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The most annoying things you can say to a vegan this Christmas
There are a few things that are sure at Christmas. Santa will bring gifts, your family will argue and if youre vegan, people will ask you these annoying things.
Okay, so Im technically not a real vegan anymore. I eat eggs sometimes, I admit, but I was a fully-fledged vegan for five years before. In the eyes of most family members, I might as well still be vegan as a dairy-free vegetarian.
Any mealtime with other people often seems to be an open invitation for questions and remarks about your diet when you dont eat meat. Suddenly everyone is concerned about your protein intake or whether or not youd eat a pig if you were on a desert island.
Admittedly, people were far more baffled when I first went vegan in 2018 – but you still get the annoying reel of questions each and every time.
What not to say to a vegan at Christmas this year
I got you a nut roast to go with your Christmas dinner. – This might be the worst thing you can say to a non-meat eater. I take a nut roast as a personal offense. In a world where every supermarket offers modern meat alternatives, theres no place for a nut roast on a Christmas dinner. Especially not a dry one. A study by supermarket Asda found that 26 % of vegans had been served a plain, dry nut roast for Christmas dinner before.
If you dont want to eat meat, then why do you make your food look like it? Most people go vegan for health reasons or not wanting animals to die, not because we dont like the taste of chicken.
Can you still have the gravy if I just take the meat bits out? Im going to say no to that one.
Its not really cheese though it is. Trying to convince me that my Camembert made from coconut oil isnt real cheese isnt going to stop me from dipping bread into it.
Theres hardly any dairy in Baileys, just have it. So, I admit this is the one thing that could tempt me. Baileys is amazing, but they offer a dairy-free version now.
But bacon though.. when I tell you that Im having vegetarian pigs in blankets with my dinner. But bacon is a phrase almost every vegetarian or vegan will have multiple times in their life, and its likely yet to convert one person back to eating meat.
So&can you eat sugar then? This one barely made it to my list because it comes from a place of genuine misunderstanding – and an idea that being vegan means never eating anything unhealthy, ever.
But youre killing a plant to get that food too. Its got to be the worst gotcha attempt in modern history.
Being a vegan at Christmas dinner is what you make of it
For some, being vegan at Christmas means absolutely nothing for the amount of treats I can have, especially with such a wide variety of alternatives. For others, with not-so-understanding friends and families, it can be hard going on the tastebuds.
A study from Asda revealed that one in four vegans feel nervous about what theyll be served for Christmas dinner. 75% of vegans say theyve been served an inedible Christmas dinner by a non-vegan host.
18% say theyve even been served a dish that wasnt actually vegan. As well as a dry nut roast, vegans also say that theyve been disappointed by just vegetables with no trimmings and even beans on toast.
Views are changing on a vegan Christmas dinner
A 2022 study by British Corner Shop found that a growing number of people are eager to change their traditions at Christmas.
The study found that over a third of Brits were open to having a vegetarian or vegan Christmas dinner for the first time.
