I'm vegetarian, I'm not telling you what to do

Why would you need to announce you're vegetarian? I don't walk up to people and tell them I hate liver. or that I'm lactose intolerant. I won't judge you for not eating meat and you don't judge me for eating meat. Most vegetarians I've met tend to throw it in your face that THEY have made the right choice and the meat eaters are going to die and are cruel to animals.

If you don't make a big deal out of your choices I doubt anyone else cares.

I think people sometimes react the way they do because they assume that every vegetarian is the type of vegetarian that forces their beliefs on everyone else and preaches about not killing animals and saving the world etc. etc. etc. So their reaction may or may not be to defend their own beliefs/eating habits because no one likes to feel judged.

I've been a vegetarian my entire life, which is to say I've never tried meat, ever. Usually when I tell people that, and that I have nothing against meat but I don't feel like trying it because I'd probably just become addicted to all the fried stuff, they back off. I still have a few friends that like to dangle meat in my face because "mmmmmm, meat!" and "you don't know what you're missing out on!" but it doesn't really phase me. I don't deny that the food is probably delicious; I just don't care to try it.

I think it mostly boils down to respecting one another's personal eating habits/beliefs/etc.

I'm very much a live and let live person. That would be annoying to have people do that

I don't care what people are doing really, unless it's super destructive. And even then I try to say something constructively if I am close enough to them, but not harp on it bc that doesn't do any good.

Vegetarians or anything else, that's not a big deal to me. Since you asked, I enjoy vegetarian dishes as well as meat dishes. But no skin off my back if *OTHER PEOPLE* want to eat differently than me. Why should it matter to me? Crap, I don't like celery or olives and a lot of people love them. But I'm sure that there are things I love that others don't care for

I think it mostly boils down to respecting one another's personal eating habits/beliefs/etc.

^^^ LOVE this.

Sometimes vegetarians remind me of Christians. Don't try to convert me and everything will go much smoother for you. Try to convert me, or try to preach to me, and you're going to get an earfull right back.


The reasons people decide to go vegetarian are private (or they should be.) If asked, that's one thing. It doesn't seem to be the case frequently. If you have a belief and you are going to talk about it - be prepared for discussions.

It's right up there with gun control and politics in the things-you-don't-bring-up-unless-you're-prepared-for-dissenting-opinions.

I don't think what is happening in the meat industry should be private. What is happening is also a fact . (It's not like arguing religion) But what I can say is that vegetarian isn't the way to combat the main stream meat industry. I was vegetarian, but now I just buy local and/or organic, humanely raised meat which in effect is aiming to accomplish the same thing. (If veggies thought eating animals was cruel, they would most likely convert to vegan) But whenever you call someone out or make your opinion known, yeah, you're definitely going to make people uncomfortable. It's kind of like knowing my christian friends think I'm going to hell for not believing in Jesus.

I've met with a bit of a hostile response of, "Well, I eat meat, what do you think of that?" and also, some of horror, "Why would you do that?", other responses are "It's not forever". It doesn't bother me what anyone else does!! I'm not out to "convert" anyone, but if someone asks, I will tell them why I choose this lifestyle. And yes, the bacon thing comes up far, far too often. lol As if bacon is the holy grail of meat eaters, I don't know. I really don't miss it and I have meat free bacon. And people do flaunt the fact that of how much they love meat to me, which I find personally a bit disgusting but I don't say it to their face. (Just laugh and call them Flesh Breaths behind their back). lol

Some people view being vegetarian as a religion. They're dogmatic about it. It's the few of them that give the rest of us a bad name. For example, one of my favorite non-vegetarian but veg-friendly restaurants happens to be called "The Meatball House". They serve excellent vegetarian balls and great sides that I adore. I wrote a good review on Facebook on their page and some holy rolling vegetarian reamed me out saying how disgusting it is that a place glorifies meat and killing animals, etc, etc. Everyone fired back at her, including me telling her to get her head out of her *kitten*, i'm actually a vegetarian and stop making the us look bad.

I hate that the extremists always seem to be the most outspoken and distort people's opinions of us.

If people respond poorly to you informing them you're vegetarian, and you're truly not trying to tell them what to do, I think it's a case of misidentification of what kind of "special foodie" you are. In my experience, there are 2 types of special foodies - those who have made a choice and are happy to share their reasoning with you if you ask, but aren't going to foist their opinions and logic on you, and the zealots that feel they are morally superior and take every opportunity to try and convert you, and if that fails, to convince you of their superiority. People responding negatively to you may assume your'e the second type, when you're actually the first type.

Here's an example. I'm a locavore. I eat a wide variety of foods, but as much as is possible, I try to get all of my food locally. I also happen to own and run an organic farm/CSA as a second job, which makes that somewhat easier. I am happy to chat with folks all day about the benefits to the environment, the local economy, the nutritional value of the food, the humanity with which farm critters can be raised (and are more likely to be in a small-farm, locally geared food system), and the value of transparency in food production. But when one of my colleagues at my day job spends 45 minutes quizzing me on the qualities and health benefits of raw honey and varietal honeys and how they're produced and the plight of honeybees, then asks if we still have any honey from this year and I say yes, and he responds with "well, good, Chad. but I get my honey from (insert name of supermarket that mostly sells honey from China, which usually doesn't legally qualify to be called honey because it's adulterated by being 50%+ HFCS)," I respond with, "well, they probably have some raw honey there. You'll just have to look on the label."

Contrast that with a friend of mine who is a militant vegan. I mention we raise bees, and they really help the productivity of our garden, and she goes on a tirade about "honey - yuck! Bee Vomit!" then goes into a lecture about how queens are ripped from their cells and brutally artificially inseminated, violent, unjust, and undignified treatment that no insect should have to put up with. If I try to mention that our queens are naturally raised in our hives or come from feral swarms we've captured, and mate by flying out of the hive, finding drone bees from another hive, and mating naturally while flying (watch the Nova special - it's incredible!), that doesn't matter because somewhere bees are treated poorly. Meanwhile, she munches on an apple that likely wouldn't exist if it weren't for honeybees raised by a beekeeper somewhere...

Then she sends videos of crying calves and cows who have just been ripped apart brutally and unnaturally so the calves can be made into veal and the mother can be artificially milked, a disgusting and unnatural process that is ridiculous because no other animal drinks the milk of another species. When I mention that it is possible to produce milk without prematurely separating mom and calf, that (some) humans evolved the gene to digest milk in adulthood because it gave them an evolutionary advantage and thus that should be respected, and that we were able to save one of our crias (baby alpacas) because it was able to nurse on a friend's goat, and thus non-humans will indeed drink the milk of another species, too, she goes off on methane and nutrient runoff (I don't bother to mention that a properly managed grass-fed dairy has almost no nutrient runoff and is a negative net carbon production). Meanwhile, she wears plastic shoes, the production of which is depleting a non-renewable resource, uses massive amounts of energy, produces much pollution, and fuels unmaintainable geopolitical strife, but she's secure in her moral superiority and the knowledge that no animals (since the cretaceous period, anyway) were offended in her lifestyle.

My guess is, when people respond to you negatively when you mention being a vegetarian, they assume your'e the militant type because they've run into so many before. This could be a great opportunity to gently educate them into a more tolerant, diversity-respecting mindset. I would certainly suggest this with friends and colleagues. another suggestion, which may be appropriate for people you don't know, like a dinner meeting with potential clients or something, would be to say something like, "I really feel like something light for lunch today. X restaurant has some great vegetarian options, why don't we go there?" It's not like lying an saying you're not a vegetarian, just omitting that fact, but still ensuring you get something you can eat. Of course, if you're really hungry and want a heavy meal, you might get by with, "I'm starved. There's a great Indian buffet up the road..."

I was a vegetarian for twelve years, and while most people really didn't care, I regularly had nasty comments from people when they found out. They just could not understand why I didn't want a hamburger. When I went back to eating meat, I had vegans who would see me eat something with meat and immediately started telling me what a terrible person I am.

Judgmental people are judgmental. It's not about what their particular diet choices are, it's about the fact that people like that think that anyone who thinks differently from them is wrong. These people aren't worth the energy. I respond with something like "uh-huh" or "that's nice" and change the subject.

When the moderators shut down a thread, it is generally a bad idea to start the thread again.

i have no judgment about what anybody eats, i've known people to lose a lot of weight cutting meat from their diet.