Do you think vegetarians are picky eaters?

I'm a vegetarian. I eat absolutely everything except meat. That's a lot less picky than most meat eaters I know!

Just ignore him. Who cares what he thinks, really really?

Oh, stuff and nonsense! I've been vegetarian for 30+ years, and have had a great, varied diet. In fact, that's what brought me here in the first place - I was forever cooking yummy meals and eating too much of them. I am more restricted now I'm doing this, but I guess we all are to an extent. I'm thinking that this might be a little teasing from a brother?

Yes, I think vegetearians are fussy, especially when they say, 'oh I can't eat that'. Hello! You can, you just don't want too!

I respect their choice not to eat meat though and I do have vegetarian friends (interestingly, as we have grown older lots of friends have gone back to eating meat). When it comes to meeting up with vegetarian friends I usually suggest going out, hardly ever invite them over for dinner as don't want to prepare special meals.

If I am having a few people over for dinner and one or two is veggie, I will usually cook Indian and do a meat curry with lots of vegetable side dishes (dahl, aloo etc). But sometimes that is a pain! I might want to cook lasagne!

Anyways, each to their own :-)

I have a Veggie friend and I'm quite happy to eat her food. She cooks some yummy meals. I often ask her for the recipes and find her quite easy to cook for when she comes over to visit me.

I actually find them to be the least picky yes they dont eat meat but they are usually the types that are more experimental with food and will happily try many different things and eat at more alternative places

when you take meat away they have to find new ways to make things taste good etc so therefore will try and eat more things than the regular meat and veg crowds ,,,,,

ive found its usually the meat eaters who are unwilling to even give a veg dish a ago and they seem to stick to there same old food routines allot more

Most vegetarians are far more adventurous with their vegetables than meat-eaters, in my experience. I know that if I wasn't vegetarian I wouldn't have tried tofu or paneer and I enjoy both now.

I'm a vegetarian, and my brother is giving me a really hard time about it, saying I'm a picky eater, and stuff.
Do you think vegetarians are picky eaters? Or do respect their choice of not eating meat?
I'm just wondering!

I am vegetarian too! Bot a picky eater though! Its a choice you make to be vegetarian and that does not make you picky! Its just a choice!

Here are examples of picky eaters:

* A 16 year old boy who eats EXACTLY the same thing for lunch and breakfast every day, specifically a bologna sandwich made with 2 pieces of white bread, two pieces of bologna, one piece of American cheese stacked symmetrically with the crusts cut off like when he was four.

* A 42 year old man who can't have any food on his plate touch anything else on his plate, and must ALWAYS eat what is on his plate in the following order: vegetable first; carb (potato, rice) next, protein next, bread last.

* a 31 year old woman who doesn't like meat that "looks like animal", so eats chicken McNuggets every day for lunch.

You're not picky; you're a vegetarian. Cook for him.

Show him this http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=FLqjLn0W5K0

(It's about vegans, but applies here too I think.)

I find a lot of people are very quick to critisize veggie/vegan lifestyles because it makes them feel defensive - as though we are saying to them "I disagree with your eating habits". Even if you haven't actually said that, I think that's what people think you are projecting onto them. Just remember, if someone is being an *kitten* to you about something, it's because THEY have a problem, not you. xx

I don't, either. Or rather, vegetarians can be picky eaters, and meat-eaters can be picky eaters, and vice versa. When I have vegetarian dinner guests, I think of them in the same way I think of Jewish dinner guests. I would never think of a Jew as "picky" because they don't eat pork,or even if they keep kosher. That's just a different thing than "picky."

My advice is to ignore your brother. I was vegetarian for about 2 decades, and recently started eating some fish & poultry. Some people think it's the funnest thing in the world to make fun of you, they're just missing the fact that you've heard all those jokes 100 times. Lol just laugh and move along, at worst they're feeling defensive, at best they're just being silly or making conversation, so just don't engage it if you want it to stop (eventually).

My SIL is a vegetarian and I don't think she's a picky eater. *I* am a picky eater. Just b/c you eat meat doesn't mean you're not picky, and just b/c you avoid meat doesn't mean you *are* picky. Being a vegetarian or vegan is about much more than saying 'ewww, meat is yucky so I'm not going to eat it'. Or at least in most cases that I'm aware of.

Next time your brother accuses you of being a picky eater, accuse him of being a lazy host.

My dad was a vegetarian for a little while. I had him over for Thanksgiving dinner. I cooked the same as usual and made one extra vegetarian casserole for him. It gave all my guest something new to try without taking away from the rest of my dinner.

If you are vegan, it does make it hard for a non vegan to host and have meals for you to eat. Especially depending on the extreme of the vegan. Some do not eat any animal product, some go as far as to avoid honey etc. He may not know how to react to that, and picky is the only word he can come up with. It doesn't necessary mean picky as much as particular. Look back and make sure you are not being critical in his attempts to have you for dinner. I say this because, I like diet soda. I don't care what kind. I am not picky. For years my MIL never bought diet soda. She bought every other kind of soda known to man, but no diet soda. I just drank water. When I have stuff at my house I buy regular, diet and caffiene free sodas. My aunt will NOT drink any thing but diet coke. No generic, no diet anything else. She will also complain to high heaven about how she only drinks diet coke. I think that is picky. I buy diet coke, just for her, but I do think that is picky.

Hope this helps you look back and reflect where he might be coming from.
Best wishes..

For all you health concious people I only used soda as an example, I don't have soda in my house all the time and I have cut back on my consumption, too.

definitely not! my mate is a veggie (and a vegan for 6 months) and she ate LOADS! if anything she ate way more than I did, and she still came out to chinese buffets and restaurants with us, theres a big choice out there for veggies nowadays

Thanks everyone! I don't think I'm a picky eater, I'll try anything that doesn't have meat. & I don't pick on him or other people for eating meat, and I don't make a big fuss about me being a vegetarian hes the only one who seems to think its such a big deal, and wrong for me not to eat meat.

Some people seem to think that if other's make choices differently than them, it must be an attack on their own choices. So they defend. Even though there's no need to since it's a personal choice that has nothing to do with them. Maybe that's what's going on there...