When you're arranging for your own wedding, often he biggest stumbling block is having to accommodate everyone's food preferences and allergies. With food allergies and choices to follow alternative diets on the rise, planning your menu can be a huge hassle. Vegans, especially, can be difficult to accommodate unless you're familiar with their code. Let this article familiarize you with what the vegans on your guest list will and will not eat.

Generally speaking, vegans believe animals should not be used for our purposes at all, therefore they will not eat or use anything that has come from an animal. You can think of it as one step stricter than a vegetarian. Therefore you will have to be careful that your convention does not serve food on bone china, use beeswax candles, hand out wool scarves, or use silk napkins as place settings. Anything leather is also not acceptable to vegans.

While animal products for sale can simply be avoided by vegans, everyone has to eat. Meat should be avoided at all costs, including fish and chicken. Often the vegetarian option included in the dinner will not be edible to a vegan because it contains animal products such as eggs or cheese, so make sure your caterer knows that a vegan option will be necessary. It is not necessary that everyone be forced to eat the vegan option. It is enough just to have one available to choose.

If you are preparing the food yourself instead of hiring out, you need to eliminate all animal products from the vegan's meal, including but not limited to meat, milk, cheese, ice cream, gelatin, honey, and eggs. You cannot fry the meal in lard and you must use separate pot and utensils to prepare it to avoid cross contamination with animal products. You can include tofu, nuts, cereals, vegetables, fruit, soy, tempeh, rice, tapioca, and pasta as well as milk substitutes made from rice, soy, or almonds and the vegetarian meat substitute "meats" such as tofurkey and soy burgers.

Vegans have to be very careful about their diet because they are more at risk for deficiencies in vitamin B12, calcium, omega 3 fatty acids, vitamin D, iodine, zinc, and especially iron, so make sure to include foods with these vitamins and minerals in them. To make your dinner a success, simply include the vegan food groups: dark green leafy vegetables, orange vegetables, whole grains, fruit, and legumes. There are plenty of vegan recipes online and recipe books in the library that can give you meal ideas. You can also ask the vegans themselves what they would prefer to eat.

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