One of the issues with living a life of LCHF is eating out. Whether it is going to a restaurant or bistro for dinner, or going to a conference or meeting where a meal is supplied, or even just going over a friends place for a meal. Trying to find available meals and dishes to eat while sticking to LCHF is always a battle.
When eating out for example, we regularly see menus which are coded for V, VG, DF, and GF (Vegetarian, Vegan, Dairy Free and Gluten Free) or have notes saying many meals are available in these options and to ask the staff about possible changes, but if you ask the staff about serving one of their meals to be LCHF friendly, many restaurants are unwilling to even consider it. A lot of establishments serve almost all their meals with either chips, mashed potato or a bed of rice, so we like to ask them if they can leave out the potatoes or rice and add extra salad or veggies to the dish. Some places are okay with this, but at other times we’ve been told we cannot do that without paying for the extra salad or veggies and they end up just serving the meal without the chips or mash. Consequently we don’t return to these venues.
The same goes with attending an event which is catered for (functions, meetings, conferences, weddings etc). Often you’ll find a line on the application/RSVP form asking for “Special Dietary Requirements” to cater for Vegetarian, Vegan, Dairy, Gluten and even Nut Free options. What would happen if you requested a Low Carb, High Fat meal as part of your dietary requirements?
What about when you go over friends or families places for a meal. If you have family members or friends who are vegetarian or vegan, we all usually try and go out of our way to provide at least SOME dishes which are free of animal meat/products so they have options to eat. What if we requested the same courtesy? What if we asked for some LCHF options to be made for us when we went there?
I understand that things like Gluten, Nut and Dairy free options are more often than not an allergic or body intolerance issue, but vegetarians and vegans are regularly considered and catered for, even though that way of eating is more of a lifestyle “choice”. Well….. So is LCHF!
All in all, I think it is the right of all us LCHFers to start standing up for this eating lifestyle, and expecting it to be catered for when eating away from home. Even if the request fails, at least we may have planted the LCHF seed in another few peoples minds.
must say having been g/f for over five years and learning which restaurants and cafes were friendly and adaptable, I find little problem following LCHF eating out. Could have something to do with the fact that we don’t eat out often, and when we do – we are particularly choosy where we will eat. We also live in rural Australia (Tassie) not in a big city. If you stick to fresh foods, meat fish and plain salads you can’t go wrong if you must eat out. Personally I prefer to eat in. I know what is in the food because I bought it and I prepared it. When I am up in Sydney visiting my kids, who know I have (their words) strange eating habits, the first thing they do is take me food shopping for myself. There are Paleo restaurants around that should be most happy to modify menu’s for you. When I end up in hospital my husband brings in my meals. If I go to a conference I take my own as well. It is not that difficult really and given time things will improve. You can always simply order bacon eggs and fried tomato 🙂 I TOO live in hope that one day WE will be recognised as a specific eating type.
My recent choices when being out this weekend were… 1/4 chicken and greek salad, Thai beef salad no rice, from a deli – ham slices,bruschetta salad (tomato, onion, basil) and egg salad with a mayo (naughty). Everyone else for those meals had pies, nachos and thai with all the trimmings. I was perfectly happy and satisfied with what I had.
I have put Gluten free and added in LCHF for a conference I am going to in Sydney. Ha ha lets see what I get??
Hi Terri…. Great work and keep us informed on what happens… even take photos of what you DO get fed and send them in to have a look at.