Why?
Let’s say you make some vegan chocolate chip cookies. (I looked a recipe up for the sake of this post). These cookies are made with almond milk.
You have a friend that you’ve known for a few months now, and you think it would be nice to surprise them.
So, you offer them one of the cookies. You don’t tell them they’re vegan. As far as your friend is aware, they’re made with cow milk and chicken eggs.
Your friend takes one bite, and a few minutes later you’re using their epi-pen on them and calling 911.
See, what just happened is that your hypothetical friend here has a nut allergy that you didn’t know about, and the almond milk in the cookies was enough to put them in the hospital.
You could have avoided this whole situation by informing your friend that they’re vegan, thus prompting the question “It’s not made with almond milk, is it?”
This doesn’t just apply to cookies. While I’ve never found one, if you happen to know of a vegan fake meat that’s not made with soy and looks and smells exactly like the meat version, don’t serve it to someone and not tell them until after they eat it.
“But I, a vegan, would never do that!”
Great, then this post isn’t about you. This post is about the people who post shit like “when you give your friend vegan food without telling them and they like it *insert gif here*”, and it’s also about the thousands of people who reblog it.
– Avery
And some people have dusgestive issues or health issues that conflict with some vegan ingredients too
Soy and wheat are used in a lot of meat replacements, and are also 2 of the top 8 food allergens.
And, as mentioned before, peanuts and tree nuts are two more–so, half of the most common food allergens are the things used as vegan substitutes. (Which is also why a lot of people can’t be vegan.)
Basically don’t tell someone you’re giving them one thing when secretly it’s another, ever
This goes for vegan food and also goes for stuff like decaff coffee and so on, there are good reasons why people CAN’T eat/drink certain foods sometimes and tricking them into eating/drinking something without their knowledge by letting them think it’s one thing when it is another isn’t always a harmless thing to do it can actually put their life at risk 🙁
Honestly? As a person with food allergies who also does a fair amount of vegan baking (BECAUSE of my food allergies!) –
I think it’s on the person with allergies to ask before consuming something? If you know some food might kill you or make you violently ill, you are not likely to accept gifts of food from people without making sure they are safe.The entire premise is that the person is being tricked.
And the entire post is explaining that you should not trick people into trying something different because it could negatively affect their health.
Someone brought up decaff coffee as an example, which has been discussed in a barista post as well. Giving anything but decaff coffee to a triple bypass patient could land them in the OR again or worse. In the barista example the patient goes to a coffee shop, orders decaf and is given full caf instead. The same has happened with people ordering soy and getting full fat. So on and so forth.
So, in conclusion, this is not a psa for people with food allergies. This is a psa for those of us lucky enough not to have them and those near sighted enough to find it difficult to recognize that other people live with them.
I have food allergies. I usually ask. But here’s something that actually happened once: my dining hall made Salisbury steak with nutmeg, to which I am allergic. I did not think to ask, “Hey, is there nutmeg on this beef?” because beef is almost never made with nutmeg. I assumed the smell was coming from the carrot cake sitting next to it, since carrot cake often is made with nutmeg. To put it mildly, I spent the rest of the day in considerable distress. To this day, I have never encountered a recipe for Salisbury steak that calls for nutmeg.
However, it’s also ridiculous to say “You should always ask what’s in something!” because sometimes it’s fucking ridiculous. I’m not going to list off all my food allergens to see what’s safe to eat; I’m going to stick to food that generally is safe and google or ignore the rest.
But say you’re allergic to apples, and you see chocolate cake. You know there are NEVER apples in chocolate cake, so you take a piece. Uh-oh: it’s vegan and applesauce was used in place of eggs.
If you’re deviating from the standard, LET PEOPLE KNOW.
I’m gonna reblog this version for the commentary. My sister is allergic to most meat substitutes (including soy) due to her nickel allergy, so she’s one of those people you shouldn’t surprise like this. Please signal boost this.
Another thing that’s a problem here: Don’t assume you know their reasons. Yeah, there are a lot of annoying hipsters going “gluten-free” for silly fad reasons. But there are also people who really can’t eat it because of celiac disease. Making a “point” to the former isn’t worth hurting the latter. Unless you’re an asshole.
I’ve got Crohn’s Disease. Almost anything in it with fiber (like say vegetables) makes me ill and causes extreme pain in my digestive track. I have to take a 3,000 dollar medicine twice a month to control it. Like soy. Soy can make me sick.
So yeah. Don’t trick people into eating something.
Even when you do ask, it doesn’t always help. MOST people are forthcoming about ingredients, but I’ve also had conversations like the following:
“Here, try some of this!”
“Does this have milk in it?”
“Just try it!”
“Does it have milk in it.”
“Just eat it.”
“Does. This. Have. Milk. In. It.”
“….”
“….”
“Actually, I’m not sure.”Now with something like this I can (and do) pass, but if this person were deliberately trying to trick me, like if they – say – thought my avoidance of dairy was a fad thing or all in my head? I’d probably take them at their word and pay for it later. My dairy intolerance isn’t a life threatening thing, but for many it IS, and you should never assume you know better. Especially if the food in question is made with something unexpected. That goes for vegan as well as things like low-carb/paleo foods.