Airplane food-- won't let you choose vegan and low calorie at the same time!

Argh. The title says it all.

To elaborate, I booked my plane ticket months ago back when I was a vegetarian and ordered the vegetarian option, but now things are different, so I called to let United know I want vegan meals now. After studying their meals website, I realized they're quite accommodating! No extra charge either.

http://www.united.com/page/middlepage/0,6823,51499,00.html

But the problem is you can't combine meals. So I wanted low calorie and vegan in the same meal, and it's just not possible! Obviously I went with vegan though. But what happens if you're vegan AND diabetic? Or vegan AND allergic to gluten? I was thinking, eating vegan makes it so hard to have another special dietary need. Vegan & diebetic people or vegans allergic to gluten must find it really hard to eat!

I'm curious, is anyone here like that?

I bring my own food on the plane.  Besides most airlines don't offer free meals anymore.

duh.

the meals are premade.

 

Oh, I def. still plan on bringing some of my own food too. I'll probably bring some bread, soy crisps, dried foods, and even some instant oatmeal as backup-- I can just ask them to make it for me if needed.

Most domestic flights don't offer free meals, but I'm flying internationally for about 16 hours, so they give 2 complimentary meals.

I think the vegan meals will usually be appropriate for diabetics and are probably low calorie to begin with.  A lot of the time the vegetarian meal is also vegan - it is cheaper for them to do things like this than to order different meals.

Oops, edited for stupidity...

You could order under special meals and get the fruit plate, maybe?

I feel for ya. I work at Famous Dave's (notoriously high cal, sugar/salt laden GOOD bbq) and I have this couple that comes in. They are in their 50's and the lady just LOVVVVVES bbq. Unfortunately, her hubby is diabetic. This leaves him with almost nothing to order from our menu. Everything has sugar in it! Bbq sauce, beans, everything. He tells me he runs into this problem almost everywhere.

I'm amazed they have vegan at all. I flew CT to CA and asked for vegan. They gave me a hamburger.

i wasn't under the impression that most airlines offer a low calorie option of any kind for their meals/snacks.

I've noticed that loading "special meals" seems to be a lower priority for some airlines. There have been plenty of times where I requested and confirmed veg*n food (back when there were actually meals on flights) only to learn that in a tight gate turn around my meal somehow didn't make the flight.

I would be sure to bring enough food to keep yourself satisfied for that long of a flight, especially since you know the people around you will be eatting.

It definitely depends on the airline:
* For British Airways on int'l flights, vegetarian means lots of (cheap) pasta. Not remotely low-cal....
* For Delta, vegetarian is vegan (i.e., overcooked broccoli, rice and beans). BTW, for Delta you have to call and confirm your meal choice, even if you requested a different option when you made your reservation.

On the plus side, on evey flight I've gotten a vegetarian meal, I always got fresh fruit and a small salad, which others did not.

I am a pescatarian, so I normally order vegetarian meals since fish is rarely the meat in premade meals.  My problem is I am allergic to mushrooms....finding a mushroom free vegetarian option is quite difficult in settings like airplanes and banquets.  I basically order meals but never expect to actually be able to eat them.