If you have been to Sweden you might have noticed in restaurants or in supermarkets, how many choices there are for vegetarians, not only vegetarians but vegans, people who don’t tolerant milk or gluten, people who don’t eat pork etc. etc. There are endless substitutes, tofu, soja protein, vegetables, beans, Quorn and many other options for people who have chosen to eat somewhat different food from the majority of society.

Whatever the reasons, passion for animals, health reasons, religious reasons, a medical condition, political statement or just because, the fact that people no longer eat exactly the same things in Sweden has allowed the Swedish food market and society develop enormously.

In foods stores, restaurants, schools, workplaces, hospitals and for meetings you can order, buy and receive these different food choices. Even on airplanes you can order for example “lacto-vegetarian food” (a person not eating meat, fish, or egg but does eat dairy products). A huge variety of terminology has developed as well as the products you can find in Sweden and Swedish everyday life.

There are lots of animal rights demonstrations in Sweden; I think that a lot of people are no longer surprised by the fact that people are taking stances for what they believe in. Demonstrating against fur, mink farm etc.

In different parts of Europe there are a lot of Jews and you can see posters about kosher food, although in Sweden Kosha food isn’t that common, at least you don’t see posters in bus and train stations like in some other countries.

From kindergarden age and up, you see kids line up together at lunch time to get their food. Seeing one or two of your classmates getting different food is a surprise, and at the age of 4 or 5 you might not be able to explain to everybody why you are eating different food from everybody else. But around the age of 11 or 12 or so discussions start taking place in the cafeteria. “Why do you eat different food from us?” usually starts conversations. And later on those discussions progress to ethical and moral debates. That different food choices are discussed openly is something relatively new.  Before children accepted that ‘she can’t eat pork’, but the reasons were not gone into.

In junior high school in a class of about 25 students it is not uncommon that there are about 2 or 3 vegetarians (1 vegan) in that class. 1 person who doesn’t eat pork, 1 person who doesn’t eat gluten and a couple of people who are intolerant of milk.

Is it common in your country that people eat slightly different food? In food stores have you noticed a lot of substitutes recently?

And what do you think about it?