To tell newly vegan guest to bring their own dish on Christmas Day?

[GunpowderGelatine]

I'm hosting Christmas day at my house this year, not something I've done in ages. There's ten of us, including the kids, which is a great number - my plan, like every year I cook, is to order M&S food and pick it up on Christmas Eve then just bung it all in the oven and make some homemade gravy. I usually get a pork joint as I'm not a turkey fan, but will also be getting a turkey joint for my guests. I'm not usually the type to stress about Christmas dinner (it's only a roast after all!) but I also want it to be as simple as possible. One of my guests has declared they are now vegan. Which is a bit of a PITA for dinner if I'm honest as I'll have to sort a vegan main, gravy, dessert etc. I also have a nut allergy sufferer in the group which excludes quite a lot of vegan options as mains.

WIBU to ask the newly vegan guest to bring their own dish on the day or is that really rude? I've kind of planned the food around the size of my oven/hob and could do without the added stuff having to go in it (don't mind warming something up though)?

Quorn roasts are not vegan.

Missed this one completely. But she's doing it for health reasons?????

IT'S NOT BLOODY HEATHY TO EXCLUDE FOOD GROUPS!

It's not only a massive comprise in taste for the other people there, but it is not a healthy way of living. By definition if you need to supplement a diet = it is not healthy.

We need calcium, we need iron and the several amino acids that you cannot get in vegetable products and they are even more important for children.

OP- please don't normalise it for your children who need a range of nutrients. Ask her to bring something else and explain to your children why it's not a healthy way of eating.

Milk and meat are not the only good sources of calcium and iron.

A person eating a healthy vegan diet will get more than enough of both.

You make vegans sound like the boogyman, underneaththeash.

Obviously I meant The Bogeyman rather than the dancing sensation Boogyman.

Oops.

Glenda - they are...it's exceptionally difficult to get sufficient iron and calcium from a vegan diet and you cannot get B12 at all from it. You CANNOT get all the essential amino acids that children require from a vegan diet.

It's being peddled to children as a healthy way of life and its making me very cross. I care about my children and I want them to be healthy.

OP- please don't normalise it for your children who need a range of nutrients. Ask her to bring something else and explain to your children why it's not a healthy way of eating

No, I won't be doing that because actually I don't think it's unhealthy to cut meat and dairy out at all. I do t care enough to cut it out myself because I love food too much, but plant based/vegan diets are undeniably healthy if done right

Am I right in thinking cow's milk is full of calcium but it can only be absorbed by calf's because, well, it's cow's milk?

Every vegan I've met takes vitamin supplements, it's no big deal

I've no idea but I think you need the fat in the milk to absorb the vit D and calcium, so it's better to drink the full fat milk - it's only 3.25% fat.

IT'S NOT BLOODY HEATHY TO EXCLUDE FOOD GROUPS!

Meat isn't an essential food group! And what the vegan does is up to them.

Just imagine saying to a dinner guest "I'm sorry, I can't cater for your diet as I refuse to normalise it in front of my children". You'd basically be calling them a freak. Plus, you'd be telling them they have to eat meat and 'be normal' or not come.

"Don't look at Aunty Jan children, look away, she's cutting a food group out I'm so sorry to have failed you this way with such an unsavoury guest my darlings"

IT'S NOT BLOODY HEATHY TO EXCLUDE FOOD GROUPS!

It’s perfectly healthy not to eat animal products I know someone who’s been vegan for 10+ years and vegetarian for 20 before that. He’s lean and strong and never ill. The hysteria about vegans is unreal.

IT'S NOT BLOODY HEATHY TO EXCLUDE FOOD GROUPS!

Protein is a food group. Cow is not.

@underneaththeash can you explain which essential amino acids are not present in plants please?
I'm not vegan, just curious as I thought that all the essential amino acids were present in some plants but that no single plant group contained them all.
Can't say I find it "exceptionally difficult" to meet my dairy allergic child's daily calcium requirements though. A bit trickier yes, but not terribly hard.

Children look up from eating the turkey they've just picked up off the floor

Op, please don’t allow your sister near this thread. It’s full of nuts

On ther healthiness thing - a lot of the vegan suggestions that have been made on this thread are decidedly less healthy than eating lean poultry (turkey)...!

Yes that's true - because they are ready made convenience foods being suggested.
Vegetables beans pulses etc are all healthy though

Op, please don’t allow your sister near this thread. It’s full of nuts

🤣🤣🤣🤣

@underneaththeash there's a couple of misconceptions in your post, and though this thread is knocking on a bit I wanted just to address them -

firstly, although it's true to say that only a couple of vegan food sources are 'complete' proteins (in that they contain all 9 essential amino acids), in reality it's straightforward to get these by eating a varied daily diet, with protein from different sources. You don't need all 9 in every food group. Even a dish as simple and ancient as rice and beans will do the trick - people have known this intuitively for years.

Secondly, this might surprise you, but farm animals have to take B12 supplements these days. That's how you get B12 from meat. Modern industrial farming and food production methods mean that animals can't get enough B12 from their own food without supplementation. B12 is mainly produced by bacteria, and we used to get plenty from fruit and vegetable sources ourselves, but not any more now that everything is grown in nutrient-stripped soil and washed in chlorine before sale. So yes, vegans need to take supplements, but some people who eat animal products should too; B12 deficiency is on the rise across the population, and since vegans are more likely to eat foods that are fortified with it, we're actually less at risk.
/lecture finishes

MaggieAndHopey good lecture. I'm not vegan or vegetarian but we could all use a reminder that's it's really difficult to obtain everything we need nutritionally from mass-farmed anything. Supplements are normal in our house.

I don't think you're being unreasonable. I have some specific dietary requirements so I'll be taking what I need to our lunch with friends. I rèally wouldn't expect them to cater fully for me as there's enough to do already!

Maggie good info. Wish people could understand about the B12 info

Vegans have basically opted out of Christmas Dinner so tell them to stay at home.

Vegans have basically opted out of Christmas Dinner so tell them to stay at home.

In what way?

Christmas dinner is traditionally meaty. It’s all about the meat, the gravy etc. Vegans don’t eat that so therefore don’t eat Christmas dinner.

I actually wouldn’t invite a vegan to Christmas Day.