“AITA For Adding Meat To My Girlfriend’s Vegan Dishes?”

No two people are the same, which is especially true when it comes to food. With different dietary restrictions or preferences, among other things, living with a partner might require adjusting to.

Redditor u/Spaghetticat37 told the AITA community about having to alter the vegan dishes their girlfriend makes. They said her food often keeps them hungry, which is why the redditor would add meat or eggs to their meals. Even though they would add none to hers, the girlfriend threw a fit about it.

Some data suggests that the number of people choosing the vegan diet has grown exponentially during the last decade. In Great Britain, for instance, the number of vegans has quadrupled in just five years starting in 2014. In 2019, as many as 600,000 people were following the vegan diet, comprising 1.16% of Great Britain’s entire population. When it comes to the US, according to The Vegetarian Resource Group’s 2022 data, roughly 3% of Americans are vegan.

The Vegetarian Resource Group also revealed that a fifth of US adults sometimes eat vegan meals; however, nearly 40% say they would never choose a vegan or a vegetarian option. The OP wasn’t a vegan themselves, but they didn’t mind eating plant-based meals as long as they provided enough sustenance to keep them full.

The vegan diet is plant-based, meaning people receive nutrients from vegetables and fruit, grains, nuts, and foods made from plants. They opt out of eating meat, as well as any items deriving from animal products, such as dairy, eggs, and honey, just to name a few. For some people, such a diet can lead to a nutrient deficiency if not followed properly, which is why it’s important to make sure to eat well-balanced vegan meals.

In order to lead a healthy vegan lifestyle, the National Health Service (NHS) recommends basing meals on starchy carbohydrates, such as potatoes, bread, rice, or pasta, and suggests choosing wholegrain if possible. It also encourages having some fortified dairy alternatives (soya milk, for instance), and eating at least five servings of various fruits and vegetables every day, as well as beans, pulses, and other proteins.

According to the NHS, it is also beneficial to include fortified foods or supplements containing certain nutrients, such as iron, calcium, vitamin D, vitamin B12, selenium, and iodine, into your diet.

People opt for a vegan diet for numerous reasons, three of the main ones being animal welfare, environmental reasons, and health. Veggly revealed that according to a global survey of 8,500 people following a plant-based diet, roughly 90%, 64%, and 53% are motivated by these reasons respectively.

A report from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change pointed out that a shift to plant-based diets could significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, compared to current dietary patterns of people in most industrialized countries. Based on the report, such a shift could reduce food production-related greenhouse gasses by 70%, by 2050. It is also believed that shifting to a plant-based diet could reduce the mortality rate by 10% by the same year, as it minimizes the risk of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.

According to Healthline, there are different types of vegan diets one can follow. Some examples include the whole food vegan diet, based on a variety of whole plant foods; the raw food variation, based on raw plant-based foods cooked below 118°F (48°C); and the 80/10/10 diet—also known as low fat, raw food vegan diet or fruitarian diet—referring to limiting fat-rich plants such as nuts and avocados, opting for raw fruits and soft greens instead.

Depending on how often the OP opts for vegan or vegetarian meals, they could be considered flexitarian—a term that refers to a person who follows a primarily vegetarian diet, but eats meat or fish every once in a while. However, since they don’t consider themselves neither vegan, nor vegetarian, they didn’t see the problem with cooking some non-vegan sides to add to their girlfriend’s dishes. Neither did fellow redditors, the majority of whom thought the OP wasn’t being a jerk.