Knowing how to live peacefully with your roommate’s alternative diet can be tricky. A bit of knowledge and preparation goes a long way to smooth the transition.
Roommates can be challenging at the best of times. It is increasingly common for people who have never met to end up sharing space. Your new roommate could be coming from an entirely different background than you. They could come from a different country or culture. They could practice a different religion, or none at all.
Even if your new roommate has the exact same background as you, your lifestyles are bound to be at least slightly different. Lifestyles are like a thumbprint – each one is unique. Except this thumbprint has the potential to ruin your life and destroy your sanity if not handled correctly.
One of the most prominent aspects of someone’s lifestyle is their diet. Food is a touchy issue at the best of times, as it’s involved with our survival, our health and well-being. Cooking can effect other lifestyle concerns as well, such as cleanliness.
Diets have become a thousand times more difficult to navigate in the 21st Century as you can see when you Google ‘Roommate’s Alternative Diet’. There are almost as many specialty diets as there are individuals.
To help you learn how to live peacefully with your roommate’s alternative diet, we’ve compiled a short list of some of the most popular alternative diets and some tips for how to live peacefully with your roommate’s alternative diet.
Vegetarian
Vegetarianism shouldn’t even be listed as an alternative diet at this point. It’s been fairly mainstream since the 1950s and is practiced by a wide variety of cultures.
Being a vegetarian simply means they don’t eat animal flesh. There are further subdivisions of this, such as pescatarianism, eating fish but no other meat; raw food diets; ovo-vegetarianism – eating eggs but not diary; and lacto-vegetarianism – consuming dairy but not eggs. These latter two are bordering on veganism, the more hardcore version of vegetarianism. But more on that later.
Tips For Getting Along With A Vegetarian Roommate
In the case that you end up sharing groceries with your vegetarian roommate, you will have to work out compromises to keep the peace. Even if you are not sharing food, you will most likely be preparing meals in the same space. Cleanliness and organization goes a long way towards keeping the peace.
Some other tactics for living peacefully with your vegetarian roommate include:
- Having separate cookware for meat and vegetables
- Keep meat well-contained and properly sealed in the refrigerator
- If sharing groceries, learn to identify common animal products contained in packaged foods and avoid them
- Learn some tasty vegetarian alternatives to some of your favorite dishes. Think veggie tacos or lasagna, for starters
- Don’t leave carnivorous dishes out overnight. Nothing makes for a grumpier vegetarian than having to clean up your bacon pan!
Vegan
Veganism is probably the most notorious alternative diet. Vegans are also some of the most difficult roommates to live with. When you type “How To Live With A Vegan Roommate” into Google, some common searches that come up are “without killing them” or “without going crazy”. Vegans are very committed to their cause, whether it be for health, spiritual, or political reasons. They take it seriously which means you must, as well.
How To Get Along With A Vegan Roommate
- The easiest way is just to have separate food and cookware
- Don’t leave animal products out. Ever. Trust me on this!
- If sharing food, find vegan alternatives to common foods, such as Earth Balance for mayo or butter. It’s good!
- Even if a product claims to be vegetarian, make sure! Read those labels!
- Find vegan alternatives for tasty dishes.
- Just ask. Your vegan roommate knows more about veganism than you do. Ask them if you’re not sure about something!
Paleo Diet
Although more obscure, the Paleo Diet has been gaining traction in the last few years and seems around to stay, at least for a while. The paleo diet is the attempt to eat as human beings would have done in prehistoric times, in an attempt to live a healthier lifestyle.
Living with a paleo roommate does not meaning roasting a goat in your living room (although you could). Here are some tips for cohabitating with a paleo diet.
Tips For Living With A Roommate On The Paleo Diet
- Leave a separate drawer and cabinet specifically for paleo food
- If someone’s new to the diet, you might consider putting junk food out of sight out of consideration
- If going out to eat, you might do a bit of research and find out if they have paleo options
- Have bread and grain alternatives. Grains are not a part of the paleo diet. If sharing food, you’ll need something else to wrap delicious ingredients in. Consider spinach or veggie wraps, to start.
- Cook things on the side, and let everyone assemble their meals to taste
This last item is a good rule of thumb for living with any dietary restrictions. It’s not that difficult to make neutral food that won’t offend any alternative diet or food allergy, so anybody can eat it!
Sharing food is a simple and natural way to bond with your roommates. Learning how to live peacefully with your roommate’s alternative diet will bring the whole household together and help you get through the rest of the stress of life.
