For many, Thanksgiving wouldn’t feel like a celebration without tucking into a turkey, which is why the internet is backing one woman who is refusing to go to her vegan friend’s house for dinner.
On November 28, the nation will gather for their favorite holiday to feast and express gratitude with loved ones. But this year, a 54-year-old Reddit user, susanrezv, faces an awkward dilemma.
On October 28, she shared a post titled “AITA for telling my vegan friend I don’t want to come over for Thanksgiving Dinner?” which has since garnered 7,400 upvotes.
She explained that she typically celebrates with around 20 friends who always accommodate for their friend’s dietary requirements. However, this year, Ann, who has been vegan for 10 years, offered to host and cook, which seemed fine at first.
A stock image of a woman standing in the kitchen preparing vegetables. Reddit users are outraged by one host’s suggestion of vegan-only food.
JackF/iStock/Getty Images Plus
“Until she informed us in the group chat dinner will be 100 [percent] vegan. Some of us offered to bring more omnivore offerings, including a turkey, but she insisted we eat vegan while at her house. She declared that vegan food ‘tastes exactly the same’ as omnivore food. It does not,” she wrote.
She shared that she was honest with her 55-year-old friend about her food preferences, which left Ann feeling upset.
“I could have lied and said we had plans to travel to see family, but I don’t want to lie. Ann has become angrier and angrier with me since I told her this about a week ago. Then she went and complained to some of the women in our group about me refusing to attend just because she’s cooking,” she wrote, adding that others have now decided to celebrate in their own homes too.
“My husband says we probably should have lied about going out of town, or at the very least I should not have explained my reasoning to the other ladies.
“I’ve decided to stay out of it from here on out, but somehow Ann blames me for the whole debacle,” she said.
According to a Statista survey conducted in the second quarter of 2023, Thanksgiving had a popularity rating of 79 percent, followed closely by Memorial Day and Christmas, each with 78 percent. In a 2020 poll, YouGov also found that turkey was the most popular main dish for Thanksgiving, with ham as a popular alternative.
Newsweek reached out to Francesca Lyon, lead nutritionist at FUTURE WOMAN, a London-based company that creates personalized health plans based on hormone testing.
She said: “We recommend a whole foods diet based around animal protein—thanks to its unique mix of nutrients that are hard to get in the same amounts from other sources.
“The main problem with an exclusively plant-based diet is that it may not provide an adequate supply of nutrients such as zinc, iron, B12, vitamin A, and taurine. If we don’t have enough of these, ovulation can be impaired, causing missing or irregular periods, or heavy periods.
“Turkey is a great source of L-tryptophan, an essential amino acid that the human body cannot make on its own. The body uses tryptophan to help make melatonin and serotonin. Melatonin helps regulate our circadian rhythm, and serotonin supports mood, appetite, sleep and even pain. So we’re team turkey!”
Reddit Reacts
So far, over 3,000 users have flocked to the comments to back the woman and the top comment has 8,500 upvotes.
It said: “NTA. You accommodated her many times over, but she refuses to do so when hosting. I get that being vegan is a choice most people make for ethical reasons, but the BS line of ‘it all tastes the same!’ is so asinine. It doesn’t—and they know it. I often eat vegan meals of my own making, but never once have I made it thinking ‘this will taste just like that meat dish I made yesterday!’ I KNOW it doesn’t—and I’m happy with my veggies.
“Hopefully Ann takes this as the eye opening it needs to be. Her beliefs and choices are not something everyone will adopt, and the more she forces it on people, the more those people will reject the idea. I hope she enjoys her Thanksgiving alone, because until she returns the graciousness of providing food for everyone at the table to enjoy based on their dietary choices, that’s how she’ll be spending it.”
“Pescatarian here. I am pro [food] choice. There are plenty of vegetarian/vegan dishes that are lovely by themselves. The ones that almost always suck are the ones that are pretending to be something else. Playing food dress up on a holiday defined by the food served will go poorly. NTA,” said another user.
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