US less vegetarian-friendly than UK?

[Star555]

Comparing menus at common fast food restaurants that are in both the US and UK (like McDonalds, Subway etc.) it seems the UK consistently has a larger number of vegetarian options or healthier meat (chicken/fish instead of beef/pork) options than the US. Given the diversity of the US population, especially in big cities like NYC and LA, I find it really surprising. The US certainly has more money so why not introduce more veg-friendly options on top of the usual hamburgers and hot dogs? Why is the UK "ahead" in this regard?

I disagree with you about which UK being 'ahead'.
But maybe that's because I don't go to those fast food joints so don't care about them.
Plus when I was vegetarian I didn't worry about trace ingredients (like animal-based rennet in some cheese).

I'll leave the thread before purists arrive.

I ALWAYS struggle in the USA if you're somewhere coastal there are great veggie places/options but vast swathes of the USA seem to rely on meat and wheat in restaurants

I think most places are less vegetarian / vegan friendly than the UK. Most restaurants here have one or two vegetarian options as a matter of course.

I lived in the US, in the Carolinas for a while years ago and it was very tricky. At a baseball game there were bacon bits in the salad and meat in the baked beans. I literally only had bread to eat! Things have probably changed but that was a time when the UK had veggie options everywhere.

I heard a joke once about a journalist covering a story in Montana. He struggled to find anything to eat on the menu so asked the waitress 'What do you do if you are a vegetarian in Montana?'. The answer? 'You get out of Montana!'.

I travelled around the USA with a vegetarian friend. It was a nightmare, we ate a lot of pizza. This was 15 years ago, so things may have changed but it was definitely harder for a vegetarian to eat out there than in the UK. Not as bad as travelling with a vegan in France though!

That reminds me of when I was in America for 1st time, about 25 years ago, a few times when I asked if there was anything vegetarian I was offered the poultry menu ! Other times I didn’t even bother asking,. It was hard in Europe too especially France too. vegetarian was not as common as it is today and UK was definitely ahead 25/35 years ago. I would hope it’s better now.

I lived in California 15 years ago. There were almost always decent vegetarian options but sometimes I ended up with a potato and salad. I was a student and if the group wanted to go to a steak house say I kind of had to follow the pack.
The annoying thing was hidden ingredients, like gelatine in yoghurt and beef fat in chips which made it harder to eat things I'd normally expect to be safe.
Ironically when I tried to register as a blood donor they turned me down because I'd lived in the UK in the nineties so they were worried I'd eaten dodgy beef!

It's not something I've noticed. I like to know how my meat was raised and killed so regularly opt for the vegetarian choice. Admittedly when we've been in more rural areas or large cities it's possible to know exactly where the meat has come from so I'll eat it, but often it's not an option. It's never been difficult to find a range of vegetarian options, despite the fact we don't go in for heavy research and I've never dined in an exclusively vegetarian restaurant anywhere.

However we only holiday in the USA, so wouldn't choose to eat chain restaurant fast food, don't generally stay in the tourist hotspots, and the novelty of different cuisine makes even the most mundane ingredients delicious.

Outside wealthy western countries meat is a relatively small part of the diet, so there are far more choices that are vegetarian by default, rather than deliberately contrived menu items. And the USA has a lot of different cultures and a big wealth divide.

But what is sold by the likes of Subway or mcds isn't representative of a country's provisions for vegetarians, is it?

Most vegetarians would avoid McDonald's at least on ethical grounds, so McDonald's probably think they don't need to try and attract them, and the veggie wrap thing is awful.

Subway is dreadful anyway, do I don't understand why anyone goes there.

I found road tripping in rural parts quite hard in the states, I had lots of fries and if I was lucky salads (drenched in luridly coloured dressings). Also encountered vegetable sides with (for me) surprise bacon, eg not listed in description. Cities very veggie friendly though! Uk is very good now!

My daughter is vegetarian and has been for four years now and we are finding that it's getting "better" but she is far from being catered to her or vegans.

I do live in Texas though. Beef is king 👑

It's something that is indeed changing. Local and independent restaurants are more than likely to have options (there's a great Vegan BBQ food truck in my city) but the chains are not so forthcoming.

I have a few friends in Reading who are vegetarian and have been for decades (we met back in the 90's) and we used to laugh that many pub/gastro restaurants had some form of grilled lettuce and chips. an omelette and a horror that is "nut roast".

My daughter is looking forward to returning to visit the UK and stay with her grandparents up in Greater Manchester because the options for her are so much better than here.

As someone who works on a flavor trends magazine aimed at menu developers at the sort of chains you’re talking about OP, for the last two years or so plant-based foods have been one of the biggest up-and-coming trends.

I do not know any vegetarians who would eat McDonalds food though.

You have to remember that bad health is BIG business in the US. They WANT you to be unhealthy and ill because it’ll make tons of money.

The UK needs you to be healthy so you stop costing the govt millions. So, sugar tax, veggie & vegan food is much more available because a high red/processed meat diet is very fucking spendy

@Ostryga

You have to remember that bad health is BIG business in the US. They WANT you to be unhealthy and ill because it’ll make tons of money.

The UK needs you to be healthy so you stop costing the govt millions. So, sugar tax, veggie & vegan food is much more available because a high red/processed meat diet is very fucking spendy

Who are ‘they’?

IME McDonalds was shit when it came to vegetarian options in 2018! Though we had the biggest one local to our hotel when we went so I tended to get things like pasta and pizza instead (it was bloody brilliant!). Even the egg McMuffin came with sausage/bacon as standard so I tended to have that without the sausage/bacon.

Disney World/Universal Studios had quite a few good vegetarian options, even on kids menu’s. I remember in one of the buffet restaurants they had something that looked good but had bacon pieces in it, we were able to request it with no bacon and they happily accommodated us.

I think very much depends where you live. I’m in coastal Southern California and there are endless vegan and vegetarian options available. There’s enough demand to create supply.

The US is a massive country with terrible food, generally. There are pockets of affordable veggie food like in California or LA, but those are very much based on privilege and access to money. Whole Foods is like heaven, but even my very wealthy friends call it Whole Pay Check. Most Americans eat very badly and there's sugar in everything.

The fast-food market is much wider in the US so I don't think this is a straight comparison.

I live in a city of 120,000 in a red midwestern state, so hardly San Francisco. Within 10-20 minutes of my house, I can get veggie options from a whole ton of drive-thru or app pickups including Panera, Starbucks, Chipotle, Dunkin, Burger King, Carl Jr's, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, sandwich chains (Subway + Jimmy Johns, Firehouse) and local ramen, sushi or Chinese places where you can switch most dishes to tofu or veg. That's not even considering the 2 local delis with large veg and vegan options.

Because you have to drive to the restaurant, you're not limited by the fact there might only be one or two options... you can just drive 2 more minutes and you're at the place that has the exact thing you want.

My veggie husband has struggled each time we've busted the US - New York, Washington DC and Miami.

He usually has to live off pizza and chips when there.

I'm not a veggie but eat a lot of fruit & veg. Working in the US (Mid west) was always grim. Often only a completely tasteless green salad on offer.
I workEd there once a month and would get a taxi to a supermarket before the hotel. The hotel staff got used to me asking for a fruit bowl. And chicory, tomatoes, avocados and real cheese in my drinks fridge.

How are they not all constipated?

@ZZTopGuitarSolo

As someone who works on a flavor trends magazine aimed at menu developers at the sort of chains you’re talking about OP, for the last two years or so plant-based foods have been one of the biggest up-and-coming trends.

I do not know any vegetarians who would eat McDonalds food though.

By plant-based foods do you mean "natural" vegetables, e.g. a portobello mushroom burger instead of a hamburger, or those rubbery artificial processed "fake meat" things? I once attended an American Thanksgiving where they had a "Tofurkey" turkey alternative for vegetarian guests. I took one bite and it was so disgusting that I ended up spitting it out. I would have been much happier with an alternative "natural" vegetable dishpotatoes, beans, anythingit would have been much cheaper for the hosts too! I hate that many restaurants try to cater to vegetarians by offering these "fake meat" options it makes it seem like meat is the real gold medal, and that poor vegetarians who can't have real meat get to have fake meat instead as a consolation prize a bronze medal shaped just like the gold medal. Just make nice veg dishes for their own sake, not to pathetically imitate meat!

I also think it depends where you live Chicago has endless vegan options but smaller midwestern towns won't have so many.

Every time I've been to America I've really struggled. Can't even eat the fries in McDonald's as they add beef flavouring (containing real beef) to them.

As someone else said, tend to survive on pizza. Can't even do that now as I'm gluten free, so God knows what I'd eat!

I think it is worse there - but it’s also a little worse here than it was - notwithstanding the 1 ‘veggie’ option on the menu (when it was getting to the point where there was often more than 1 choice) now being vegan - which I don’t usually like anyway). In the US (I’ve only been east and west coast, NY and DC) they do like their meat. Especially if you are out of the cities the choice is not brilliant.

According to this, 7% of people in the U.K. are vegetarian, 5% in the US. I suspect that’s pretty clustered in the US, being much more in coastal cities.

Link!
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegetarianism_by_country