vegan diets often employ four distinct behaviors to navigate shopping, cooking, and eating with meat-eaters.

These include: “Decoding,” which is when vegans learn about food labeling, menus, and common non-vegan ingredients, and attempt to explain their choices and overall lifestyle to non-vegans; “Decoupling,” which is when vegans bring their own meals and ingredients to gatherings to share space but avoid the friction that can come with sharing food; “Divesting,” which refers to an uncompromising approach favored by vegans who avoid relationships and shared meals with non-vegans entirely; and “chameleoning”, which is when vegans attempt to balance their beliefs and lifestyle with conflict avoidance – similar to code switching – in order to get along.