How do you deal with special dietary needs in social settings? Insulin resistance is starting to have an impact on my social life.
I am always struggling with my specific food requirements in social settings. In addition to insulin resistance, I have a few food allergies. It's already difficult to deal with that in social settings because some people don't want to understand that I can't just walk into the next best place and not think about the food options beforehand, I always need to check the menu. Since a few weeks ago, I have also paid a lot more attention to my insulin resistance because my symptoms have been quite bad recently after not having a lot of choices in food during a work trip.
But now I've been getting very snappy comments from colleagues and acquaintances/friends of my friends when we were talking about restaurants we could go to or what food to cook. As in: "just eat my chocolate bar if you're hungry now", "don't make it so complicated and just accept fries/ pizza/ fast food/... for dinner", "I have some bread left, your loss if you're that picky", "you're making it impossible to find something". And it's not like I reject every option there is, it was more about not wanting to go to the first suggested places that only have carb heavy food or no single meal without the ingredient I'm allergic to.
How do you deal with situations like these? I usually bring my own safe food to our day trips (we do a lot of hiking, swimming in lakes, motorcycle trips etc) or have some tolerable emergency snacks but sometimes we've been out longer than planned or I didn't have time to prepare. It makes me so angry, my allergies aren't really taken seriously in the first place but trying to not eat as much sugar and carbs is impossible. I make exceptions from time to time, but I can't do it as often as these situations arise...
I also feel a bit ostracised and stuck up if I, for example, only drink water at a social gathering where everyone else has some soda and snacks, or if I'm the only person who cannot eat what everyone else chose.
Do you tell people about your health problems? I have some friends who also have special dietary needs and with them it's never a problem. But I don't know how to deal with people I don't know as well as I don't want to overshare about my health but I feel like some would be more understanding if they knew my reasons.
Do you have a smooth and socially acceptable way to communicate your dietary needs and/or insulin resistance? Or any tips on how you deal with such situations?