i hate eating out because i have trust issues

i went to one of my favorite restaurants today (beware, it’s a little white-trashy). (cough) Denny’s. (cough)

mainly it was because if i eat any more mexican food im going to cry and i know they have boca burgers there. and like a good little vegan i ordered one. without cheese. and requested that they not butter on anything. and i DID have coke, but other than that and the high fructose corn syrup in the ketchup i was pretty healthy.

but now i feel like crap. so im thinking the waitress didn’t take me seriously when i said “NO BUTTER.”

my stomach is doing flip-flops. the only possible explanation is that there WAS butter on the bun. or chesse. or eggs. im not sure. but i hate that restaurant now.

and ever since i’ve become a vegan i don’t want to eat out anywhere. at all. even if the restaurant was called Veganrestaurant i wouldn’t want to eat there because the chefs would probably put cheese on things and then exclaim “oh! cheese isn’t vegan?!” and then i would feel like crap 20 minutes after the meal.

and no. it’s not in my head. this is a real problem.

the only thing is, eating out is so d*mn social in this country.

so… i challenge you readers: tell me things i can do with people that don’t involve food, but do involve talking (see how i just disqualified movies) and getting out of the house. please. my social life depends on it.

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  1. Eating out was difficult for me too, it’s the trust issue just as you said. In your most recent case I think the problem was mostly because you were eating at Denny’s. (Denny’s? Seriously?!?). It gets easier though, you just have to find a few places that you feel comfortable at. Ethnic places tend to be easier such as Chinese, Thai, Italian and Indian restaurants.

    Anyway, if you are dead set on not eating out it’s fine because there are plenty of other things to do.

    1.) BOWLING: Always a crowed pleaser; well, almost always. I don’t like to bowl with friends because I use to bowl in a league, and last time I went out with friends I think my lowest game was 215 or something. People just stop clapping after a while when you string five-six strikes together while they are throwing gutter-balls. However, for most people bowling is fun, slightly competitive and you get to wear other people’s shoes!

    2.) Billiards: A table is reasonably inexpensive and the music is usually good. Same thing as bowling but you get to keep your shoes on.

    3.) Karaoke: If you’re outgoing and confident this can be lots of fun. Many pubs and casual places have a karaoke setup one or two nights a week, so chances are you can find a place throwing down bad music any night you feel like singing.

  2. ^ I just checked Denny’s website and while it didn’t list which Boca variety they use, the nutritional and allergy information confirms that is does contain dairy and cholesterol. Definitely not vegan. They may use a Boca burger with cheese mixed in.

  3. so basically, i’ll just be eating at home forever. whatever. it’s cool.

    also, scvegan: i didn’t know that cholesterol level was a way to tell if something has animal products in it. is cholesterol only in animal-related things?

  4. Nope cholesterol doesn’t just come from animal products though it is probably the most common source. Cholesterol comes from sources that are high in saturated fats. Some common items that have a lot of saturated fats are:

    * Butter, cooking margarine, ghee, lard
    * Meat fat, poultry skin, sausages, bacon
    * Dairy fat from cheese, ice-cream, yogurt, cream, full cream milk
    * Eggs
    * Coconut oil/milk/cream, palm oil are some of the more common non-animal based saturated fat sources.

  5. You can eat out, it just takes some practice for vegans to do it comfortably. Start with a vegan restaurant if there are any in your area. Then move on from there. The blog I started is going to be a lot about how vegans can dine out comfortably in my home town. I can give you tips if you like; I’m always happy to help out fellow vegans.

    Regarding cholesterol, YES!!! Cholesterol is ONLY found in animal foods. Not to say that the absence of cholesterol means it’s vegan, but the presence of cholesterol means there are definitely animal ingredients present.

    Lyndon has confused Saturated fats with cholesterol, two completely different things. I know there was some debate about there being rare instances of trace amounts of cholesterol in the cell membranes of certain plants and fungi but as far as food is concerned: Animals = Cholesterol. Plants = none.

  6. Actually I made my statement assuming Crystal wanted to avoid Cholesterol in her diet. To do that you obviously have to avoid more than just the substance in foods as it is made in our bodies from saturated fats. If I misunderstood and she is wanting to use it as a means to determine if food contains animal by-product that still will not work accurately. Cholesterol in plants is not a “debate”. Plant foods do contain sterols whose structures are very similar or even clinically the same to those of animal-based cholesterol, as found by Behrman and Gopalan in 2005 and several others since then. There are several more articles published in Journal of Chemical Education and other peer reviewed sources. Older biochemistry text books will state that only plant sources produce cholesterol these texts are outdated and obviously inaccurate. While the health risks of these sterols are unknown or more appropriately un-documented at this point, the fact is when chemical analysis of combined foods is done to determine the levels of different proteins, lipids and carbs, and this type of cholesterol will show up. Not only will it show up, but will be virtually chemically indistinguishable from animal derived cholesterol. So the debate comes down to, how the company who packages your food does their analysis to determine the nutritional information on the back. If it’s based on individual ingredients it’s probably a safe bet to use cholesterol as a means to determine if there is any animal by-product present, assuming the company actually cares enough to sort out the differences in the sources of cholesterol. If they do a chemical burn test or use a spectrophotometer, then those sterols will show up and have to be listed as part of the FDA requirements. You can also try using cholesterol concentrations as a guideline. If a product contains a large quantity it is likely from an animal source. Animal sources on average contain about 100 times the cholesterol found from plant sources. In the end as we learn more about the chemical composition of things we eat with new emerging scientific techniques a lot of past ideas about food will be changing. There is no hard fast way, short chemical or DNA analysis to determine if what you are eating actually contains ANY animal by-product at all. Unless you grow it, harvest it and cook it at home.

  7. I don’t want to get into a debate within a blog comment page, but I think you are missing the original point. There is no need to break out our biochem notes and research journals to debate the number of steroid alcohols found in plant foods. I am simply saying that if cholesterol is present on the nutritional label of a food item then that cholesterol came from an animal source. Plant cholesterol is microscopic and would require something like a thousand pounds of vegetable fat to get an ounce of vegetable-based cholesterol. We will not see a serving size like that and so, if cholesterol is in a packaged food then that packaged food is NOT vegan.

    Feel free to test it yourself next time you are in the market. Look at a can of coconut milk and check the nutritional label. Saturated fat would probably be over 40 grams per serving with total fat being near 50 grams, but cholesterol would still be zero.

    It’s not a perfect system as I said in my first post, but it is a good indicator. If the ingredient list is especially long but cholesterol is present, then you don’t have to read further. Similar to allergy lists where it says CONTAINS MILK, EGGS, etc. Saves some time, that’s all.

  8. It’s these kinds of problems that I face, as a vegan person with a social life, so I’m writing getting together a website with vegan recipes and dishes that are confirmed vegan and vegan restaurants situation here in Sydney, Australia.

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