A woman who served meat to her fiancé’s vegan cousin, after telling her that the dish she prepared was made using “fake meat,” has received a storm of criticism on Reddit.
According to a post on Reddit’s Am I The A**hole (AITIA) forum shared by the vegan woman‘s cousin (username lea_br59), Paige (the vegan cousin) and the original poster were invited to a dinner celebrating their cousin Dave’s engagement to Laura.
Laura insisted on cooking dinner that night and the user said she “noticed some meat in it.” When Paige asked Laura about it, she claimed she “used fake meat for Paige” and Paige began to eat the meal.
iStock/Getty Images Plus
But when the user later asked Laura whether she really used fake meat for Paige, she allegedly said: “‘Hell no, if she’s vegan she gotta bring her own food,’ while laughing.”
The original poster “was shocked and in disbelief” and later told Paige about the meat, as “I felt too bad for Paige,” she said.
The user said everyone is “saying I did something wrong and that it could’ve just been a one time and that Paige would’ve never noticed…AITA?,” the user asked.
According to a 2016 Pew Research Center study of 1,460 U.S. adults, around one in 10 Americans follow a vegan or vegetarian diet “at least mostly.”
The survey showed that around three percent of adults in the country follow a “strict” vegan or vegetarian diet, while six percent said they are “mostly” vegan or vegetarian.
Those focused on healthy and nutritious eating were found to be more likely to follow vegan or vegetarian diets, with 22 percent saying they are at least mostly vegan/vegetarian, compared with three percent of those who place “little or no priority on healthy eating,” according to the study.
The user in the latest Reddit post said Paige allegedly “screamed at Laura inside the house” and everyone at the dinner heard it. “It ended up with Laura being completely embarrassed and Paige leaving the house,” she wrote.
Everyone allegedly said the user “shouldn’t have said anything” and that it wasn’t her “business,” adding that “Laura was new to the family and that it was ‘wrong'” of the user “to embarrass her like that.”
The original poster said: “All of them are saying I did something wrong and that it could’ve just been a one time and that Paige would’ve never noticed.”
Some users on Reddit criticized Laura from the latest post, with several warning that the incident could have potentially posed a serious risk to Paige’s health.
According to a June 2020 study published in the Current Opinion in Allergy and Clinical Immunology journal, “over the last 20 years red meat has been increasingly recognized as an important food allergen and we now appreciate at least three distinct forms of red meat allergy—primary beef allergy, pork-cat syndrome and the α-Gal [Alpha-gal] syndrome.”
Alpha-gal syndrome (AGS) is “a serious, potentially life-threatening allergic reaction,” according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
AGS reactions vary by person but can range from “mild to severe or even life-threatening,” such as if the person experiences anaphylaxis, which is “a potentially life-threatening reaction involving multiple organ systems,” the CDC said.
In an update, the user said Paige had “some stomach ache the day after [the incident] but nothing major” and is “doing okay.”
In a comment that got over 13,000 upvotes, user timerodeo wrote: “NTA [not the a**hole]! Laura was 1000 percent TA [the a**hole] for saying it was fake meat when it wasn’t. She could have just told the truth and maybe Paige could have eaten around it. Serving meat to a person who is vegan without them knowing is truly messed up.”
In a comment that got 4,500 upvotes, user ulalumelenore wrote: “It can also lead to serious stomach upset! NTA.”
User moonskoi wrote: “god forbid her diet was for a medical reason or the likes,” in a comment that got 2,900 upvotes.
ZippyKoala said: “Well yes. If she’d had mammalian meat allergy, and the meat in question was beef, pork, lamb or similar, she could have died,” in a comment that got 1,900 upvotes.
Newsweek has contacted the original poster for comment.
If you have a similar dilemma, let us know via [email protected] We can ask experts for advice, and your story could be featured on Newsweek.
