by Martha Rhodes

Created on: September 22, 2008   Last Updated: February 01, 2012

Vegetarians face unique dilemmas when it comes to ordering food at restaurants that do not specialize in vegetarian dishes. For a vegetarian, eating at a fast food restaurant can be more of a hunt for food than hunting live game can be for our carnivorous friends.

Vegetarians are growing in number and so some restaurants are offering "meatless" hamburgers and the like. Burger King was among the first to offer these as an alternative.

Most of the time at a restaurant when you say you are a vegetarian, the waiter/waitress will happily point out the salads. Vegetarians have to be careful about ordering salads because sometimes you will order a dinner salad only to find that it is adorned with hard boiled eggs, real bacon bits and the like even though you told the waiter/waitress that you did not eat meat. For some reason, many people do not associate eggs or bacon bits as meat. I don't know which came first, the chicken or the egg, but as far as I'm concerned they both would end up clucking and I'm not going to eat them.

Vegetarians come in different levels of commitment. Some do not eat any meat or dairy of any kind. Some do eat fish. Some eat eggs. Some even eat chicken. For instance, if a vegetarian does not eat eggs and the "meatless" hamburger has mayonnaise on it, you've got a problem. Mayonnaise is made with eggs. Boca is a very popular brand of "meatless" hamburger, however Boca does use egg whites in their burgers. If you are a vegan, Boca is not a brand you eat. As a vegetarian, it is your prerogative to either ignore what it could be or ask what brand it is.

Additionally, eating can become even more of a challenge if you have health problems that prevent you from eating some of the traditional fast food offerings such as the French fry on a regular basis. Fast food is cooked fast and when it is, it is usually fried. Cutting down on trans fats has been an issue for everyone lately, so at least most fast food establishments have changed cooking methods in order to fight the growing numbers of people who suffer from high cholesterol. This means that the use of animal fat in fryers is not as common.

The best way to deal with ordering fast food for a vegetarian is to keep it simple. You can order a salad; just tell them no meat or eggs or cheese. Most vegetarians, realizing that they can't control everything, try not to get too crazy about how the item was prepared, but it really is up to the vegetarian to know what items contain meat. I also feel it is

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