Julia Altshuler wrote:

> It was on this list that someone suggested that being vegan was a form
> of eating disorder. I've thought about it since and am becoming more
> convinced that that's the case. Yours in one example. Here's another.
>
> I was visiting with a group of friends. We all went out to eat at a
> large deli-style restaurant. The vegan in the group saw split pea soup
> on the menu, checked with the waitress that there was no ham in it,
> ordered it and ate it. Normal, right? The next time we were at the
> friend's house, the hostess, knowing that this particular guest was
> peculiar about what she ate, offered her water. The guest wouldn't
> drink it because it wasn't bottled water! This was water from a safe
> municipal supply, but it wasn't good enough. I noticed the
> inconsistency. Surely the soup at the restaurant used the same
> municipal water, but at the restaurant it didn't matter. The next time
> the hostess picked up some bottled water. No good. It wasn't the right
> sort of bottled water.
>
> If that isn't enough to convince you (the general you, not you in
> particular, Dave) that it's not about the food, it's about the person
> refusing the food, nothing will. There must be something grand about
> watching people run around getting something special for you.

The vast majority of friends and relatives that have gone vegetarian or vegan have
gone back to eating meat. Personally, I don't care what sort of diet they
maintain, but because of my experience of their short lived fad diets, I am not
interested in catering to them. They are welcome to come to my house and share a
meal with us, but they are going to have to bring their own food if they don't
want to eat what we have.