I hate vegatarians!

The BBQ Pit
81

This is one I struggle with, and where I disagree vehemently with PETA and some other organizations. I don’t believe it’s wrong to have pets. In fact, I believe that, humans having domesticated dogs and cats, we have an enormous responsibility to them. We can either meet that responsibility and take care of them in a humane manner, or we can let them go extinct. I would prefer not to see the latter occur.

I don’t see any point in making an animal eat something contrary to its nature. Cats are carnivores, pure and simple, and I feed my cats canned and dry food. I know a lot of pet food is made of by-products of the meat-for-people industry, and I find it hard to reconcile that. If that makes me a hypocrite, well, I do the best I can. There may be pet food companies that at least buy their products from humane farms, but I don’t know.

As more than one person has said, I didn’t stop eating meat because I don’t like the way it tastes.

Frankly, I never try to convince anyone else to eat the way I do, unless they specifically ask; and I don’t get in anyone’s face about it unless they go out of their way to insult me or make me feel stupid for my dietary choices. You have no more right to question or mock me about what I eat than I do to do the same to my cousing Eric, the Orthodox Jews.

“I love God! He’s so deliciously evil!” - Stewie Griffin, Family Guy

82

http://www.gap-toothed.com (That URL should work.) The gap-toothed ones are taking over the world!!! Just wait and see! :wink:

I am with VegForLife on this last thing, 100%. I do not expect everyone to cater to my eating habits. If they don’t prepare a special alternative for me, no biggie. Usually the side dishes (potatoes, veggies) will fill me up, and I can go home and eat some tofu later, if I’m still hungry. No biggie whatsoever.

Did you really expect a vegetarian to prepare you meat? She probably didn’t want to stink up her kitchen (or her pots and pans) with the nasty stuff. As long as she prepared something filling and tasty, what was the big deal? Do you HAVE to eat meat at EVERY meal? Do you really expect to ALWAYS be fed meat ALL the time? (Ever had a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch? It has no meat in it, you know.) Surely you are not suggesting that you must eat meat all the time.
Ever look at the food pyramid? Meat is not one of the BIG things that you HAVE to have all the time. Dieticians would agree with that. You can do without for one meal, and it sounds odd that everyone was so freaked (or whatever) that they just were just silent. (Talk about uptight…) Eating new things is not a veggie-exclusive thing. You could encounter this situation when you eat with people from another country, or whatever. Stony silence does not seem to be the best way to handle it.

83

If your aunt and uncle had Siamese twins, couldn’t they at least have given them separate names?

Rich

84

VegForLife has the right idea. It’s all about common courtesy and respect for others.

I feel that I should explain that my previous post here was really more for laughs than anything else.

To me, the decision of weither to eat meat or not is a personal decision, like wiether or not one likes spicy foods.

And like one’s religion, polictics, sexual preferences, or taste in music, I feel that personal choices are to be respected.

If you’re a vegetarian, just let me know whenever I invita ya over for dinner. I’ll be sure to include something you can eat. :slight_smile:

You say “cheesy” like that’s a BAD thing.

85

Just a few observations…

The excellent point has been raised by several folks about the basic rudeness and arrogance of dictating to others what their dietary observances should be. Yeah, some of my friends are strict vegetarians and when they’re in my home, damned well better believe they’ll be able to eat everything served, w/o fanfare or hoopla. And anyone with an ounce of ingenuity and a titch of effort can make a dynamite meal that doesn’t have a scrap of meat products in it.(Though I must admit avoiding dairy products is a major hurdle. Soy etc. alternatives to eggs, milk and cheese just don’t get it from a taste and texture viewpoint, and they can be tricky to use as substitutes. And it’s truly amazing how many “ingredients” contain animal products that you’d never realize if you didn’t look.) But to continue…

Hey, if you do it right, you can serve a deliriously great meal and carnivores won’t even notice or miss the absence of meat. It doesn’t have to turn into a huge, ugly war. IMO, it’s the same basic courtesy that says you don’t serve shellfish and/or pork products to Jews who keep kosher, beef to Hindus, etc.

I have great admiration for Linda McCartney, Alix Kates Shulman, and a lot of the other vegetarians who demonstrated that vegetarian eating can be flat-out delicious as well as healthy and–if one is receptive to it–moral as well. They showed that vegetarian cuisine isn’t one of deprivation; rather, it can be an immensely subtle, varied and delicious cuisine.

Using the tritest of food cliches, honey attracts more flies than vineagar. Or to put it another way, good eats gain more converts than lectures.

That said, I do want to just respond to Opal’s analogy of farm animals w/ slaves. No flame, just a resonse! Slaves were human beings, who were capable of wanted nothing more than self-ownership and self determination. Animals don’t have that capablity. Animals ARE dependent on the care, or at least self restraint, of human kind.

I raised the issue solely to illuminate two points:

  1. feedlots and slaughter houses are damned ugly places. Many defiant carnivores base their stance on a sheltered, sanitized distance. It IS quite another thing to see and know that animals are killed, bled out, gutted and dressed to fill those tidy, white, sanitary meat cases.
  2. the farm animals are totally dependent on human effort, support and financial investment. I “own” animals (who have me firmly wrapped around their paws) but the plain fact is, very VERY few people would have the desire or resouces to support swine and cattle herds, etc. if they couldn’t pay for themselves w/ their lives and flesh.

These comments are intended as observations, not value judgments. But I DO maintain that they are facts that should be considered somewhere in the debate.

Braving a flagrant statement of opinion (but hey, what better place than the Pit?) anyone who judges other people on what they eat is just plain tacky. Quoting others who said it a lot better, not to mention briefly, what the hell happened to manners?

Veb

86

Ok, a few last comment here…

pldennison and Opal–
I have a lot of respect for you…to go out of your way to aviod animal products…my appologies for a carelessley worded post, it was Friday afternoon, and I didn’t spend as much time on it as I should. However, that doesn’t make it a “dumb-fuck” argument. Out of all the “vegetarians” I’ve met, I think only 1 has actually followed the lifestyle…no meat, pultry, fish…etc. All the rest seem to have no idea why, it’s just the latest cause to champion. Perhaps that’s why people like me tend to be a bit skeptical about this subject.

And the last comment here is more of a pet peeve…many of the vegetarians here has spoken out about the woman that served the eggplant…(don’t feel like quoting right now) and how she was perfectly right, and they should all have chowed down with no complaints. That eating one meal without meat won’t kill us. But then isn’t the same true when you come over to my place for dinner?..If I served a meal with nothing but meat dishes, how would you react?. Surely eating one meal of all meat won’t kill you will it? The fact is, it was rude of her to invite a bunch of people over that she probably knew didn’t share her lifestyle, and basically enforce it on them.

“Some drink at the fountain of knowledge…others just gargle.”
-Anon

87

Exactly as I said I would: politely.

This is nonsense on several levels. First, there is no evidence as to whether or not the woman knew whether or not her guests were vegetarians. Second, she was not “enforcing” anything on anyone: if they did not want to eat the meal that was placed before them, they could have politely declined, for any number of reasons. Third, it is never rude to invite people over to your house to share a meal, no matter what you are serving; at worst, it would have been inconsiderate of her to have prepared an eggplant dish if she had known in advance that one or more of her guests were allergic to eggplant, in the same way that it would be inconsiderate to provide only meat to guests who you knew in advance did not eat meat (and even then she could still have prepared the dish for the rest of her guests, providing extras for the sensitive one). Finally, and this is my pet peeve, to refer to a dietary preference as a “lifestyle” is absurd. Somebody may very well have a different lifestyle, and choosing to avoid meat may be a part of it, but assuming that the individual has a different lifestyle based on what they choose to eat is just silly. My “lifestyle” has barely changed at all in the past ten years, I simply pick different items at the grocery store and off of menus.

Elsewhere:

I’m not sure if that was a typo or intentional, but it cracked me up! And I can attest to the truth of this statement (regardless of whether you meant “delirious” or “delicious”): we served no meat at our wedding dinner, and even the “I’d better get meat at every meal” husband of one of my bride’s co-workers commented on how good the meal was. We were both deliriously happy, so both adjectives fit. :slight_smile:

Rich

88

What the hell does being allergic have anything to do with it? That has no bearing on that fact that she served an all vegitable meal to a group of individuals without knowing their preferance.
Perhaps it’s the way I was raised, but I would consider myself extreamly rude to server only meat dishes to someone that I knew was a vegitarian. Although since they were coming to her place, they should have expected that type of food. But she also should have made it clear what type of meal she would be serving.

You’re right…and I’m sorry…I just got tired of typing the same phrase over and over again, and was looking for a way to change my wording from time to time…no slight was meant.

“Love thine enemies…it really pisses them off.”
-Anon

89

“Being allergic” was simply used as an example, such as “is a vegetarian,” “dislikes cauliflower,” or “barfs at the sight of sunflower seeds.”

As an example, it has as much bearing as the others above. In short, the host is under no obligation to learn every preference of every guest. Any guest who has a problem with any kind of food, and wishes to make it clear that they will not eat that kind of food (without attempting to dictate to the host what he or she may or may not serve), should do so before the event.

Then you were raised quite well (although I still think “extremely rude” is going too far), and this is exactly the point I was getting at when I said that the host would be, at worst, inconsiderate to serve only meat to guests who the host knows in advance are vegetarians. This does not, however, imply that the host is under an obligation to learn the preferences, allergies, etc., of each and every guest; it is the obligation of the guests to make these known if they are a potential source of discomfort.

I simply don’t believe this is true. I think you expect too much from those who host parties which you might attend (and too much from yourself as host).

Rich

90

Forgive me for jumping in so late here, but it seems like a good place to get some information from the well-informed.

Middle Son has announced, at age 11, that he does not like meat. He HATES Thanksgiving, he says, because of the turkey. He doesn’t want to eat steak, or roast beef, or much in the way of chicken. He will eat fish, eggs, and cheese.

I know that it is important for him to get lots of protein, since he is still young, still growing. Are there any especially good websites, or books, to help me figure out what I can offer him in the way of a balanced diet? And, because he is only 11, foods that will appeal to an age that is traditionally somewhat “picky”? I’m all for trying to move the whole family to a couple of meatless meals a week, although I’m not willing to give up meat for all of us completely.

Thanks for your tips!

-Melin

91

Atrael, I’m sorry I used the word “dumbfuck.” It was inappropriate, and I tend to get defensive (I know–everyone just said, “No, really?”).

Anyway, when you say:

All I can ask is, so what? Nonvegetarians order eggplant parmesan at restaurants all the time. I think there’s a difference between serving a meat entree to people you know are vegetarians, and serving a nonmeat entree to a mixed audience. Maybe it’s just me.

Melin: There are a lot of really good cookbooks out there, but for your situation, you may want to check out “The Compassionate Cook,” published by PETA; or “Lean, Luscious and Meatless.” Both should be available at any good-sized bookstore.

“I love God! He’s so deliciously evil!” - Stewie Griffin, Family Guy

92

Melin, there’s a book by Sharon K. Yntema titled “Vegetarian Children.” I bought this book several years ago for my sister, when my nephew was born with a severe dairy allergy (I had no intention of trying to convert her or her family, but I figured the book would deal with dairy issues). Although I didn’t read the book, I skimmed it, and I remember that she discussed the “picky eater” thing at least a little bit. I can’t vouch for all of the information in the book, but it might be a good starting point.

As far as websites go, check out the Vegetarian Resource Group website (www.vrg.org), as well as Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine (www.pcrm.org). I saw articles about vegetarian children at both sites. The PCRM site had a sample menu, which you could certainly modify (I just skimmed it, but it appears that it omits any dairy or eggs).

As far as general cookbooks go, there are a ton of them out there. Bobbie Hinman, one of the authors of one of the cookbooks that Phil mentioned also wrote “The Meatless Gourmet,” from which I’ve gotten numerous great recipes, most of which are fairly easy to prepare. Nava Atlas has a great soup cookbook out, I think the title is “Soups for All Seasons.”

Although I don’t have any personal experience with raising vegetarian kids, my one piece of advice would be to make sure that you provide your son with lots of information. If he’s old enough to make this kind of decision for himself, he should be old enough to handle all the information he needs to make an informed choice, both “pro” and “con.”

Good luck!

Rich

93

I’m done arguing about hating vegetarians, and now have a serious question. Please don’t think this is to poke fun or stereotype anyone. But, I have noticed that a lot of the vegetarians around me (in college town) are chubby and out of shape. in school i had a roommate that gained about 35 lbs when he went veggie. Does this have anything to do with not supplementing correctly and losing muscle mass, which would decrease metabolism, etc. Has anyone else noticed this.

All this science, I don’t understand. It’s just my job 5 days a week-- Rocketman

94

I guess i should add, before anyone else does, that there are a lot of omnivores that are overwieght too, but it seems that eliminating meat and dairy, etc., would cut down on fat intake.

All this science, I don’t understand. It’s just my job 5 days a week-- Rocketman

95

Opalcat: When I mentioned the broth, I was speaking of a specific person, my suitemate. I wasn’t intending to include all vegetarians.

As for the sharp pointy teeth (which was intended to lighten things up a bit), I meant canines, not incisors. Sorry for not making that clear in the previous post.

I freely admit biology isn’t my strong suit – my college doesn’t require it for my major – but as Satan pointed out, we are designed for meat eating as well as plant eating.

I apologize if I’ve caused you to become upset, as it wasn’t intended.

96

No, it simply has to do with taking in more calories than you expend.

Not if you up your Cheetos quotient to compensate.

Seriously, it’s very easy to be a junk food vegetarian, eating a diet that is less nutritious than a standard American meat-laden diet. Combine this with inactivity, and you won’t be any slimmer, trimmer, buff or energetic than your basic Edith-get-me-a-beer couch potato. This does not mean that the vegetarian in question is “unsuccessful,” because, although it bothers you, there are more reasons than health for avoiding meat.

Rich

97

Oh, so you shouldn’t substitute beer for meat?

just kidding, thanks for the insight.

All this science, I don’t understand. It’s just my job 5 days a week-- Rocketman

98

Melin: A cookbook that’s stood up well through the years is “Laurel’s Kitchen”,on Ten Speed Press. The recipes are great, and it has an extensive section on nutrition. Interestingly, I was the same age as your son when I began to make a conscious choice towards not eating meat. My parents are marine biologists, and though I’d been catching (& dissecting) fish since I was small, it was then that I made the real connection between pulling critters out of the sea & watching them suffocate, and what I was eating. I refused to eat em. My parents listened, but with a lot of mouths to feed, weren’t going to kowtow to a table of picky-eaters, especially when there was plenty of free fish. So they said, fine, but that I would have to cook my own dinner. So I would fix myself hotdogs! Go figger! I learned what was in those, too…

I think it’s great that you take an active interest in exploring this with your son. What are his reasons for this decision?

99

Um, my pets have gotten out a number of times for various reasons, and they always come back a couple of hours later, if not sooner. What is your point?

–
O p a l C a t
www.opalcat.com

100

I think this whole thing is silly. There is a difference between inclusion and exclusion. Would you be offended if you went to a kosher house and weren’t served pork? There are plenty of delicious meals that don’t involve meat and expecting a vegetarian to cook meat for you when there are plenty of alternatives is absurd. I won’t have meat in my kitchen, that is for sure. It stinks and makes me sick to look at. I sure as hell won’t cook it. I really am shaking my head over this…

Someone said that she forced her vegetarianism on them, in the same way that expecting her to eat an all meat meal would have been forcing that on her. This is ridiculous. I have a major OBJECTION to eating meat. Do you have an objection to things that aren’t meat? If so, I assume you never eat side dishes, dressings, or anything but pure meat. Being served a meal which omits an ingredient is nothing at all like being served one that includes one. Can you really not see the difference!?

–
O p a l C a t
www.opalcat.com