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Original poster

Nothing with a face ! Are you vegetarian ? (MN roll call)

120 replies

hub2dee · 16/11/2005 16:09

I was just wondering who on MN may be veggie (and for how long)... add any other comments you want to make

I'll begin:

15 years

dw - pescetarian (I think that's the correct term - no meat but eats fish) - 17 years

Comments - we find it brain-numbingly easy, an easy choice IYSWIM. Wondering how we will handle meat / fish and dd (currently 19 weeks)...

Over to the rest of you !

OP posts:
marthamoo · 16/11/2005 18:35

TC, I have seen a different side to you today - you big ole stirrer! Can I come to yours for Christmas though?

Twiglett · 16/11/2005 18:41

I didn't know you were veggies / fishies

I don't know why that surprises me so much

Twiglett · 16/11/2005 18:42

don't vegetables scream when you dig them up .. just on a different frequency??

Twiglett · 16/11/2005 18:43

ooo .. that was mean wasn't it (it was an old hammer house of horror short I believe )

sunchowder · 16/11/2005 18:43

I have been a modified veggie since I was 17, I eat fish, eggs and diary products and serve meat and chicken to my family all the time--I wouldn't consider not offering my family all sorts of foods.

QueenEagle · 16/11/2005 18:51

dh has been veggie for 30 years. It turned him when he was 8 years old and realised that animals had to be slaughtered for his food. I am a meat eater although as I cook superbly delicious and varied veggie meals, I only tend to eat meat when we eat out.

My older 3 (not dh's by blood) turned veggie just over 2 years ago after a holiday in Menorca and seeing whole limbs, heads etc on display on the counters. Before that, they had flirted with it for about a year, since dh joined our family.

dh and I have 2 ds's of our own. Whilst I was pregnant with our 1st. the issue of whether he would be raised as a veggie was much discussed. Obviously I wanted him to experience meat, naturally dh was dead against it. When it came to weaning, we agreed he would be stricyly veggie until such an age that he can decide for himself. ds3 is now almost 3 and he has a vivid memory of seeing a pig decapitated at a pig roast (much to our dismay). Whenever it is mentioned that a certain food is derived from an animal he gestures to his head and makes a pig noise and refuses to touch it. So he is demonstrating an awareness and deciding he doesn't want to eat dead things.

It has taken a long time to get my dad's head round the idea my kids are veggie - he regularly used to take the mickey out of them. He now realises this is out of order and totally respects their decision.

edam · 16/11/2005 18:51

I've been veggie for 18 years. Dh was veggie with me for about six years but, in his words, was 'seduced by a sausage'.

Ds eats meat and fish because dh is the main cook and I didn't feel strongly enough about it to have a battle. So I cook meat and fish for ds. Bleurggh. There's an 'only organic food from well-treated animals' rule that I impose at home, but I'm sure dh doesn't bother checking about the tuna in his lunchtime sandwiches at work.

Tamba · 16/11/2005 18:52

I suppose that technically veggies are living things cause they have characteristics of life?

QueenEagle · 16/11/2005 18:56

Does anyone else take things as far as my dh does???

It's not just nothing with a face - it's gelatine, colourings derived from animals as well. He makes a point of going with ethical companies too.

He refuses to wear anything leather and even orders specially made non-leather steel toecap shoes for work. It gives him the jitters that I buy the ds's shoes made of leather, but my argument is that they don't have to eat it! I know that is deliberatley missing the point and an animal has had to die to give me my leather belts and the kids their shoes, but I am so outnumbered by the veggies in my house, I have to fight back somehow!

Twiglett · 16/11/2005 19:00

I think that's true vegetarianism to be honest

LilacBump · 16/11/2005 19:01

my SIL seems to think that as soon as i have a craving for meat (i'm pregnant, so i could develop one), i will just give in and eat a steak or whatever. some people don't seem to realise that i won't give up my morals or lose my utter disgust for meat that easily. i walked around with a craving for chocolate mousse today, but the only ones i found in the shop had gelatine in them, so i sulked all day as i can't even make my own as i only know how to make it with raw eggs in it.

WigWamBam · 16/11/2005 19:02

QE - I don't think your dh is taking things too far; that's what veggies do (or most of us, anyway). I was once laughed at for refusing some sweets because they were full of gelatine - the person that laughed was veggie too (and scoffing the sweets) and I remember being amazed that she couldn't see my point. I don't drink, but when I did I wouldn't drink wine because of the finings. I don't like leather either - dh and dd wear leather shoes but I don't, and although dh would like leather car seats, I won't have them.

QueenEagle · 16/11/2005 19:10

I don't think he goes too far on the gelatine thing, only the leather shoes bit. But I agree - I really do think it is true vegetarianism. It makes even me look in disbelief when people say "I'm a vegetarian but I eat fish". And people say this all the time.

I actually admire my dh for his principles, as I do my kids, who will refuse their friend's sweets at school if they have gelatine in them. Other parents think my kids are mad - i guess some people take a lot of educating!

ds1 incidentally, got told off for being cheeky to the dinnerlady when he pointed out to her that she had used the meat spoon to dish out the vegetables. You can imagine dh's reaction - ds got an apology and the dinner staff now use separate utensils.

marthamoo · 16/11/2005 19:10

I read an interview with Paul MacCartney a while ago and he said after Linda died he got hundreds of sympathy cards and letters - and loads of them said the same kind of thing, along the lines of so sorry to hear about your loss, ah well, look on the bright side, you can have a bacon buttie now.

geogteach · 16/11/2005 19:12

Pesitarian for 18 years. DH and kids the same, kids free to eat meat out of the house if they please, as far as I'm aware apart from an addiction to coctail sausages none of them bothers.

QueenEagle · 16/11/2005 19:14

What about this then WigWamBam?

dh refuses to even kiss me if I have eaten any meat until I have cleaned my teeth!!!

Original poster
hub2dee · 16/11/2005 19:15

Everyone chooses how 'far' they go, or how strictly they adhere to their concept of vegetarianism IMHO.

I won't eat cheese with (animal) rennet if I can see it on the label, but at a normal, meat-serving restaurant, I wouldn't not order a veg moussaka, say, because it probably was made with non-veggie cheese IYSWIM.

I wear leather shoes, but have had my birks entirely resoled to avoid buying new ones (more or less same price)... and my car has leather seats, although this was bought second hand. Speccing leather upholstery for a new car would be a moral mental tussle, LOL.

I appreciate this may mean I am not 100% consistent in my application of strict vegetarian methodology / ideology IYSWIM, but I live my life how I choose to live it, imperfect hypocritical being that I am.

OP posts:
gigglinggoblin · 16/11/2005 19:18

i've been veggie for 10 years, would have been 12 if my parents werent so incredibly horrible about it. dp is pescy, ds1 & 2 eat meat as xp is a carnivore (tho ds1 is gtting a few guilt pangs - really winds up xp haha), ds3 is pescy

my grandma knows i am veggie but has a very hard time understanding it. told me that surey i could est fish fingers, its not like its a whole fish! to which i replied how often do you eat a whole cow at a sitting? but burgers are still not veggie. dont think she will ever get it

dogtanion · 16/11/2005 19:18

me veggie for 24 years!!!!!!! gosh makes me sound old but am late 30's

Strict but family all eat meat!

unicorn · 16/11/2005 19:20

very surprised the fishy one hasn't made her thoughts known on this yet!

will it be a ....

parp... or a....

4?

Original poster
hub2dee · 16/11/2005 19:24

She's a vegan. Really.

OP posts:
Hulababy · 16/11/2005 19:27

I am a pescetarian apparantly I don't eat meat (don't like it) but eat fish (love it).

unicorn · 16/11/2005 19:34

h2d... hohohoho

as if a member of a judicial services would stoop soooooo low

Original poster
hub2dee · 16/11/2005 19:43

You're right, unicorn. She is a fruitarian .

Hula: I was also surprised to learn about this term, apparently it is correct as the lables are positive affirmations about what we do eat IYSWIM...

OP posts:
WigWamBam · 16/11/2005 19:46

QE - I'm with your dh ... my dh knows better than to even think about kissing me within an hour of eating meat, and even then he needs to have been very liberal with the mouthwash first