24-year-old adds bone broth to meat-allergic friend's meal, claims he 'didn’t think she was really vegetarian' after she immediately gets sick: 'The group chat is in shambles'

Author image for JR Atkinson
JR Atkinson • Writer and Editor
May 7, 2025 10:00 PM EDT

Cooking for other people can be stressful. When I'm cooking for myself, I don't have a care in the world. If it's gross, who cares? I'm the one who has to eat it, so I'm only disappointing myself. Plus, if I'm the tiniest bit lax with food safety (aka using yogurt that's a couple of days past its expiration), I'm the only one taking the risk. This all changes when you cook for someone else. You literally have their life in your hands, especially if they have an allergy. Even if you take all the precautions you can, they're still putting a ton of trust in you. 

This is why some folks with allergies don't love to eat meals made by people they don't know that well. It's understandable. The risk/reward ratio is way favored in the risk category. This is especially true if the person cooking for you is like the guy in this story. 

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  • It's one thing to forget to take an allergy precaution while you're cooking. You should do your best to avoid it, but sometimes you can't. It's an entirely different thing to purposefully test the limits of someone's allergy, just because you don't quite believe them. Read on for the details of the story and see what you think.

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    Cheezburger Image 10502448128
    via 8 verthing

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • 02

    AITA for losing my temper over bone broth being added to a soup?

    My girlfriend, A (24F) and I (23M) are ovo-lacto vegetarian and have been for approximately six months or so because she developed a sudden involuntary negative reaction to meat and some animal products. At best she'll spit out the offending bite and rinse her mouth out, and at worst she'll get sick almost
    via u/AITA_BoneBroth
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    immediately. She's gone to her primary care and is seeing a therapist but we have yet to know why she reacts this way. Any meat, from mammal to poultry to fish, triggers this reaction in her if she consumes it. Even sufficiently "meaty" vegan products that imitate the taste and texture of meat too well can
    via u/AITA_BoneBroth
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    set it off in her. I opted to cut meat out of my diet as well considering I do most of the cooking and it's easier to make us both the same meals rather than worry about cross contamination. I've grown to prefer some of the meatless
    via u/AITA_BoneBroth
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    alternatives of our normal fare, and seeing her unabashedly enjoy my food makes me feel warm and content. One of the worst ingredients that triggers a reaction in her is bone broth. I used to drink and cook
    via u/AITA_BoneBroth
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    with it beforehand, but nowadays I use mushroom broth and I don't notice much of a difference except when shopping as it tends to be in stock at my local grocer even when the meat alternatives aren't. Sometimes I even switch out instant ramen seasoning for mushroom bouillon base with dried veggies if I'm feeling lazy and want something quick.
    via u/AITA_BoneBroth
  • 07
    We have a shared friend, B (24M) who invites us and a few others, including C (23M), over occasionally for dinner and a hangout. He's a much better cook than I am and he invited us over group chat recently, even offering to send a few recipes he'd been considering making by us to make sure he could
    via u/AITA_BoneBroth
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    accommodate. A and I looked over the recipes B sent and a minestrone recipe caught our eye, especially because it's been soup weather and I hadn't had proper minestrone in ages. We told him what we thought and he admitted it's what he would've chosen too. He sent a time and date to the group chat and all seemed well.
    via u/AITA_BoneBroth
  • 09
    The day rolls around and we arrive a little later than everyone else. We get settled in and we serve ourselves some soup before sitting at the table. A only had a single spoonful before immediately making a beeline for the bathroom. As soon as the bathroom door slammed shut, C shrunk in his seat and admitted to adding bone broth to the minestrone while B was greeting us as he felt it needed the flavor and didn't think A was "really" vegetarian.
    via u/AITA_BoneBroth
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    This is where I may be the a hole. I laid into C, calling him, among other things, a idiot for tampering with food someone else made and a piece of sh for doing it knowing full well it was supposed to be vegetarian and making my girlfriend sick. I told him I never wanted to see his face again and left for home with A as soon as she got out of the bathroom and had rinsed her mouth out.
    via u/AITA_BoneBroth
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    Now the group chat is in shambles. A says she appreciates me standing up for her but feels bad for "causing a scene". AITA?
    via u/AITA_BoneBroth
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    Cheezburger Image 10502447616
    via Unsplash+ (Getty Images)

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

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    Commenters gave their sympathy to the girl in the story and called out the callous cook.

    Ntooishun ⚫ 13h ago NTA. A recent article talked about an increase in meat allergies. It's called alpha- gal syndrome (AGS), and it's caused by a bite from the lone star tick. I think someone else mentioned it also.
    via u/Ntooishun
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    AITA_BoneBroth OP • 13h ago I don't know if we have those ticks in my area but I'll definitely bring it up with her. She's pretty outdoorsy so I wouldn't be surprised if that was a possibility.
    via u/AITA_BoneBroth
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    libelula202 • 13h ago NTA Dude cared more about how dinner tasted than if your girlfriend could eat. And not just that, he sounds like one of those "allergies. aren't real" people. Honestly you're better off without him. He is too old to think tampering with food (that he didn't even cook!) is appropriate. He poisoned your gf for gods sake!
    via u/libelula202
  • 16
    Make sure to tell your gf SHE did not cause a scene, the guy tampering with all of your food did.
    via u/libelula202
  • 17
    aikigrl 13h ago NTA. Deliberate tampering of food, no matter the motive, could become criminal if the person end up with an adverse reaction and ended up in hospital.
    via u/aikigrl
  • 18
    I get that your gf A feels bad because it caused an uproar in the friends group - C is a total AH and should be thrown away as a friend but B sounds like an awesome and considerate friend who did nothing wrong - he probably wants to throw C away too.
    via u/aikigrl
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    storytime_w_daddy • 14h ago NTA. You stood up for your gf. Messing with someone's food is clear-cut a h le territory.
    via u/storytime_w_daddy
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    Specialist-Spring... • 13h ago NTA He basically just admitted to poisoning your gf. He didn't think she was "really a vegetarian"? That's ridiculous. I would say that you could be more clear with your dietary restrictions in the future to prevent anyone
    via u/Specialist-Spring452
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    from not taking it seriously again, but it seems like he knew what they were and just didn't know how serious it was (still a major crossing of boundaries).
    via u/Specialist-Spring452
  • 22
    CSurvivor9 • 13h ago . NTA. I don't see anything you did wrong. C, on the other hand, is a huge ahole. Make sure A knows this isn't their fault. This is all on C.
    via u/CSurvivor9
  • 23
    Silvanus350 · 13h ago The idea that an invited guest would deliberately tamper with a meal they didn't make, at someone else's house, is absolutely insane. What the f Obviously NTA.
    via u/Silvanus350
  • 24
    Lollipopwalrus • 13h ago . NTA. This was nothing to do with flavour and 100% about C wanting to play 'got cha'. If it was flavour, he'd have added it to his own or served yours & hers up first then added it. He knew exactly what he was doing
    via u/Lollipopwalrus
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    and jumped to flavour as an excuse to cover himself. 100% right response. Food tampering and allergy testing are idiotic and dangerous.
    via u/Lollipopwalrus
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    Formal_Cap_1324 13h ago • NTA - btw - not how I thought I'd answer, but anyone who questions if someone "REALLY" has a condition and then does something against it is not worth having in your life. On a side note, probably best to only have people over to your place OR bring some food that you know is safe.
    via u/Formal_Cap_1324
  • 27
    pedanticlawyer • 13h ago NTA, and if I was B I'd be ped too. Come into my kitchen and decide you know better what should be in my food without telling me? Awh I naw.
    via u/pedanticlawyer
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    ninetyninewyverns 13h ago . A 12 year old kid adding peanuts to a sandwich to "disprove" a peanut allergy in another classmate is one thing, but a grown ass man doing it to a supposed friend? That is just a whole other level of wrong. He has
    via u/ninetyninewyverns
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    no excuse. I mean seriously, this is behaviour you would expect from a child. Appalling behaviour from C. I wouldnt be inviting him to any more dinners until he proves himself trustworthy around food, which he probably never will be able to unfortunately. Just a sad, perplexing and frustrating situation all around.
    via u/ninetyninewyverns
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    And i cant imagine how B feels too. He went to (im assuming) extra lengths to accomodate A's allergy/food aversion/sickness, to make her feel safe at a friends dinner, only to have some contaminate the whole thing and basically spit on his hard work.
    via u/ninetyninewyverns
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    Dry_Pickle_Juice_T. 13h ago NTA, A is not really a vegetarian she is allergic to meat protein. So much worse to tamper with.
    via u/Dry_Pickle_Juice_T
  • 32
    ToughHawk6128 • 10h ago Why is she 'seeing a therapist' when she clearly becomes instantly sick even if she doesn't know there are meat products in the food? In this case she was fully expecting a vegetarian experience but her body reacted anyway.
    via u/ToughHawk6128
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    There's a real tendency within the medical profession to take women's genuine physical health problems and turn them into mental health issues. This doesn't sound like a mental health issue. It sounds like a genuine food intolerance.
    via u/ToughHawk6128

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