Are You a Vegetarian?

[SobaAddict70]

I think it unfortunate that everyone get painted with the same brush as the really annoying, attention-seeking people who make their vegan diet an issue everywhere they go.  Yes, I acknowledge their existence. Yes, it is highly annoying to sit with someone who makes their lives your issue (is this just a vegan thing? doubtful)

This is what I was referring to.

Rude people exist everywhere across the entire spectrum, but it seems to me, at least in my experience, that a high proportion of rudeness exists among some vegetarians I have met (outside of eGullet) who make it their personal mission in life to (subtly) put down others based on their choice of food consumption.

You either have blatant put downs ("Eating meat on a daily basis is ultimately detrimental to long-term health") to subtle judgmental putdowns ("Animals slain for food waste more natural resources than those used purely for their byproducts" or "Animals used for food are generally treated more inhumanely than a prisoner at a federal maximum security institution").

On the other hand, you could say that there seem to be a greater percentage of rude people among non-vegetarians, or the people who claim to be vegetarians but for some inexplicable reason think that venison is a vegetable, so there you go.

Personally, I prefer the type of vegetarian who, as in your example, just goes about life without proclaiming the worthiness of their diet/lifestyle to one and all.

Soba

[CompassRose]

It's not a vegetarian thing. It's a suffer for your diet thing. As is evident in the "I don't wanna eat with my Atkins friends!" threads.

It's easier to suffer martyrdom if you can convince yourself it's morally superior.

Symptom of those who insist on restricting their food for reasons of ethics or vanity, but who refuse to actually take sensual pleasure in what they do eat (or who are too inexperienced in the kitchen to actually produce anything pleasant). Buy the annoying segment of your vegetarian friends a really good vegetarian cookbook, and see if it helps.

[reesek]

Personally, I prefer the type of vegetarian who, as in your example, just goes about life without proclaiming the worthiness of their diet/lifestyle to one and all.

i think you can replace the word "vegetarian" with the word "person" and it still applies, doesn't it?

edited to agree with compassrose - all non-vegans should own the Greens cookbook. it's wonderful

Edited June 25, 2004 by reesek (log)

[cakewalk]

Well, um, actually, these are characteristics that are not unknown among the "gourmet-foodie" set either. So I guess it doesn't matter if you restrict your diet or not. This is also not about the food. People are people, no matter what they choose to eat (or not eat). But I guess we only see their attitudes as "negative" if we disagree with them.

[SobaAddict70]

Personally, I prefer the type of vegetarian who, as in your example, just goes about life without proclaiming the worthiness of their diet/lifestyle to one and all.

i think you can replace the word "vegetarian" with the word "person" and it still applies, doesn't it?

Precisely.

And to the recommended vegetarian cookbooks, I'd like to add "Chez Panisse Vegetables" (because if you're going to cook vegetarian, it's probably best to begin with something that teaches you how to prepare your vegetables as simply as possible (along with their origin and diversity).

Soba

[jschyun]

It's not a vegetarian thing. It's a suffer for your diet thing. As is evident in the "I don't wanna eat with my Atkins friends!" threads.

CompassRose, you said it best, but here's an article about it.

[picaman]

I was a vegetarian for eleven years, five of which were spent completely vegan. And to be perfectly clear, vegetarian means that I did not eat meat, which includes chicken and fish. You'd be surprised how many people think that meat=red meat.

But I digress. I have to ashamedly admit that I proselytized to a minor degree. Sorry, Soba Mostly though, in public, it was me and whatever vegetarian friends I was eating with having the same eternal self-assuring conversation about how all the meat-eaters were clueless in various ways. And when dining with my ex-partner, lots of conversations about the health, ethical, and environmental benefits of our dinner. For me, and for most of my like-minded friends, it was a monomaniacal pursuit. I eventually felt that it ruled my life too much, and pulled back to obtain balance. Sometimes I eat a vegetarian meal, and sometimes I don't.

Ironically, I consider myself much healthier overall now that I've stopped obsessing so much about what and why to eat and not eat. And I'm probably a lot nicer to be around at mealtime.

Understand that all this is my personal experience, and is not meant to be a judgment on individual choices or preferences.

Jamie

[SobaAddict70]

It's the prosletyzing that I specifically object to.

I mean, who wants to hear that? At the dining table, no less.

This is not only applicable to "vegetarian/vegan/macrobiotic/raw foodist prosletyzing towards non-vegetarian/non-vegan/non-macrobiotic/non-raw foodists" (and their reverse), but also towards the "gourmet-foodie-I curl my lip at you heathen Mrs. Dash users/people who like all you can eat buffets/god forbid I get caught with a jar of Miracle Whip in my refrigerator" (and their reverse) type of prosletyzing.

Unless you're Sandra Lee in which case, the above doesn't apply. (j/k)

People like what they like and it's really none of anyone's fucking business to pass judgment on their food choices.

Soba

[emmalish]

...vegetarian means that I did not eat meat, which includes chicken and fish.  You'd be surprised how many people think that meat=red meat.

←

I was searching to see if there were any threads about vegetarian food/restaurants and came across this thread. It's an interesting subject and for unfathomable reasons seems to get tempers fired on both sides.

Yes, I'm a vegetarian. I first decided to become vegetarian way back when I was about 17, the first time I decided to prepare a farm-fresh chicken (my roommate's family had a farm). I grew up in a meat & potatoes household, and had cooked all manner of meat before. But all the chicken I'd made previously had been store-bought, with the giblets all nicely packaged in the body cavity. Farm fresh? Not so much. I suddenly realized that what I was holding was a dead animal, and I was totally turned off meat.

I kept up the diet as much as I could, but I was living in Alberta at the time (big meat-eating, beef-producing area), so it was hard going. I eventually started eating meat again after a few years.

When I moved to Vancouver several years later and saw the proliferation of veggie restaurants and food choices, I decided to give it another go. I still eat eggs & dairy & fish, but the thought of eating land-dwellers just grosses me out. I can't break that "dead thing" connection (oddly fish don't count because I just can't relate to them like I can land-dwellers). The meat aisle at the supermarket just smells like death to me.

Anyway, I've now been a vegetarian for about 15 years. I hear all the time about others who have gone back to eating meat with no problems, but I don't seem to be able to digest it anymore. Every once in awhile I'll eat something that I've been assured is vegetarian, and I find myself getting sick from it (it just doesn't digest -- 'nuff said). Invariably, I'll ask about it and be told, "oh yes, it has chicken stock in it" or "but it's just a little bit of meat for flavour." Gah!

I'm not a militant vegetarian. If you want to eat nothing but a rack of lamb for dinner, go for it. I'll sit beside you and won't comment -- it just doesn't bother me in the least what other people choose to eat -- in fact, cooked meat (especially bbq) still makes me salivate. But why do so many non-vegetarians feel the need to grill me on my choices, or try to sneak meat into dishes just so they can say "a-ha! I'll betcha didn't know you just ate meat!" Obviously I'm not saying all meat-eaters are like this, and conversely yes, I have run into vegetarians who are all in your face about the choice to eat meat.

I just don't get why so many non-vegetarians feel like it should be their life's mission to get me to eat meat. I probably eat a healthier diet than they do (not saying meat isn't healthy, but in terms of variety many meat-eaters I know limit their vegetable intake to potatoes). Is it a pro-active strike because they expect me to get on their case about eating meat? It's almost as if it offends them on some level.

Okay. Now I'm just rambling, so I'll stop.

[Tess]

Thank you, everyone.

The reason I wanted to pose this question is that when I posted the photo shown below in another thread, I received two replies that I had never expected--'no visible meat object' and 'lack of visible meat item'.  These replies made me start to wonder.

Edited to add: Now, how did I manage to bump such an old thread? Sorry, everyone.

It surprises me that anyone would see that as a problem. Quite a few typical kids' meals in the US are meatless and probably have less protein than what I see in that picture. Peanut butter and jelly, anyone? Grilled cheese and tomato soup?

I too was vegetarian for about 10 years, starting in high school, with breaks for living with a foreign family and that sort of thing. Some experience made me react against the idea of eating meat, but it was never really a well-developed moral or ecological concept with me and if I was at someone's home I would just suck it up, so to speak. Both my sisters and a lot of my friends have been largely vegetarian for a long time and I've never seen any of them act like a jackass about it.

I certainly feel as if I see meatless meals around all over the place, especially lunches. I do notice a lack of meatless meals for dinner at good restaurants. Although not a vegetarian ny more, especially when I go out, I do tend to reflexively check and it's amazing how few and repetitive the offerings are.

Edited February 26, 2005 by Tess (log)