In her essay “The ‘Worst Dinner Guest Ever’: On ‘Gut Issues’ and Epistemic Injustice at the Dinner Table” (Dean 2022), Dr. Megan A. Dean raises a number of provocative questions regarding not only the epistemic status of claims that eaters make regarding what they should (or can) eat or not eat, but also regarding the moral and social obligations of which we should be cognizant when inviting others to join our dinner tables, particularly in cases where guests make claims relating to sensitivity, intolerance, or allergic reactions to foods.

Dean focuses mostly on food sensitivities, describing them collectively as “gut issues,” and proceeds to argue that gut issues allow for instances of “testimonial injustice” (where claims regarding gut issues are trivialized thanks to the perceived group identity of those suffering gut issues), and also “testimonial smothering,” where those who are subject to testimonial injustice are silenced, or at...

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