Vegetarian - Yes or No?

The only meal I'd typically have without meat is breakfast. And I usually skip breakfast.

I eat meat and always have. I love a good steak, a full Irish fry, pork, duck, all of it. But am currently trying out vegetarianism - I actually wanted to do Veganuary but made the error on day one of eating quorn which has egg white in it haha. So going for vegetarianism initially and see how I go.

In terms of preachiness - why does that matter? Just because a person is being preachy, does the subject matter hold any less weight? I think it's an easy excuse for people to avoid the actual issue. You see it in any contentious subject - mind your tone, love, otherwise you might offend someone. Everyone is so defensive about it. Just sit and listen and see how you feel about what is said. If someone gets in your face about being a murderer or whatever, I would say they've lost the argument with you because they're descending to that level.

Having said all that - I follow quite a few vegans who are vocal in their activism on social media and some of the abuse they get is shocking altogether. Obviously it's the internet, people love to give abuse from a keyboard but these aren't even egg accounts on twitter, no anonymity just regular folk going hell for leather because someone is vocal about their veganism and sometimes points out the hypocrisy of eating meat (e.g, being horrified at the Yulin dog meat festival yet happily eating KFC).

Something I haven't seen mentioned so far is actually the environmental impact of the meat and dairy industry. That's what really peaked my interest in veganism and I was pretty stunned when I found out the amount of land and water used to farm animals. Overall I think had we kept everything in moderation and bought our meat, dairy, eggs and veg from local sustainable sources, environmentally and health-wise we would be in a good place and then the discussion would solely be about the ethics relating to killing and eating animals. But things are so far gone now I think the mass movement is needed to try and reverse some of the environmental impact.

But anyway, I hope that post didn't come across as preachy, I just find it an interesting topic and like to see what people think of it. I think we all need to be much more aware and responsible when it comes to knowing where our food comes from and the impact it has on the environment and also on your own health.

whoopsadoodles wrote: »

Oh there was one woman in work who was staunchly vegan. She verbally abused a contractor who killed a spider, called him names and told him to never ever speak to her again. She looked down on anyone who was not at least a vegetarian.

But she ate chocolate because she "couldn't give that up". I sh*t you not.

Not all chocolate contains milk

I'd say in the highly unlikely event that I did go vegetarian, I'd live on falafel wraps. Now there's a meal after which you won't have missed meat.

I'm not vegetarian will never be unless forced by some odd medical issue, but I try to mix meals up to add variety, which in its own merit can be a bit difficult to do here in Ireland without going the greasy/take away route (e.g. pizza, chips); I recently realized my dinners are almost all the same - chicken, turkey or fish with boiled or stir fry vegetables, or maybe a salad. I don't have the time to cook complex dishes in the evening and, say what you want, cooking everything on a Sunday and "freezing for the week" works for some, but I find everything becomes soggy and unpleasant that way.

That said, I'm gonna make myself some nice beans and bell peppers soup tonight (quick, tasty and filling - try it!)

I don't know where most people live, but my experience would be the opposite - I've only ever met one "non-preachy" vegetarian, a girl I used to work with; Nicest woman ever, I actually didn't know she was vegetarian until somebody offered her some chicken wings at a company party, never talked about her food choice, never made any remarks on what people ate and said she had no issue cooking meat for guests at her house.

The others I crossed paths with, including some friends who went on to "try vegetarianism" for a time, would all be the "you're an accomplice in murder!" types at a dinner table...

Homesick Alien wrote: »

I will likely end up vegetarian/pescatarian. Probably eat meat free 3 times a week and fish another two at the moment. Gave up beef completely recently (baby steps) and at a wedding soon after I couldn't get over the eye rolling from my friends and comments like "do you really think it'll make a difference". Did it for environmental reasons but ethics comes into it too. When you actually see how a lot of meat is produced it's sickening. We're lucky in Ireland but if I lived in the U.S. I would be 100% veg or possibly vegan.

Still have moments of weakness. Walking past Bunsen is tough.

I genuinely think I'd become preachy if this was a reaction I met. Because yeah, one person deciding to be vegan, or maybe deciding to vote a certain way won't change things on their own. That's bloody obvious. It's not an excuse to just do nothing though?

Ugh

Boom_Bap wrote: »

It used to bother me at first, now I don't mind it.

This is one thing I find weird - that people have some mental block when it comes to a dish with no meat in it.

We all eat loads of dishes without meat - breakfast cereals, salads, soups, practically all desserts, plenty of sandwiches, and hundreds of other things.

Yet when it comes to lunch and dinner, for some reason a dish without meat is labelled "vegetarian" and some people wouldn't eat it because they think it's a "special diet" dish. Even though 90% of the rest of what they eat is equally "vegetarian".
You wouldn't say, "the bacon risotto is the coeliac option" but apparently the mushroom risotto is "the vegetarian option".

Just something I find odd about how people look at food.

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sashafierce wrote: »

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See I understand this tbh. It's a pain for non veggies/vegans but I lived with a vegetarian in college. Once, he made eggs on a pan I'd used for bacon the day before, it was washed and all but he could still get the taste off it. Wasn't a huge deal or anything but he couldn't eat the eggs.

Also, I had a Jewish girlfriend once and while she wasn't kosher, some of her family were very strict and we were in her cousins once - separate drawer for any non-kosher cutlery, separate cutting boards, separate pots and pans, separate plates, everything. That's a religious choice rather than dietary obviously but that cousin wouldn't eat at our place because we didn't separate things out.