The newest eating disorder: Orthorexia

[MH1]

70. May I suggest a middle ground?

It might depend what the source of the issue is. Certainly, no one should demand that a host not serve something, unless it is a case of severe allergy where even being in the same room is a problem (like a small percentage of people have with peanuts, for example). If someone is a vegetarian and doesn't like to see dead animal flesh on the table, that's really just tough shit. Unless you are really trying to cultivate / improve your relationship with that person - then you need to decide whether the relationship matters more than what you preferred to serve. (I am not now a vegetarian, but have been in the past. The residual effect is that I don't understand what is the problem with NOT serving meat once in a while. But I NEVER expected people to not serve meat around me, just because I wouldn't eat it. That would be ridiculous, IMO.)

Anyway, for middle ground - if you can find recipes that really can't offend anyone, and are tasty, why not be sure to have a good size dish of one or two of those? Of the restrictions you mentioned, most veggie dishes (leave out the cheese, please) would work. You didn't mention nut allergies, so a simple green beans with almonds should work. Something with sweet potatoes for more filling ...oops, no diabetics, I hope?

But the point is, you were right in the first place - just serve a variety, and expect different people will fill their plates with what they want, and not everyone will eat a little of everything. I've been to events where I only eat about two different things of what is offered, because everything else looked like it would be awful for my digestion. And that's ok. But please also be aware, as I mentioned elsewhere on this thread, it is NOT always "just personal preference". I've had to cut A LOT of stuff from my diet that I actually LIKE the eating part of, because my system has decided it doesn't like the digesting part very much. If someone is excluding certain products from their diet, it is for one of two reasons: a) they're anorexic and this is just a strategy to avoid eating, as someone else mentioned; or b) they really have an issue and are trying to figure out how to prevent it, and rightly or wrongly, have decided this particular thing is something they need to avoid.