Are you a pure vegetarian?

[LaRoza]

Exactly, an eye for an eye. Both of us had tunnel vision.

No, stop trying to drag me down...

I posted that in response to a post that was trying to prove something by a single story. It was to show how silly and illogical it was.

[RiceMonster]

And actually this whole discussion which sadly is way off topic illustrates a point LaRoza made much earlier about people been offended somehow by vegetarians. I feel some people feel a need to attack us vegans and vegetarians to ease their own guilty conscious or to somehow feel superior or something

I don't argue with vegetarians unless they start telling me not to eat meat. If you want to be a vegetarian, fine, just don't bother me about it, and I won't bother you about it. Luckily, most of the vegetarians I've encountered do not preach in my face.

[LaRoza]

I don't argue with vegetarians unless they start telling me not to eat meat. If you want to be a vegetarian, fine, just don't bother me about it, and I won't bother you about it. Luckily, most of the vegetarians I've encountered do not preach in my face.

Most don't.

However, many people feel a need to preach to use, or to mock us.

[handy]

You & your friends here were pushing it back by saying mine causes cancer. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth isn't a good motto if you want to stay on the high road.

It is not personal, it is scientific fact.

People know that smoking cigarettes causes cancer, they still do it & pay a lot of money for what if nothing else makes them smell, leaves a smelly trail, irritates most people around them (who are non-smokers), decreases their lung capacity, weakens their heart, liver, kidney, brain, vocal folds, diminishes their circulation, for some people to the point of gangrene. All of this is scientifically known, but people still smoke.

Do you see any parallel here?

[treesurf]

Another vegetarian here, for a number of reasons.

Although, I am not fanatical about it. If someone serves me meat I will eat it. No need to waste food and cause a scene. Traveling in unfamiliar countries is very difficult sometimes if one can't be a bit flexible about diet.

However, if others feel the need to be more dogmatic about their vegetarian stance then more power to them, I say, as long as they're not preachy about it. The world can only benefit from more vegetarian tendencies.

[handy]

Another vegetarian here, for a number of reasons.

Although, I am not fanatical about it. If someone serves me meat I will eat it. No need to waste food and cause a scene. Traveling in unfamiliar countries is very difficult sometimes if one can't be a bit flexible about diet.

My wife & I eat free range eggs at home, bring them & other stuff with us when we go to stay somewhere else (where practicable) & eat battery hen eggs when we must. It would be much more difficult for vegan's.

[dizzy1kenobi]

I tried meat once. It hurt like hell. Maybe I'll show you the scar sometime.

[Chessmaster]

I've been a strict vegetarian for 16 yrs now.

What I do find amusing is how sometimes (it used to happen loads more, but veges are more accepted nowdays - where I live anyway) non-vegetarians will mock you for being vege. Statements like "Mmmmm, I love meat." "Oooh, it tastes so good." And pushing steak etc in front of your face. Admittedly these people are fools, but it is an interesting and (as I see it) an overly defensive reaction on their part.

Interestingly, they generally don't do it to people who don't eat particular foods because of religious reasons.

So, my thoughts as to why people are so attacking and defensive in front of vegetarians is because they feel they are being judged morally.

Lots of vegetarians claim they are vege on moral grounds, and hence some meat eaters feel as if they are being morally judged. (if you think it is morally wrong to eat meat, then you must think that I am morally wrong to eat meat). I am not sure that people consciously recognise this, but I suspect it is the reason why so many people attack/mock veges and are so defensive about eating meat. And they only tend to do it when other meat eaters are around, as if they feel they are in the moral majority.

[Chessmaster]

PS: the most common fallacy I encounter from meat eaters when disgussing vegetariansim is "eating meat is natural and therefore morally right thing to do". i.e. our ancestors did it, haven't you heard of the food chain etc etc.

Which is a form of the "Appeal to Nature" Fallacy, see:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appeal_to_nature

Or course, people don't react well when you tell them that they are commiting a fallacy. I also usually point out that we lived in caves, wore no cloths, violence was very common, especially towards members of other groups, practised infanticide, etc. Does that mean ought to live as we did many years ago? (I think LaRoza made a similar point before).

[Denestria]

Vegetarian++; LaRoza++; Denestria++;
Am I the only one that gets paranoid about the amount of white sugar they consume? The bleaching process for white sugar in most parts of the world uses calcium from the bones of bovines.

I try not to eat much sugar since it isn't good for you, but if I do eat something sweet I only use real sugars, no artificial/altered sugars like Splenda, aspartame (which makes me sick), acesulfame, etc, which I think are worse for you than white sugar. I stopped drinking soda about 10 years ago and now if I take a sip I don't even like it, it is too sweet and the carbonation is overwhelming. I eat very little processed/packaged food and most of my diet is whole grains, fruits and vegetables whenever possible.