(Untitled)

[shreena]

Five personal perspectives on being vegetarian and not one of them seems to be a lifelong vegetarian.  I expected better from The Guardian, though I'm not sure why as almost everyone (not of a Gujarati background) who has ever asked me the usual series of vegetarian questions has been surprised often to the point of incredulity that I've always

Comments

[secretrebel]

What an idiotic article. Second poster sounds very annoying. If she doesn't know what lamb is then why is she telling people about it?

[realdoll]

Am I missing something as the third one certainly could have been vegetarian forever, esp as dad appears to be too?

[friend_of_tofu]

As someone who turned vegetarian at, I think, 10, I am still face-palming very hard.

[cartesiandaemon]

Hm, come to think of it, I seem to be bothered by incredulous people much less often than I was. I don't know if I just spend more time with people who know vegetarians, or if I've got more used to it, or if people have got more used to vegetarians in general.

(Come to think of it, people do still ask "for how long", but seem only mildly surprised. Now maybe I'll notice it more.)

[absinthecity]

Me too. A lot of people I meet seem to ask as a matter of course if I'm veggie (just because a lot of people are) before I've even had a chance to bring the subject up. I gave up eating meat when I was 7, so like you I've had time to witness first hand just how much things have changed.

I think this is worse for guys though, as my boyfriend is vegetarian and often has problems in restaurants. I have personally never been given an accidental meat dish, but he's had this happen on numerous occasions and he's 'only' been vegetarian 10 years.

There is the odd situation where someone won't bother to ask; work people arranging business lunches to very meat-heavy restaurants etc, an that does start to make my blood boil. But it's relatively rare.

[lisekit]

The thing that drives me nuts: event organiser asks if people attending event are vegetarian. I'm often the only one, or one of two, replying "yes". Event organiser therefore arranges a lunchtime buffet with sufficient vegetarian items for one, or two vegetarians. Then all the meat-eaters snaffle the lot, because event organiser forgot that meat-eaters also eat veggie food. And why shouldn't they? It baffles me why organisers and catering departments consistently fail to take this into account.

Cretins.

[absinthecity]

Oh God, yes that is indeed deeply aggravating, and shows that to many people 'veggie food' is a different category of food altogether and one that they don't recognise even when they're eating it!

Most people we know do seem to have got the hang of the 'never bring out the veggie food first' at a party rule though - that's never a goo plan.

[absinthecity]

I found it really interesting. Vegetarianism is such a personal issue, and people chose that lifestyle (or have it chosen for them) for so many different reasons. If nothing else the article does a good job of showing how no two veggies are the same.

I think it highlights a fair few of the prejudices and weirdnesses that non-meat-eaters face, as well as the challenges that travelling abroad can throw up. I think the 'you don't look like a vegetarian' comment is particularly apt - so many people still equate vegetarian food with health food which is a bit of a joke...

It probably could have benefited from a life-long vegetarian's POV, but is hardly invalidated without it.