Meeting Planner Careers

One thing that meeting planners must cope with is picky eaters.  When you are planning an event for many people, you are bound to have several picky eaters in the group.  Planning for meals is one of the many tasks meeting planners carry out.

Most people know vegetarians, and maybe even a vegan or two. If you have ever entertained for them, you can imagine how difficult it can be to choose edibles for meetings and events that include sensitive eaters. Understanding dietary differences will go a long way to help you.

The Vegetarian Diet

Someone once said, “Don’t eat anything that has a face.” This wisely describes the vegetarian diet. This is actually a very flexible diet, as it allows dairy and eggs. Some who eat dairy and eggs call themselves lacto-ovo vegetarians.

Pescatarian Diets

Contrary to some belief, vegetarianism does not include fish. Fish is still meat, and those vegetarians who eat fish are actually called pescatarians. Pescatarians exclude mammals from their diets but will eat fish and some amphibians. Some people who want to become vegetarians use pescatarian diets as a gateway to full vegetarianism.

The Vegan Diet

Vegans exclude all animal products from their diets. No eggs, no dairy, and nothing that is cooked in animal fats, and they prefer organic. No animal byproducts will pass their lips. This is really a very easy description, but few catered food plans are truly vegan, since their food cannot even come into contact with animal products. However, knowing this should help you find correct vegan fare.

Macrobiotics

Macrobiotics is similar to vegan except that some fish and poultry is allowed as long as it is fully organic. This is not really a vegetarian diet, but is still restrictive and should be of concern to the conscientious meeting planner.

Of course, you will want to plan all your special diets around sound nutritional ideas. You should read enough about each diet to know that people on these diets sometimes suffer from lack of protein and vitamin B12. Providing high quality substitutes is important, but it is just as important to make choices that taste good.

If you end up in a quandary, however, you probably have a friend or acquaintance who would be happy to accept a consulting fee in exchange for advice. If not, call one of your friendly neighborhood organic food stores and see if they can help you.