# What do you hate about vegans/vegetarians? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 21, 2007, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-hate-about-vegans-vegetarians/408821 "2007-06-21T07:11:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![gfloyd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d2c977/32.png) [@gfloyd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gfloyd)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2007, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-hate-about-vegans-vegetarians/408821/81 "2007-06-21T23:32:30Z")
I lived with this girl that was a vegetarian for a while. Actually, I’ve had two vegetarian roommate. One was great, she did her thing, I did mine. I don’t eat much meat to begin with, so it did really matter. The other girl was a piece of work. I grew up around medicine. This girl was clearly anemic. Pale as death, always sick as a dog, no energy, ever. And she’d complain about it. All the time. Finally I told her she was probably anemic because she didn’t eat meat, take supplements or eat enough leafy dark green veggies. She starting screaming at me about how I was just not accepting her life choice. Good grief, I wasn’t telling her she could only get iron from meat and she asked for my advise. And she lectured me all the time about my diet. See, not only was she a vegetarian, but she was one a low carb diet since she was 12. She annoyed me to no end. Mainly my complaint is just the people that look like death on a cracker that say they are so much healthier than I am. I probably don’t eat more than three servings of meat a week most weeks, do don’t sit there are tell me that you diet is radically better than mine, particularly when you look like a strong breeze might knock you down. Other than that, I don’t care what you do. Call yourself whatever you’d like and eat whatever you please. It’s not up to me what you do. Just don’t tell me what to do. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2007, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-hate-about-vegans-vegetarians/408821/82 "2007-06-21T23:41:26Z")
[QUOTE=Dangerosa] I’ve dealt with lots of vegetarians and a few vegans - plus all sorts of other dietary restrictions. (snippage) [/QUOTE] Beautifully put. ---
**Author:** ![TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/51bf81/32.png) [@TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2007, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-hate-about-vegans-vegetarians/408821/83 "2007-06-21T23:45:17Z")
Their poop and farts **STINK** in a completely unnatural, horrific, Lovecraftian way. I was dating a vegetarian girl a few years ago, and I made the mistake of walking into the bathroom not long after she had been in there. It smelled like someone had been burning garbage made up of tires and human hair - one of the worst things I’ve ever smelled. It made me instantly unable to be attracted to her ever again, and I had to break it off soon thereafter. ---
**Author:** ![phouka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c5a1d2/32.png) [@phouka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phouka)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2007, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-hate-about-vegans-vegetarians/408821/84 "2007-06-21T23:56:34Z")
The only time I ever had a problem with a vegetarian/vegan was when my niece decided to go vegan. Because it was cool. Plus, all her friends were vegan. Unfortunately, she hadn’t done any reading on the subject. At a family gathering, I found her parked in front of the bowl of cocktail shrimp, scarfing them down. “So…not vegan anymore?” “Oh, I’m vegan. Eating animals is wrong.” “Right. So, were you thinking shrimp were plants?” “Oh, they’re not animals. It’s okay.” I gave her a thirty second rundown on the fact that they were indeed animals, and she was only seeing them in their decapitated, de-legged, de-veined state, that the Jell-O brand gelatin desert she’d just enjoyed had gelatin, made from animal hides and hooves, the cheese had renin, from horse or cow stomachs, and if her Big Red had a particular food coloring in it, then she was responsible for the deaths of countless beetles. Then I told her she was welcome to eat whatever she wanted or follow whatever ethical food path spoke to her, and I would support her, but to please not kid herself about what she was actually doing. Apparently, I was the third relative in ten minutes to call her on her silliness. My half-sister, her aunt, is a science teacher. My father, her grandfather, grew up on a farm in Oklahoma and shot squirrels for supper. He also stole chickens. She stopped calling herself a vegan. So, come to think of it, I’ve never actually had a problem with a vegetarian or vegan, only some silly chit who wanted to call herself one but had no concept what it involved. ---
**Author:** ![MissGypsy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8491ac/32.png) [@MissGypsy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MissGypsy)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2007, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-hate-about-vegans-vegetarians/408821/85 "2007-06-22T00:40:31Z")
[QUOTE=mlerose] The funny thing about it is that I know a lot more about being vegan than they do. I was the one who told them about Vitamin B12 deficiency, and about how to get a complete protein by eating a mixture of certain foods, and that they can’t eat marshmallows anymore. [/QUOTE] Ok, color me stupid, but why aren’t marshmallows ok for a vegan? ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2007, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-hate-about-vegans-vegetarians/408821/86 "2007-06-22T00:50:51Z")
Marshmallows contain gelatin. Gelatin is made from bones and hooves. ---
**Author:** ![MissGypsy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8491ac/32.png) [@MissGypsy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MissGypsy)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2007, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-hate-about-vegans-vegetarians/408821/87 "2007-06-22T01:12:25Z")
[QUOTE=DocCathode] Marshmallows contain gelatin. Gelatin is made from bones and hooves. [/QUOTE] Oh. Thank you. I knew about gelatin, but I was unaware that it was in marshmallows. One more bit of ignorance fought, and defeated. ---
**Author:** ![Idlewild](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8491ac/32.png) [@Idlewild](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idlewild)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2007, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-hate-about-vegans-vegetarians/408821/88 "2007-06-22T01:27:21Z")
[QUOTE=Incubus] fat vegans. Maybe they were having a really unhealthy diet and had some sort of ephiphany, but I’ve known a few that had been practicing vegans for 10+ years. How the hell do you get morbidly obese eating nothing but lentils and stuff?! 😕 [/QUOTE] Cupcakes. Sweet, delicious, light, fluffy, incredibly fattening [cupcakes!](http://www.amazon.com/Vegan-Cupcakes-Take-Over-World/dp/1569242739) We’ve baked the peanut butter ones, the mexican hot chocolate ones, some kind of healthy carroty ones (I did not have a hand in those), the smores ones, and some jelly donut style vegan cupcakes from a magazine. They’ve all been fantastic. I’m not vegan but I have been baking since I was a small child and these recipes rock, and so do the products thereof. ---
**Author:** ![kushiel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bbce88/32.png) [@kushiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kushiel)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2007, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-hate-about-vegans-vegetarians/408821/89 "2007-06-22T01:42:27Z")
My family is a family of farmers - mine is the first generation to really get away from it for good. Big-scale slaughterhouses can be disgusting, yes. But I live in a place that because there is so much local farming, a lot of the meat here is local. I know how farmers feel about raising their animals. Those animals are, really, their _babies_, to a degree. I don’t know, maybe it changes my outlook when you’ve seen your mother and aunts sitting around the kitchen table talking about how bad they feel for a cow that’s gone through a very difficult birth. They know how it feels, and it doesn’t change their feelings with the mother not being human. Those small-scale family farms that rely on livestock for income do still exist, and I see nothing barbaric about them. It’s not my fault you can’t guarantee where your meat comes from. So, to close, I’m only against the preachy vegans/vegetarians who try to tell me eating meat is barbaric. ---
**Author:** ![Sapo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Sapo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapo)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2007, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-hate-about-vegans-vegetarians/408821/90 "2007-06-22T02:00:11Z")
[QUOTE=Autumn Almanac] I don’t like vegetarians who get overly defensive when the subject comes up. “Oh, you’re vegetarian? Is it for health reasons, or are you opposed to killing animals, or what?” “I don’t have to justify my beliefs to YOU! How rude! Stop OPPRESSING me!” (exaggerated for effect, not an actual quote 🙂 ) I try to cut people slack-- after all, chances are they probably _have_ been subject to bullying and ridicule because of their vegetarianism, so maybe it’s natural to be a little defensive. What’s more, one person’s good-natured ribbing is another person’s bullying, especially when it comes to heartfelt beliefs, so there’s definite potential for misunderstandings. Still-- some folks seem to respond with guns blazing _every_ time, even to genuine non-hostile curiosity. [/QUOTE] It does get tiresome having to answer the same bloody question every single time. Why don’t you eat meat? Was he born like that? What happened to your leg? Can you move it? Does it bite? Whatever it is, when someone has a non-conventional attribute, they have to answer the same questions every time. Not fun. Believe it or not, the one I get all the time is: You don’t drink coffee? aren’t you from Venezuela? Hardly the stuff to get offended about but c’mon. ---
**Author:** ![rackensack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@rackensack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rackensack)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2007, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-hate-about-vegans-vegetarians/408821/91 "2007-06-22T02:19:58Z")
[QUOTE=Vinyl Turnip] I think aside from the desire to convert, or to prevent cruelty, part of the reason vegans tend to \*talk \* so much about it is that being a vegan pretty much sucks. You miss out on a lot of things that other people find pleasurable, and that you probably used to as well. If you’re going to suffer, you at least want to make sure everyone recognizes and admires your suffering. [/QUOTE] Yup. Many years ago, I shared living accommodations with a classic whiny vegan during a six-week seminar program at a major university in the Boston area. He wanted to complain constantly about how the fact that he was vegan meant he couldn’t participate in a lot of the group outings that the rest of us in the program went on. This, despite the fact that there were indeed several other vegetarians, and at least one other vegan, in the group, who seemed to be be able to find ways to go along and survive without compromising their principles. I mean, if you were going to be anywhere in 1985 where there were viable options for vegans, Cambridge, MA was among the better choices, but somehow nothing suited this guy, and he had to maunder on for hours if unchecked about how he was excluded from so many things. But apparently, hot steaming cups of STFU are among the things many vegans won’t consume. ---
**Author:** ![SusanStoHelit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ab992/32.png) [@SusanStoHelit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SusanStoHelit)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2007, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-hate-about-vegans-vegetarians/408821/92 "2007-06-22T04:17:38Z")
[QUOTE=Dangerosa] And if you aren’t a big veggie eater - vegetarian often becomes “breadatarian.” I’ve known a lot of vegetarians who don’t like vegetables - and a few that like neither vegetables or beans. That can lead to a fructose heavy, carb heavy diet. Add a taste for salt (chips) and a corresponding sweet tooth (cookies, pop) and you can be sunk. Meat may be argueably horrible for you, but removing it from you diet and filling the space left with potato chips, bread, and Hershey bars is not going to be a weight loss plan. [/QUOTE] Yep. It can also be explained by one word: cheese. Cheese can be the foundation of a very delicious, very fattening veggie meal ---
**Author:** ![SusanStoHelit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ab992/32.png) [@SusanStoHelit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SusanStoHelit)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2007, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-hate-about-vegans-vegetarians/408821/93 "2007-06-22T04:39:13Z")
[QUOTE=jackdavinci] The thing I find interesting is that a lot of meat eaters are overly defensive of their own diets, often to the point of being preachy or alarmist, and also often preemptively. Some will ask me if I’m a veggieperson, prefacing the question before i answer with a long defense of why they feel justified in eating meat, or why they feel guilty about it but do it anyway, etc. I don’t see why they feel the need to justify themselves at all about their personal choices to someone they know only casually, doubly so when the person hasn’t even told them their own opinion yet. And in some rare scenarios, I find that some meat eaters are bullish about their diets - they make light of veggiepeople, insist that anything veggierelated is wrong, unhealthy, and pseudoscience, haggle them to try meat, etc. Or that they are somehow stronger, more macho, powerful intelligent people for eating meat. Many are also alarmist, not just about what could happen to the non meat eating person, but also about how it will affect society - as though one person choosing not to eat meat is going to inevitably lead to a constitutional amendment banning meat and a police state locking them away for having a Big Mac. [/QUOTE] I’ve seen that too. Maybe they just feel outnumbered here in be-hippie-d Oregon, but it seems like a lot of people have their whole identities tied up in being meat-eaters. One of my roommates had a visceral reaction when she thought about not eating meat. Neither my Suavecaveman or I are vegetarians per se, but neither of us are into the “big slab of meat”-style meal either, so we usually say we are veggies when asked. At home we eat chicken or fish twice a week or so. I’ve also never turned down a big slab of red meat if that is what my hostess is serving. In Oregon I rarely hear anyone proselytize about being veggie/vegan. To some extent I hear what **Jack** does from meat-eaters, but the \*\*worst \*\* offenders are the organic/local people. We eat both organic and local because it tastes better, but I never talk about it because _my god_ is it boring: It takes a cup of gasoline to transport one organic Washington apple to where you live, did you know that? Nobody wants to hear that! Nobody cares - if they did care, they’d already be eating local! My (organic, local, vegetarian eating) Mother-In-Law will see someone eating red meat or something and she’ll start making puking noises _in the restauraunt_ :o She shops at the local overpriced food co-op with the other aging hippies and they all strut about like peacocks, preening about their bird-friendly coffee and free-trade potato chips (or whatever). I really think the extra cost they pay is for the ego-stroking. I think the evangelical analogy is apt - they go to “church” at their co-ops and then spread the good news to the great unwashed. :rolleyes: Wow, this thread really struck a nerve. I didn’t realize this whole thing bothered me so much, but it is annoying to constantly defend your food choices. ---
**Author:** ![SusanStoHelit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ab992/32.png) [@SusanStoHelit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SusanStoHelit)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2007, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-hate-about-vegans-vegetarians/408821/94 "2007-06-22T04:43:09Z")
[QUOTE=phouka] I gave her a thirty second rundown on the fact that they were indeed animals, and she was only seeing them in their decapitated, de-legged, de-veined state, that the Jell-O brand gelatin desert she’d just enjoyed had gelatin, made from animal hides and hooves, the cheese had renin, from horse or cow stomachs, . [/QUOTE] they have veggie rennin now - at my grocery the veggie version is much cheaper and works just as well for mozzarella (I’ve never tried to make anything else). Surely the milk in the cheese would be more offensive? ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2007, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-hate-about-vegans-vegetarians/408821/95 "2007-06-22T04:51:39Z")
Got no problem with vegetarians in general, but lemme tell you about one of my best friends. She went vegetarian back around '91 or '92. At first, she just didn’t eat meat. Gradually, she claimed she’d lost the ability to digest animal protein and every time she accidentally did, she’d get deathly ill. I said, "you know, you still eat things made with milk and cheese, and if I went through your fridge & cupboards, I could find all sorts of animal proteins. THAT went over well. Like talking to a brick wall. Eventually, several years ago when I was visiting her it got so bad she didn’t even want me to cook meat in any of her pots or pans, because apparently no amount of washing could get rid of that meat taste which by then would also make her deathly ill. She not only couldn’t “digest” animal substances of any kind, but now she’s deathly allergic to them. Then, she met a new guy who wasn’t vegetarian, fell in love and miraculously, her body started craving animal protein again. :rolleyes: Now she’s got a whole new list of things she’s deathly allergic to and can’t eat, and oddly enough, her now husband has developed many of the same allergies. So anyway, be vegetarian if you want, but knock it off with the life-threatening reactions to this, that and the other thing. Can’t people simply not like certain things? Everyone’s got to be deathly allergic to everything now? ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2007, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-hate-about-vegans-vegetarians/408821/96 "2007-06-22T05:57:16Z")
The propaganda is tiresome. Because so much of it is false. If I hear one more vegetarian spout off about beef cattle being raised in pens on “factory farms” I may blow a gasket. I grew up on a farm where we raised beef cattle, in a community where beef cattle were an important part of the economy. I know a little bit about the process. So I get especially steamed when a vegetarian (not knowing my background) condescendingly “explains” to me the terrible conditions under which beef cattle are raised. Well, yeah, if lounging around in a sunny pasture chewing cud counts as torture. I have issued this challenge several times on the 'Dope boards: show me a “factory farm” for cattle. Give me an address, or GPS coordinates, because I want to visit the place. Nobody has directed me to one yet. ---
**Author:** ![Full\_Metal\_Lotus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/df705f/32.png) [@Full\_Metal\_Lotus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Full_Metal_Lotus)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2007, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-hate-about-vegans-vegetarians/408821/97 "2007-06-22T06:57:37Z")
My daughter is vegitarian (she eats eggs, cheese, honey etc, but nothing that had to die ) She is very ethical about it. When invited to a social event that involoves food, she always brings up her food preference, and offers to bring a dish, if the planned menu does not include something suitable for her. She and I both hate “sneak attack” vegitarians/vegans who show up and THEN announce that none of the food is suitable for them. She and I both consider that rude, insensitive and actually a negative reinforcement of the vegitarian lifestyle. She came up with a great analogy. If you are invited to race in a stock car race, don’t show upo with a bicycle, and expect everyone else to drive 15 miles an hour. regards FML ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2007, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-hate-about-vegans-vegetarians/408821/98 "2007-06-22T12:36:25Z")
I’m a vegetarian, but you’ll get my Peeps when you pry them from my cold, dead hands. Anyway, I know someone who is vegan and threw a real shit fit because he ordered a veggie sandwich and found the sauce had—horrors—egg white in it. He started screaming about how the place was ripping him off, mislabelling their food that had “dead chickens” in it. I never went out with him again. You have to be flexible, and you have to keep your mouth shut and be polite. I once went unannounced to a cookout where the main meal was shrimp-chicken-vegetable kabobs. I ate the accompanying bread and chips with two veggie kabobs, and the cake for dessert. While you can get fat on cheese, the #1 vegan calorie bombs are oil and nuts. Oil is 100/cal a tablespoon (pure fat). Cheese is around 100/cal an ounce; nuts are around 170/ounce. Someone who replaces meat with nuts is not going to be thin. ---
**Author:** ![scareyfaerie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scareyfaerie/32/3135_2.png) [@scareyfaerie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scareyfaerie)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2007, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-hate-about-vegans-vegetarians/408821/99 "2007-06-22T12:45:31Z")
I’ve been a vegetarian for nearly 25 years and I really hate the whiny/preachy ones! Most of my friends cope well with my dietary requirements but usually if we’re going to a party or a get-together, I’ll offer to make a veggie dish or two just so that the host doesn’t have to go out of their way to do something suitable. A lot of the time, I’m the only veggie there and I don’t think it’s fair to expect someone to spend time cooking something just for me. Quite often, the non-veggies will happily eat whatever I’ve made and will enjoy it. But I’d never start telling them they’re wrong for eating meat/poultry/fish. Anyway, if they don’t want veggies, all the more for me! ---
**Author:** ![scareyfaerie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scareyfaerie/32/3135_2.png) [@scareyfaerie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scareyfaerie)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2007, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-hate-about-vegans-vegetarians/408821/100 "2007-06-22T12:46:52Z")
[QUOTE=spoke-] If I hear one more vegetarian spout off about beef cattle being raised in pens on “factory farms” I may blow a gasket. [/QUOTE] Perhaps they’re confusing beef cattle with veal calves kept in crates? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-hate-about-vegans-vegetarians/408821.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-hate-about-vegans-vegetarians/408821.md?page=6)