To make my life easier, I say simply 'we have allergies so this is how we eat'.

Nobody questions it, and we can all eat what we want that way.

People are much more in tune with allergies than specific dietary choices. And this way I can keep the comments to a minimum, because anyone can go away thinking we only eat like that when we go out and have no control over what is in our food.

it also helps that we DO have allergies, DD2 cannot have cow dairy and DD7 is allergic to vegetable oils and I cannot have gluten. So a spice/free steak and real butter is our only option at most restaurants!

Mind you, when we eat out alone, I only say that to the staff who might try to persuade us to order something other than meat