to be annoyed when "vegetarians" eat fish?

[purpleandpink]

It cannot just be me who finds this irritating?

Someone who eats no meat, but does eat fish is a pescetarian. As a fully fledged vegetarian it bugs the HELL out of me when people say "I'm a veggie, but I eat fish" Or even worse "but I eat fish AND CHICKEN".....

The problem is there are now so many of these "fish eating vegetarians" that people seem to assume all veggies eat fish, and when I eat out and ask what veggie choices there are, I get offered fish and the "true" veggie options are limited to perhaps 1 or 2 dishes.

I have no problem with people eating just fish but PLEASE do not call yourself a veggie when you clearly aren't one! I don't know why people do it, whether they think it's trendy or they are just lazy or confused about what they are.

I know this is a BIG rant but it really really annoys me. If I am a veggie and someone ask me "do you eat fish?" I practically rip their heads off (which I know is unreasonable but there you go )

But AIBU to ask that people only call themselves vegetarians if they actually are one???

My son has a friend who is "vegetarian". He eats fish and chicken. Oh and pepperoni pizza - and sausage and chips from the chippy.

My son cannot grasp the concept that people who are vegetarian do not eat meat. I wonder why?? :)

If any vegetarians keep chickens for their eggs, what do you do with the hens' bodies if/when they die from natural causes or by accident? What's wrong with eating them - assuming their vegetarianism is based on an ethical stance rather than one of intolerance or allergy?

More to the point what do they do with them once they stop laying after about 3 or 4 years? Considering their lifespan is around 10yrs?

Worth noting that those of you who eat organic or free range meat - even if it had a nice life, the animal was probably sent to the same slaughterhouse as factory farmed animals, where it felt the same fear and pain as them.

Also, organic just means that the animals weren't fed drugs or steroids to make them grow faster - often, when cows milked to make organic milk get infections, they are left untreated so the milk can still be labelled organic.

As for free range, all it means for chickens for example is that they have at least some access to outdoors. So they could be in a big, dirty,crowded barn, and as long as the door is opened for half an hour each day, they can be labelled free range. Doesn't mean they haven't had their beaks cut off, or that they have any sort of happy life.

and ps, yes vegans can breastfeed, I do!

TiggyD

"If you want to raise your child a vegan does that mean you can't breastfeed?"

Please tell me you're joking.

I am a strict vegetarian (a "proper" vegetarian in my book), and can cope perfectly well at home or with family meals. I do not preach to other people about my dietary choices, I hate it that other people feel the need to gripe at me.

The reason I get cross about the "vegetarians" who eat fish/chicken/whatever, is that it makes life very difficult when I want to eat out.

Restaurants often think that vegetarians-who-eat-some-non-vegetarian products are the norm. I am really tired of having to ask if the vegetable soup marked with a "V" is actually vegetarian, and they don't understand that it isn't vegetarian if it is made with meat or chicken stock.

I will also remember the phrase "fish is not a vegetable" in future, I think that will get the point across well.

Fish is not a vegetable!
True, nor is banana

of course you can breast feed!
the whole point is the that you don't have anything to do with other animals - you can feed your own offspring your own milk! that's what it was designed for!

the way I see it meat eaters will never understand vegetarians and vise versa
Some veggies are just as judgemental about meateaters!

I eat meat I dont care what veggies think about me I see animals as food they serve their purpose to me when they are cooked and on my plate
I dont know but would like to know what veggies would do with cows pigs sheep etc if no one ate meat? They arent pets and are seen as livestock your not exactly going to walk your pet cow down the street now are you? you would need one hell of a pooper scooper

That's an original argument, lurkey . Those animals wouldn't exist, would they?

Can vegans breastfeed? Is this a genuine question???

Does eating animals slow the brain or something?!

I was brought up vegetarian but taught myself to eat chicken at age 18. I was sick of never having any choice when I was eating out (this was in the days before even a vegetable lasagne- I remember family meals where everyone would be tucking into steak and me and my sister would be served a cheese salad because that's all the kitchen could imagine to prepare for us!)

However, it is very rarely that I will eat chicken, so as a shorthand -if asked- I would describe myself as vegetarian (but very quickly explain that I'm not really one).

At a recent group meal, I was sat on the vegetarian table. Of all of us there, 2 were meat eaters who only ate Halal meat, so had chosen to eat vegetarian, as the restaurant wasn't Halal. 3 of us ate only organic, free range meat and so had chosen the veggie option, and only 2 were real vegetarians!

All this reminds me of when ExP and I were visiting his parents' house. His mum (who knew I was a veggie) presented me with a ham salad. I said I couldn't eat the ham, to which her response was "ooh... but it is wafer thin"

Lol sounds like the Nan on the Royle Family

'can vegans breastfeed' LOL

well this one can. No 'animals' are being hurt in the process (minus the sore nipples :)), we're not being farmed and not being fed with loads of chemicals and continually impregnated (unless by choice)

For those of you vegetarians or vegans who have a DP/DH that are also vegetarian or vegan, did one of you convert? For want of a better word.

It's something I've always wondered and didn't want to start a fred about a fred

I'm a 'proper' veggie, no meat or fish for 17 years. DH eats meat and we keep our own hens for eggs. I've found the easiest thing is just not to talk about it. Usually friends / family make more of a fuss about checking the menu than me!

I often get a meat eater wanting to start a fight (why are they so angry? I'm not preaching, just out for a nice meal without meat in it?!) or a sanctimonious vegan posting about how I'm still so cruel. Vegans / veggies, can we not just accept that we all do our best, eat diff things and get on with it? Preaching just makes you look obnoxious and people don't listen.

Being offered fish does annoy me tho . Aren't professional cooks supposed to know about food?

Only other thing i'd suggest is if there's a language barrier (last Chinese restaurant I visited had 'vegetarian crispy duck' on the menu, wtf? was the duck vegetarian?) to just insist no meat, no fish when you order.

My DH isn't a vegan. He doesn't eat a lot of meat though and understands and agrees with my reasons. He actually hates it when MIL tries to force feed him meat when we visit her. Since I do the cooking and he loves my food, then most evening meals are vegan.

With each year he does eat less and less animal products and he's happy for me to choose what DD eats. So she has a largely vegan diet. She has only been trying stuff (except dairy) so we can find out if she's allergic etc.

The meat he does eat now is free range etc. He doesn't eat chicken for example.

weedle, I met my vegan DH via a vegan fitness discussion forum, on an activity weekend organised by some of the members, so we were both vegan when we met.

mizzundastood - so does your DH eat the laying hens when they expire? Or have none of them died yet? See mutznutz comment at 12:52.

I 'converted' a previous boyfriend to vegetarianism (I was vegetarian then, not vegan).

DP and I met on a anti-fur protest and were both vegan. So, that makes life easier, particularly with making sure that DD has a good vegan diet too.

at "vegetarian crispy duck" It may well have been flash-fried cardboard though in the same way that "seaweed" er, isn't.

Or was it actual duck? A duck isn't a vegetable!

Annielobeseder, you have a more realistic outlook on this issue - isn't it just great when people do what they can, be it mostly or all vege, or completely vegan?

I have been vege for 23 years, but recently decided to eat only sustainable fish, which I pay more for. I decided my kids needed it in their diets and discovered I feel far better eating it too. We only eat it once a week.

As for the vege or not vege issue, if I said I wasn't vegetarian, then I would end up eating food with animal fat or stock in it. Maybe there should be other names for veggies who eat geletine sweets or veggies who buy leather sofas, or veggies who eat in macdonalds and therefore promote a bad meat industry? Or are there other issues we should worry ourselves more about?!

Encourage as many people to play their ethical part as we can is my view.

That isn't doing everything you can. You CAN stop eating animal products.

I gave up eating meat for health reasons. After searching on the internet I decided that to cut down on episodes of rheumatoid arthritis I had to eliminate meat. On the other hand these websites encouraged the consumption of oily fish.

I don't feel guilty about this and healthwise it works for me with many fewer episodes of arthritis.