Imagine…
• Walking into any restaurant, popping open the menu, and navigating to the plant-based diet items. And even better, vegan and vegetarian choices starred with ‘no added fats or oils’. And you don’t have to ask “Is there lard in the beans?” Heck, there’s even an asterisk for ‘dairy-free’ options.
• You are invited to a dinner party and your host includes, with the invitation, the easy and courteous question of, “We will be serving a plenty of veggie dishes, too, along with salad, rice and beans with no added fats, would you like to be in for the plant-based menu count?” Um, yeah!
• You’re at a social event, noshing and conversing with new acquaintances, and when the term ”plant-based” enters the conversation, no one says “What does vegan mean, anyway?“ Instead, you just launch into some enthusiastic recipe sharing and menu ideas.
Now, it’s time each of us take action that will benefit us all. No doubt you’ve done some of it already. I’m talking about taking a plant-based stand by asking for what you want.
How to help grow the plant-based diet movement by asking for what you want.
Plant-based eating is a grass-roots movement. It is growing stronger every day because more and more of us are taking a stand with our forks and moving plant-strong mainstream.
It is precisely because those who have gone before you have asked for veggie burgers, oatmeal, and salad with dressing on the side that these eats are easier and easier to find on restaurant menus. Continue the tradition and make it easier for those who follow you. Help grow the plant strong movement by simply asking for what you want.
I believe that the ‘imagine plant-based’ scenario above is entirely possible. Yet we will have to work together to make it happen. Here are 3 simple ways that you can hasten the day:
1. When ordering in a restaurant, if what you want is not on the menu, politely ask for it. In person, over the phone, or both. For example, it’s breakfast, and you order a bowl of oatmeal. Simply ask, “Do you have almond milk?”, or “Do you have soy milk?” Even if you are not a big non-dairy milk drinker, and you just like a splash on your early morning oats, stating the question brings the issue into the public eye.
2. When invited to dine at the home of a friend, enthusiastically and graciously offer to bring a healthy plant-based dish to the table. Click here for a simple recipe idea.
3. At your local supermarket, ask for items that you’d like them to carry. In a local market near where we leave, there are even tagged items on the shelf that carry the message “by customer demand”. And don’t ask just once and let it go. Ask each time you are in for quinoa, brown jasmine rice, you favorite sweet potato. Vendors respond to customer demand. Their desire is to please you so that you remain a loyal customer. But how is your supermarket manager going to know what to get for you if you don’t ask? As an example, I am writing this while on an island in Micronesia. There is a breakfast buffet that comes with the hotel room we have booked for a couple of nights in transit. There’s fruit, salad, bread and and then a long line of eggs, bacon, some kind of other meat stirred in with some veggies, and of all things cocoa puffs and sugar-frosted flakes. We asked for soymilk and meusli (which we’ve seen in the market) and guess what the staff proudly presented us with the next morning?
Don’t apologize for what you eat. Ask for it!
Patiently explain what you mean, if needed. Remember, a plant-based lifestyle, like any other change, is caught more than taught. You will win more hearts by attraction via your own success, kindness, and courtesy. Like it or not, we are each ambassadors for change and how we speak and conduct ourselves makes a huge difference. Deportment!
Have you a suggestion for other ways to take a plant-based stand, to help move plant-based further into the mainstream? Please share your “ask for it!” brainchilds with us in comments – and inspire others to action.
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You are soooo right Lani. Your article gives me courage to speak up. Why should we feel apologetic – you are so right! Best Sunday sermon I’ve had in a long time ;-).
Thanks!
Gosh Katherine, Sunday sermon, you crack me up! I’m so happy to hear you are inspired – that’s what we need, inspiration! I like that you took the time to tell your thoughts. Thank you!
Great ideas! Today is the day for asking for plant-based food options. It’s International Friendship Day, the first Sunday in August. So it would be a good idea for all of us to give a “Happy Friendship Day” card with a list of plant-based options to our friends, colleagues, grocers and restaurants. Happy Friendship Day!
Don – now how did I miss that? Friendship Day? How perfect is that! I love that you stopped by to share. Thanks.
Lani
Thanks for the tips and encouragement. I have done some of this, with some surprisingly good results, but need to do more. We live in the heart of cattle/dairy country in the south….so I’m pretty strange here. 🙂 But I have found a vegan girl behind the country store deli counter and another one at our local “Chocolate Cafe” who both knew how just to tailor my order and were encouraging. It sure helps.
Other places… still swimming upstream. But I had another pleasant surprise when a ladies’ lunch was planned and I listened to the menu thinking “well, I can have fruit.” I explained quietly to the hostess and asked if I could bring something and she then insisted graciously on making a green salad too. Another woman had been listening and I thought perhaps by her manner that she had been offended. To my surprise she came up to me a week later and said how my quietly eating only what I thought I should had “blessed” her and made her think about their eating habits!
Lois, what a wonderful story! See? By speaking out – taking a stand – you helped someone else along who didn’t quite have your courage. I love this! Such an inspiration! Thanks for telling it.
Just wanted to let you know I’m enjoying you and your website, since finding you last week. My first week of transitioning to plant strong and I feel so positive already. The picture of the yellow smiling ball and blue sour faces is the wallpaper on my phone.
Thank you so much, Lani.
Jeanne
Hi Jeanne!
What an absolutely lovely note.
I am so glad that things are going so well. How did we meet, by the way? I love it that you’re here and just let me know how I can help.
As for the website, we’re in the process of changes and updates in advance of my book, so watch over the next few weeks! By the way, if you’d like to complete the web update survey, just let me know, I’d love to have your input!
thanks again,
Lani
I found you from the link for the John McDougall audio program last week.
Great. Thanks Jeanne! We’ll be having another Dr. McDougall House Call early fall – so stay tuned!
Hi Lani,
Yes, here’s to the importance of affecting change with grace and kindness. To not be apologetic when requesting sane, wholesome food choices… We are jointly “creating the change we wish to see in the world”, to quote Gandhi.
Thank you for sharing your story and your insights. I am new to this movement and cannot wait to see where it goes. All I know is this: I am on board!
Marie – I am totally digging your comments this morning. First, thanks for the refresh on the Gandhi quote. I just may want to feature that in my website update!
So glad you are, as you say , ‘on board’. Where did we meet?
Lani
I saw the link to the tele class through Dr. McDougall’s e-zine. Was not able to make the class – but wanted to say hi anyway!.
Thanks Marie. The recording is still available from the call – did you receive it?
I am a new plant based (vegan) and while eating at home is easy and enjoyable, I do find restaurant eating a challenge. Expecially when I am with a group, I’d prefer to not have to be so vocal about my questions and choices. I think asking what is vegetartian and without dairy is the simplest way, but then my entry may still include butter or oil. At Applebeas (not a favorite) I had to ask for a baked potato and steamed veggies with salsa on the side. I have an upcoming dinner with friends at a wine bistro with a small menu. The 5-6 entries all have meat and cheese and the only appetizer choice is olives (too much salt and I dislike). I am thinking of calling ahead and if they cannot accommodate my plant strong choices, just going late for a cup of coffee at the end of their meal. This is a dear friend in from out of town, so I hate to do that. What is the simplest way to ask for what we need? Most waiters don’t even know what vegan is. Vegetarian or dairy free they seems to be more understood.
Julie,
I think it is excellent each time we can make this shift look easy, liveable, and doable – when we make it look impossible, it doesn’t encourage participation – your heart is in the right place!
Definitely call ahead asap. Chances are they are easily able to make something you’ll be able to enjoy that you can just share along with the offerings everyone else orders. Eat well before you go so it doesn’t matter, then you can just enjoy a glass of wine and not feel hungry or edgy yet still be able to socialize with your dear friends.
Sometimes ‘vegan’ is too nebulous, so when asking just be specific. Vegetarian is more understoond, yet not exactly what you need, just as you say.
Here’s what I do. I ask if there is anything for vegetarians on the menu. When the point it out, then I’ll ask if I could order it without the cheese (or cream, or whatever) and have the vegetables steamed and any dressings on the side, so that I can have something without any oil. Then when we put it together, I just confirm – all the while being happy and congenial and expressing gratitude – “great – so no meat, no dairy, and no oil. Perfect! Thanks so much!”
Great points to bring up Julie. By the way, where did we meet?