Why are people so black and white about vegetarianism?

[GradeSeven]

I live with a vegetarian despite being an omnivore myself. I've got used to most of my meals not having any meat and have found it has virtually zero impact on my enjoyment of food - because generally great flavours are because of good seasoning, herbs & spices and deep rich sauces etc etc. You really don't "need" meat and I'd be happy enough if I never ate meat again.

I also increasingly think that eating less meat is better for my health and the planet - win win.

However it is very convenient if I go someplace where meat is one of the only decent options, or if vegetarian food is not done well. I can just pick a meat dish, no drama. And it's such a rare thing for me to eat meat, I know in the grand scheme of things it won't have a big impact.

Why can't vegetarians do the same as me and just accept that eating meat once in a blue moon for the sake of convenience and enjoyment will not "undo" all the good that many months of not eating any meat at all has done.

Instead they becoming obsessed with the label of "vegetarian' and having to live up to this ideal. And tying themselves up in knots in certain situations in order to avoid meat, especially if it is some tiny meat-derived ingredient that is causing the issue. It would just be easier all round to relent - just for one meal.

I understand if you are a hardcore ethical vegetarian who loves all animals you will never eat meat - but that isn't typical of most vegetarians these days is it?

I guess I'm just not such a black and white thinker about these things, and like to embrace the grey!

I am a bit baffled by the poster who appears so hard of thinking that they can’t comprehend why a vegetarian might eat vegetarian sausages or mince. I am vegetarian because I think it’s wrong for animals to be slaughtered for me to eat. No animals have been slaughtered in the making of lentil mince or whatever. Why is that so difficult to understand? Meat mince isn’t naturally shaped that way you know, it is processed like that so it’s easy to cook/eat as part of a chilli/ bolognaise or whatever! Why would it be different for a vegetarian product?

Dont even get me started on ‘meat substitutes’. I’m not substituting anything- it’s just different. It’s food!

Because I think doing unhatural things seem odd . Basically nobody in a third world country could be vegan

Millions of Indians are naturally close to vegan except for a tiny bit of dairy. Without avocados or oat milk and eating veggies, lentils and grains.

So you are wrong. My mum is almost vegan, except for a bit of milk in her coffee. Healthy as a horse at 80.

This. It suggests a total ignorance of world food cultures to think otherwise. I suspect that poster imagines all vegans living on multivitamins, oat milk and processed soy products.

Apart from all the people who are, you mean?

I stopped eating meat when I was 12 because the thought of it genuinely repulses me. I don’t know what happened psychologically, although I don’t remember ever loving it as a child. I just hate the thought of having something dead in my mouth, it creeps me out.

"Flexitarian" is an annoying phrase, because it implies that all the "other" omnivores are a bunch of meat-crazed savages. Eating meat in moderation doesn't require a special label; it's pretty standard.

It's like "I'm non-binary" or "I'm not like the other girls". Those labels have an air of "Other women are pink-obsessed and princessy, whereas I'm much more complicated and interesting than that."

Because you aren’t a vegetarian (someone who never eats meat) and they are… obviously.

Me too - I don’t eat vegetarian mince or vegetarian meatloaf either. The texture makes me feel sick.

I always hated it but only stopped eating meat when I was 11.

I guess some people are just repulsed by the concept of eating flesh? Whether morally or physically.

I agree in a sense though - it would be good for the planet if we could encourage people to eat LESS meat and it might help the cause if more people talked about how it doesn't HAVE to be all or nothing.

It's fine if some people want it to be, though.

It is because we are vegetarian. Hope that helps.

You clearly are ignorant about this topic, because you are talking rubbish. Using emotive words like “weak” is just showing you up. Read what I said about digestions then reread your basic biology textbook or if you prefer a holiday based example, different gut flora is the reason people often get upset stomachs when travelling, their systems are not used to the food they are consuming so they get ill.

As PP said it isn’t that the situation can’t be overcome in time, but it is true that your digestion adapts to what you eat and if you have not eaten foods before or for very long time, especially when it is very different from anything you eat, your digestion will struggle.

Have you not seen the post by @Bambamhoohoo stating the stomach is full of acid and can digest anything, so clearly you must be wrong 😑

Wow, you caught me. Autocorrect plus irritation = typos. I think it’s obvious what was intended.

Well, I figured it out eventually. But I did google the term first to see if there was such a thing as "gut floats", as you wrote so adamantly!

I'd like to apologise for my OP, I don't know what glue I was sniffing last week - but it's fairly clear I wasn't thinking things through and being a bit goady.

I think I assumed lots more people were vegetarian for climate change reasons these days rather than for animal welfare reasons, but either way it's a perfectly legitimate personal choice.

I think I would like to flip my OP around as a pp suggested, and aim it at those who eat meat - to say that reduction of meat in your diet can only be a positive thing. For your body, for the environment, for animal welfare.

I don't know if this stance could ever be seen as morally equivalent to vegetarianism, but this is the problem with moral absolutism. Once you get into the nitty gritty of eggs and milk, only veganism is the uncontestable moral choice.
So purely talking about animal exploitation, you could argue that a vegetarian and a meat reducing flexitarian aren't that different?

Maybe that's a bit goady too, but I'm just doing a bit of a thought experiment!

Gosh, that feels like something pretty rare on Mn!😀

I think your new question is perfectly reasonable, as a longtime vegetarian (no animal rennet, isinglass, leather etc) who only eats eggs from my local smallscale farm or friends’ hens, and who is actively reducing my intake of dairy.

ETA in case people don’t know about Ahimsa Milk.
https://www.ahimsamilk.org/who-we-are/

You are still sniffing glue.

You're still under the illusion there are blanket reasons for people to be vegetarian. People have all sorts of reasons not covered in your now two assumptions. You are trying to pin down something you don't understand.

A friend of mine says he is vegan ,yet when he wants to he can amazingly have cake with butter and eggs and cream and ice cream yet he can give food staff almost a lecture if they get a menu wrong in his view.

I think it’s the opposite. People are often vegetarian or vegan for ethical reasons and don’t want to contribute to the murder and / or torture of animals.

They shouldn’t have to just accept that sometimes they have to eat meat because it’s the tastiest option on the menu! Restaurants would never have meat free options if that were the case.

I do however think that more meat eaters should choose veggie options / veggies choose vegan options though. I do like that many places now offer a separate vegan menu but worry that omnivores think that those dishes aren’t for them.

I guess it's choice, I'm a vegetarian because I don't like meat, never have. Growing up, I was always encouraged to eat it, but gave it up around 13yrs old even before Linda McCartney sausages were a thing, so not following a fad. Tbh, I dislike either of the extremist, the militant vegan types and the, is it even a meal without meat types.