what to expect.
I was under the impression that you needed a certain amount of salt in your diet to remain healthy. Isn’t that why people die of overhydration, because their water and salt levels go too out of whack?
some people are just anti-wheat. I forget the exact reasons; being a vegan, I had many friends in college in southern california with more extreme diets than mine, and many of them didn’t eat any wheat products. I usually tuned out when they explained why. Now I live in the south where people still ask me if I eat pork when I explain what veganism is.
But, yeah, that’s silly of her to join such a group and expect other people to change all their plans.
A friend told me sugar can be out for some vegans and even “regular” vegetarians because of the bleaching process. She said it uses bonemeal somehow. Maybe that’s why fruits are in and “sugar” is out?
I don’t actually know about this, but that’s what I was told when I was trying to figure out how to make vegan brownies. She also said that sometimes chocolate is not vegan, from what she understands. However, neither of us is vegetarian of any stripe, much less vegan, so this could be incorrect.
Does anyone know about chocoalte and sugar being not vegan?
Either way, it sounds like she needs a different social outlet.
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