What Has Your Experience Been Like with Vegans and Vegetarians?

[Secret Chief]

We used 'naughty' ingredients in our food...

You mean I've eaten kale?

 

[Secret Chief]

Vegetarians are okay, but I couldn't eat a whole one.

I bet you could, they're all so scrawny and malnourished.

 

[JustGeorge]

You mean I've eaten kale?

Yup. And you liked it.

 

[Secret Chief]

Yup. And you liked it.

I knew I couldn't trust you.

 

[JustGeorge]

I bet you could, they're all so scrawny and malnourished.

I had a coworker learn that I was vegetarian many years ago... "Oh, you must have a really healthy diet, then!" she told me.

I let her know I was going home to have a slice of cake and a glass of gin for supper, and asked her how healthy that sounded to her. She seemed perplexed.

 

[Vinayaka]

I had a coworker learn that I was vegetarian many years ago... "Oh, you must have a really healthy diet, then!" she told me.

I let her know I was going home to have a slice of cake and a glass of gin for supper, and asked her how healthy that sounded to her. She seemed perplexed.

That makes an excellent point. I know a few too many folks who have gone vegetarian without studying nutrition, and I've seen Home Economic teachers teach nutrition while simultaneously focusing almost entirely on cooking sweet desserts. In the 20 years I spent pre-vegetarianism, our farm diet was really healthy. Grass fed cattle, our own milk, eggs from free range chickens, free range chicken, some wild game and fish, fresh veggies all summer, and frozen all winter. Mom didn't purchase a whole lot at the grocery store.

Stores and restaurants have improved a ton in the last 30 years or so, whilst some consumers have had a tricky time tossing old habits.

 

[JustGeorge]

That makes an excellent point. I know a few too many folks who have gone vegetarian without studying nutrition, and I've seen Home Economic teachers teach nutrition while simultaneously focusing almost entirely on cooking sweet desserts. In the 20 years I spent pre-vegetarianism, our farm diet was really healthy. Grass fed cattle, our own milk, eggs from free range chickens, free range chicken, some wild game and fish, fresh veggies all summer, and frozen all winter. Mom didn't purchase a whole lot at the grocery store.

Stores and restaurants have improved a ton in the last 30 years or so, whilst some consumers have had a tricky time tossing old habits.

I went vegetarian at 12, because my meals were actually making me cry. I'd sit at the table and sob, and be told if I didn't eat my food, I'd be grounded. It was at 12, I'd had enough and just took the grounding. My parents kept me grounded for a week, then gave up.

At 12, I was more concerned with taste than health. Concern for health kicked in later, though I don't completely eliminate junk food(I find telling myself 'no' on them makes me gorge on them later, but allowing them makes me more moderate).

 

[Vinayaka]

I went vegetarian at 12, because my meals were actually making me cry. I'd sit at the table and sob, and be told if I didn't eat my food, I'd be grounded. It was at 12, I'd had enough and just took the grounding. My parents kept me grounded for a week, then gave up.

At 12, I was more concerned with taste than health. Concern for health kicked in later, though I don't completely eliminate junk food(I find telling myself 'no' on them makes me gorge on them later, but allowing them makes me more moderate).

As a kid, I wasn't aware there was a choice. If I had been aware, I may well have tried it earlier. Rural Alberta wasn't exactly an ethnic or multi-religious place. The closest thing to anything different were the few Chinese restaurants scattered about as remnants of building the great railway.

 

[☆Dreamwind☆]

I had a coworker learn that I was vegetarian many years ago... "Oh, you must have a really healthy diet, then!" she told me.

I let her know I was going home to have a slice of cake and a glass of gin for supper, and asked her how healthy that sounded to her. She seemed perplexed.

It was a lemon cake with a nice chianti

 

[JustGeorge]

It was a lemon cake with a nice chianti

Sounds delicious!

I think it was an orange cake, and bottom shelf gin.

 

[libre]

One of the stereotypes I have encountered a lot, mostly online, is that vegetarians and vegans are usually "preachy," "self-righteous," "ostentatious," etc., but my personal experience with vegans and vegetarians has been a far cry from those stereotypes and generalizations. Some people seem to associate the dietary decisions with things like online clips of fringe protesters trying to shut down or damage restaurants, even though the vast majority of vegans and vegetarians simply don't get in people's faces about it.

I appreciate that recognition.
I generally don't tell people unless they have offered me meat or invite me somewhere that wouldn't have vegetarian options.
That said, I could not come close to counting the amount of times people have interpreted me sharing that I'm a vegetarian as some kind of attack on them or moral judgment. This is much more so for men in my experience but happens with women also.

When I hear people generalize about vegan militancy it does make me to roll my eyes because just sharing my dietary preferences has been mistaken as militancy more times than I can count, which results in people trying to attack my dietary preferences or drag me into some debate about matters that don't concern me.

It's not that I think vegan extremists don't exist somewhere, but people are just blind to the omnivore majority that often engages in the same.

 

[JustGeorge]

That said, I could not come close to counting the amount of time people have interpreted me sharing that I'm a vegetarian as some kind of attack on them or moral judgment. This is much more so for men in my experience but happens with women also.

When I hear people generalize about vegan militancy it does make me to roll my eyes because just sharing my dietary preferences have mistaken as militancy more times than I can count, which results in people trying to attack my dietary preferences or drag me into some debate about matters that don't concern me.

I've had that experience, too.

"I'm George, and I'm a vegetarian."

"Well, I wouldn't want to be a vegetarian. Don't try pushing that **** on me!"

"Uh... what?"

 

[Secret Chief]

I've had that experience, too.

"I'm George, and I'm a vegetarian."

"Well, I wouldn't want to be a vegetarian. Don't try pushing that **** on me!"

"Uh... what?"

I've had similar experiences with a work colleague over alcohol free beers. "It's not real beer, it's just flavoured water." She found out I could take the **** more than she could. She keeps her mouth shut now.

 

[Twilight Hue]

The ones I knew always looked sickly and thin. Several died early deaths.

 

[Kathryn]

This seems mostly due to human interference and environment. Many Europeans cannot take corn, for example, while many non-Euros sturggle with dairy.

The problem with the veggie argument is that our stomach acid is calibrated towards meat eating, but that doesn't seem to be their basis of argument.

I really have no idea but I do know that corn is becoming much more commonly eaten throughout Europe.

 

[Revoltingest]

One of the stereotypes I have encountered a lot, mostly online, is that vegetarians and vegans are usually "preachy," "self-righteous," "ostentatious," etc., but my personal experience with vegans and vegetarians has been a far cry from those stereotypes and generalizations. Some people seem to associate the dietary decisions with things like online clips of fringe protesters trying to shut down or damage restaurants, even though the vast majority of vegans and vegetarians simply don't get in people's faces about it.

For one thing, the cuisine of the society I live in extensively includes meat, and animal products are so pervasive that being vegetarian, let alone vegan, is not only highly inconvenient but also socially challenging in many cases (e.g., when one goes to family gatherings, restaurants, etc.). Merely refusing to order or eat meat can result in intrusive questions, assumptions, and disapproval—one of the core ideas behind that being "if God allowed us to eat meat, why are you forbidding it for yourself?"

For another thing, I have rarely encountered any preaching, judgmentalism, or shaming from vegans and vegetarians, even while out with them and ordering meat at the same table. Instead, most of that tends to be hurled in their direction from meat eaters who keep bringing up the topic or taking digs at the vegans' and vegetarians' dietary choices. The most questioning I have gotten from a vegan was when he asked me a passing question about what I thought of the conditions in which poultry is typically kept in industrial farms. On the other hand, most vegans and vegetarians I know have experienced a lot of mocking and preaching from various people, sometimes including family and friends.

Whether you're a meat eater, vegan, vegetarian, or pescatarian, what has your experience been like with vegans and vegetarians? As a meat eater, I haven't had any more issues with them than with fellow meat eaters, so the stereotypes have certainly been inapplicable to my experience—the stereotypical roles have largely been reversed in many cases, if anything.

My experience with them has been
no different from my experience with
carnivores & omnivores.

 

[SalixIncendium]

In fact, the vast majority of vegans/vegetarians I know in real life I most likely do not even know they are vegan/vegetarian.
And the ones I do know are vegan/vegetarians, I found out simply because I happened to over hear them mention it.

Yes, but wait until you see them participating online.

 

[SalixIncendium]

Of course, because you have 'supplements' instead of using the Occam's approach and just going direct to source.

Morality trumping biology approach.

The only supplements I take are a vegan multivitamin (many brands have gelatin, and are thus not vegetarian) and a vitamin C.

 

[McBell]

Yes, but wait until you see them participating online.

I used to call the ones the OP is about 'Militant Herbivores' (got it from the militant atheists), but was told that that is offensive.

Then not long after I was introduced to:

 

[libre]

When I hear people generalize about vegan militancy it does make me to roll my eyes because just sharing my dietary preferences has been mistaken as militancy more times than I can count, which results in people trying to attack my dietary preferences or drag me into some debate about matters that don't concern me.

Upon further reflection there is probably a result of some sort of selection bias that my experiences are indicative of.
We probably meet people who might disapprove or disagree personally with how we eat constantly, but we only really remember the one's who vocalize it.