Here are a couple of additional challenges people face when they adopt a WFPB diet, and our suggestions for how to handle them.
The difficulty of eating at a non-plant-based restaurant or dinner party
Perhaps you’ve already found some good plant-based restaurants in your area, and many of your friends also eat plant-based diets. If so, then this issue is pretty easy to overcome. But for most people this isn’t the case, so dealing with it does require some finesse. After all, you can’t just bring your own food to a restaurant or insist that your dinner party host cook you a separate meal. At restaurants, look for the healthiest items on the menu, and don’t be afraid to ask for changes in the way the food is prepared, such as cooking your dish without added oil, or ordering a healthier side instead of the creamed spinach. Dinner parties are a little more difficult. Again, gravitate as much as you can toward the healthiest dishes on the menu. If this isn’t possible, read on …
The expectation that your plant-based diet must be followed all the time
Unfortunately, there’s a widely held belief that all plant-based eaters are fanatics who would rather starve than eat even a mouthful of an animal-based food. The image of these people is that they are so persnickety that they’d drum you out of your local plant-based support group if you were seen going into a McDonald’s. Well, the truth is that no one is perfect, so don’t expect yourself to be. If you slip up, or are in a position where you can’t avoid eating an unhealthy meal, don’t worry about it. One of these meals every once in a while won’t kill you. Just get back on the right track as soon as you’re able.
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