Enjoying a delicious meal with someone you love feels incredibly special. There’s nothing better than your heart and stomach feeling full and warm at the same time, and eating together is a great way to grow closer to loved ones. But food can sometimes become a point of tension in relationships when both partners don’t see eye to eye on what they want on their plates.

One man recently reached out to Reddit after his vegetarian wife started complaining about him not including meat-free options in his meal prep. Below, you’ll find all of the details about the beef that this couple now has, as well as some of the replies readers shared.

Sharing meals together can be a great way to bond with your partner

Image credits: Los Muertos Crew/Pexels (not the actual photo)

But this man found himself in hot water when he refused to make vegetarian-friendly meal prep for his wife

Image credits: Timur Weber/Pexels (not the actual photo)

Image credits: ThrowawayMealpreppin

Not everyone is willing to date someone with different dietary preferences

Having different dietary preferences from your partner can be stressful when meal time comes around. If you have a gluten allergy but your partner wants nothing more than an authentic pizza with actual flour in the dough, you might find yourselves hangrily ordering from two different places so everyone can be happy.

According to a survey by the vegan dating app Veggly, 56% of vegans in the United States wouldn’t even consider starting a relationship with a meat eater. For some reason, American vegans are also 13% more likely to turn down dates from meat eaters than vegans in other countries are. 

And being a vegetarian isn’t even good enough for 18% of vegans in the U.S., as they would really prefer to date someone with the exact same dietary preferences. But of course, vegans aren’t the only ones who feel strongly enough about their diets to let them impact their dating lives. 

In fact, over half of Americans say that they would refuse to date someone if they didn’t like how they ordered their steak. And a study conducted in the UK found that one third of meat eaters wouldn’t be willing to date a vegan.   

Clearly, our dietary preferences can play a part in our dating lives. But this doesn’t have to be a negative thing. If you and your partner can manage to find middle ground, having different diets doesn’t have to stand in the way of being in a loving relationship. 

With communication and compromise, meat eaters and vegetarians can build healthy relationships

I’ve been vegan for over 8 years, and my partner is pescatarian (but was eating meat when we first met). It took some time to adjust, but we’ve figured out the perfect routine to make sure that we’re both healthy, happy and eating delicious food every day. 

If he’s cooking, he knows not to include any animal products. And if I’m cooking, I know to avoid tomatoes and onions because he doesn’t like them. It’s all about compromise!    

When it comes to dating someone who doesn’t follow the same diet as you, The Vegan Review has some tips. If you’re planning on eating out, it’s best to find places with options for everyone. Unless you live in a city where only fully vegetarian restaurants cater to people who don’t eat meat, it’s nice to visit establishments where you and your partner can both get what you want. 

Then, when you’re at home and cooking together, your partner might be more open to trying vegetarian options that you’ve prepared. It’s also a great idea to go grocery shopping together, so you can see what foods you both like and check all of the ingredients together. 

There might be plenty of things that fall into your dietary restrictions that your partner wasn’t even aware of. Plus, if you both love foods like hummus, stir fried vegetables, pasta, peanut butter and chocolate, for example, you’ll have plenty of things you can share together. 

We would love to hear your thoughts on this situation in the comments below, pandas. Do you think this woman is being unreasonable by asking her husband to meal prep for her too? Feel free to weigh in. Then, you can find another Bored Panda piece discussing similar issues right here!    

Many readers took the author’s side, and he joined in on the conversation to answer some of their questions

The majority agreed that it’s not his responsibility to make his wife’s lunches too

However, some thought that the man was being unfair to his wife

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