The Why-I-Am-a-Vegetarian Post

[silburygirl]

Because I've had one of those weeks in which people ask me why I'm a vegetarian (and gaze at me as though they've just noticed the second head sprouting from my shoulder) about ten million times and I have a long, rambling answer

Comments

[shiv5468]

Nods.

So many meat eaters think you're missing something, and just don't understand that I'm revolted by the stuff. I can't eat sarnies that have been within oozing distance of some sort of meat or fish.

Shudders.

it's icky

[silburygirl]

Precisely. I like food and cooking and eating - feeling guilty or revolted by it kind of kills the entire experience. If I hate what I'm eating, I might as well live off of protein shakes. And the last time I had something meat-ish, I had accidentally ordered a dish at a restaurant that had used chicken broth and spent the rest of the night with my stomach churning. Not an experience I care to repeat.

The only thing I can honestly say that I miss is really well cooked salmon - but I've ever had it so that it didn't taste utterly disgusting once, and every time since has been a complete let down.

[renitaleandra]

Tis all right my veggie-loving friend, I still like you.

I can't eat raw tomatoes cuz I find the texture to be that of chewing on a human finger. So I totally get why you can't eat meat.

*nods*

[silburygirl]

Yay! (And that icon cracks me up every time.)

I'll only eat cherry tomatoes, unless it is a sauce of some sort... The full sized ones are so flavourless and icky. Picky eater? Moi?

[renitaleandra]

On the otherhand, I love tomato soup. So I guess I need things to get juiced and then I lose my "tastes like a finger" argument.

Meatshake, anyone?

[silburygirl]

Do you want me to be sick on you?

[harmony_bites]

*chomps on salmon burger* Yes?

I'll admit though, had I bottle-fed *Schnookums* I might have felt differently. And more for me!

There's food that revolts me too, seriously, so maybe ask them what they *won't* eat? I hear they serve dog and cat in some countries--that might better make them understand....

*plans for tofu tomorrow*

[silburygirl]

In one of my missionary fits, I may dig up a picture of me bottle-feeding Schnookums, just so that you can understand. :D

That is a good way of putting it-I shall try it next time someone decides to be stupid.

[renitaleandra]

While I would never choose to eat dog/cat meat on a regular basis, if I were hard put, and it was a choice between eating and not eating...

[harmony_bites]

I'd eat dog...

But I'd have to be very, very, very hungry--no, starving.

And that's not really the choice that a vegetarian lifestyle presents. Now, there are health issues--theorectically. We're designed to be omnivores--vegetarians have to watch their protein--I read they're not allowed to give blood.

But health reasons seem rather laughable given the junk almost all meat eaters put in their mouth. Among other things, we eat far too much of it. Meat, red meat, isn't something we should be eating more than a couple of meals or so a week, and not in the quantities most North Americans consume.

[pigwidgeon37]

Being a vegetarian for ethical reasons and for the love of animals is admirable. Not turning into a militant, eeek-you're-eating-meat vegetarian for the very same reasons is even more of an achievement.
I wish I could be one, but I can't. All I can do is eat meat only when I absoluly have to, and - if I can manage - buy from farmers who keep their animals under humane conditions.

[silburygirl]

Oh, shit. I forgot I was signed into that account... (I can trust you to be discreet, non? Or will Obliviate be necessary?)

I try to stay mellow about most things (except when I'm being bitchy :D).

The not eating meat part isn't a particular accomplishment-I didn't care for it to begin with, so it was a bit like giving up radishes. Like Shiv said above, I don't feel like I'm missing out.

And I think that the humane conditions bit is the most important, to be honest-feedlots are disturbing.

[pigwidgeon37]

I'm the soul of discretion. Only two brain cells to rub together, hence I won't risk losing 50% of brain mass by Obliviate ;-)

Well, if you don't care for it in the first place, no, it probably isn't an accomplishment. It's a bit like people admiring me for not eating chocolate or ice cream, but I just don't like it.
The problem arises when you're a meat-eater with a conscience.

[silburygirl]

Eeeeexcellent...

No chocolate or ice cream? Eeek! (Actually, I would give both up before I gave up cheese-vegan, I am not.)

[kribu]

I do wish people would stop telling others what their preferences ought to be. As long as you're not going around forbidding other people to eat meat, I can't see why they should be telling you to eat it!

(I do have to admit that I can understand some of this attitude here: a lot of my generation and older people feel like snubbing food of any kind is offensive, as we grew up in a time when you ate what you had. When food is on coupons and you have to queue for an hour for bread, refusing what you're given is something that a lot of people won't take kindly to. Of course, the youth of today don't have that issue, and when there's plenty of choice for everyone, it shouldn't be a problem any more.)

I have a similar problem - well, not similar on an ethical level, but everyday level - with alcohol. I don't want it, I don't drink it, I never have. I don't go around telling other people to never have a drop. So why do I always have to spend forever explaining that no, I really don't want that shot of vodka or glass of wine or that beer

[silburygirl]

*coughs* Well, my personal theory is that when times are tight, killing animals rather than making them useful is rather counterproductive... But I didn't live then, and my understanding of those sorts of situations is through things that I've read, so who knows how practical that is?

My one major tic, actually, is bacon-if someone wants to cook it, I will leave the building to avoid the smell. There's something about it that is just not on... But otherwise, I know I have no business poking my nose into other people's diets and I avoid it.

I know quite a few people who, for various reasons, don't drink alcohol-it's not something that I would comment on ever (for all I know, the person could be a recovering alcoholic who really doesn't need the reminder).

Oddly, I am way less run-down and irritable than I was before-I make the effort to eat enough protein, and it shows.

[kribu]

*coughs* Well, my personal theory is that when times are tight, killing animals rather than making them useful is rather counterproductive...That theory works with animals who give something - cows for the milk, chickens for the eggs. There is no point (speaking from a purely practical level) in raising pigs for any other reason than meat. And back then, any meat we did get was pork - beef has never been very popular here, precisely because cows are kept for the milk. (And only pork leftovers anyway, fat and internal organs mostly, as the meat, together with most everything else produced here, was taken to Russia anyway

[shiv5468]

Frankly, I suspect that when you give up meat you have to think about what you're eating more, so you eat better. And a lot of junk food is ruled out automatically. Nothing to do with some people's systems needing meat or not.