Things meat eaters say and do

[Mahk]

I LOVE learning the etymology of words; it's such an interesting subject to dig about in (to me, anyway!)

Me too, Penny!

Also, Donald Watson's pronunciation "vee-gan" makes absolutely no sense to me either, considering he said he (along with Elsie Shrigley and the original 6 member "non-dairy vegetarians", at the original 1944 (http://www.vegansociety.com/about_us/history/) London meeting) coined the term from the word "vegetarian". To paraphrase, he often said, "It starts with VEGetarian, and brings it to its logical conclusion." ["an", get it?]. So why change the e after v to a long "ee", Don? Nobody says "vee-getarian", right?:) Well since it truly is a coined term, I guess they get to decide how to pronounce it.;)

It's interesting that the word "vegan" is also the word vegetarian with the centrally located, backwards "irate", removed.

[fiamma]

It's interesting that the word "vegan" is also the word vegetarian with the centrally located, backwards "irate", removed.

That's pretty spooky.. :amazed_ani:

[Ruby Rose]

From a colleague organising food for a work event:
"You'll be really pleased - it's all vegetarian. No meat, just vegetables and fish".
I point out that fish isn't a vegetable.
"Well it's not an animal - is it? Well, I suppose it is, but it's not animal flesh like meat - is it? Well, I suppose it is a bit, but it's not an animal"
So I offer her the choice - animal, vegetable or mineral - and ask where she'd categorise fish.
"Well, technically then, it's meat, but... but... hey, what about insects then?"
So I ask her which insects she's planning to serve in sandwiches at the party...

[Mahk]

So I ask her which insects she's planning to serve in sandwiches at the party...:p Watch out for the carmine colorin' in the red fruit juices, though; them's bugs!
---

"What do vegans eat, Mahk?"

I answer, "You know: bark, flowers, roots, leaves, tree/wood, bamboo, various rocks and minerals, fungi, bacteria, same as you really, just no rotting animal carcasses or, pardon me, 'cooked and de-boned' rotting animal carcasses."

When they protest, "But Mahk, I don't eat any of those things!" I give them examples of each: cinnamon is a bark/ broccoli, cauliflower, saffron and artichokes are all flowers (http://whatscookingamerica.net/EdibleFlowers/EdibleFlowersMain.htm)/ carrots and beets are roots/ spinach and lettuce are leaves/ bamboo shoots in Chinese food are both (baby) trees/wood and bamboo/ salt, iron (ferrous sulfate) found in most dry pasta, and sodium bicarbonate are rocks and minerals/ nutritional yeast and mushrooms are fungi, and (soy) yogurt contains various bacteria.

[jimmeh]

Smart ass :D I like it

[Manzana]

I got the old knee-jerk, "where do you get your protein?" yesterday from a young educated Chinese gal, just as we were finishing our noodle making class:all that stretchy gluten rich dough and she didn't recognize protein.
:confused: I got that one from my GP last week!!! I told him "virtually everything has some protein, you should see how much I eat!" :satisfied:

[pat sommer]

Oh, please please educate that GP!

Send him something from Physicians for Responsible Medicine: www.pcrm.org

Can't blame him for being so ignorant about vegans. He rarely sees them in his practice; we don't get sick often! : )

[harpy]

So I ask her which insects she's planning to serve in sandwiches at the party...

:D Mind you, times is hard...

[Manzana]

Oh, please please educate that GP!

Send him something from Physicians for Responsible Medicine: www.pcrm.org (http://www.pcrm.org)

Can't blame him for being so ignorant about vegans. He rarely sees them in his practice; we don't get sick often! : )

I did give him lots of info in vegan diets that he seemed very interested about. I also explained to him why the normal B12 tests are not adequate for vegans... still lots of work to do with him though!:rolleyes:

[vegan-yogini]

This person didn't ask me --but asked my boss. She was a professional chef who brought a cranberry salad mold with cream cheese on it. I politely declined and my boss told her I was vegan and had some dietary restrictions. He later told me that later she leaned over his desk and said, "What did you say was wrong with her again?"

[BlackCats]

she leaned over his desk and said, "What did you say was wrong with her again?"

:D:rolleyes: Oh dear!

[pat sommer]

Bravo, Manzana!

...and a sympathetic groan for V Y.

[BJJNick]

He later told me that later she leaned over his desk and said, "What did you say was wrong with her again?"


.......................................

[DiaShel]

My supervisors at my new internship had a field day with me today! Here were some comments:

So you don't eat bread?
So you don't eat pasta?
So you don't eat chocolate?
You don't eat sweets then?
What if your friends all go out for pizza? You don't go?
How can boots be vegan?
What are you drinking? Is that vegan water?
What's wrong with wool? they aren't hurt
If everyone stopped eating meat would cows go extinct?
But you eat FISH right?!

I'm exhausted...

[buttons]

My supervisors at my new internship had a field day with me today! Here were some comments:

So you don't eat bread?
So you don't eat pasta?
So you don't eat chocolate?
You don't eat sweets then?
What if your friends all go out for pizza? You don't go?
How can boots be vegan?
What are you drinking? Is that vegan water?
What's wrong with wool? they aren't hurt
If everyone stopped eating meat would cows go extinct?
But you eat FISH right?!

I'm exhausted...
Oh dear.

[Quantum Mechanic]

My supervisors at my new internship had a field day with me today! Here were some comments:

So you don't eat bread?
So you don't eat pasta?
So you don't eat chocolate?
You don't eat sweets then?
What if your friends all go out for pizza? You don't go?
How can boots be vegan?
What are you drinking? Is that vegan water?
What's wrong with wool? they aren't hurt
If everyone stopped eating meat would cows go extinct?
But you eat FISH right?!

I'm exhausted...

So fish and wool are vegan but bread and chocolate and water aren't??? :confused:

This wasn't directed at me, but a vegan classmate was offered a candybar (I forget if it was Twix or 3 musketeers or what, have no idea), and when she declined and said why, the other person said something like, "Why not? You can't have chocolate and cookie?" Then she explained about the milk in it.

[Roxy]

Oh dear Diashel, that DOES sound like an exhausting day.

My store manager asked me 2 days ago, "Roxy, is rice vegan?". I told him that sure it was, as long as it wasn't cooked with any animal products. And he says "no, no, just plain rice in the bag, is it vegan?" Oh dear, and this guy is the manager of a natural foods store!

[Quantum Mechanic]

Oh dear Diashel, that DOES sound like an exhausting day.

My store manager asked me 2 days ago, "Roxy, is rice vegan?". I told him that sure it was, as long as it wasn't cooked with any animal products. And he says "no, no, just plain rice in the bag, is it vegan?" Oh dear, and this guy is the manager of a natural foods store!

That's about the second or third time I've heard about someone asking if rice is vegan. Maybe it's just because after being around a vegan they see them avoiding a lot of products that don't overtly "seem to" have animal products, so they may assume that there's some hidden animal product in just plain "rice from the bag". That's my best guess, anyway, aside from my other guess: that the way he learned what vegan means, he learned it very, very wrongly.

But I would guess the former, as my dad was pretty well informed about veganism, and he asked me stuff like if plain pasta was vegan, and I said "unless it's made from eggs or cooked with butter or some other animal products or something" and he said, "no, no, just plain pasta". Later on when I visited he kept commenting on how insidious it was that there are animal products hidden so many places you wouldn't expect, saying that it should be labelled more clearly (and ideally not done at all). Hopefully it's something like that, rather than "well you know that animals get harmed in the harvesting of plants, right?"

[squigaletta]

I get the silly comment of 'I don't eat meat that often' my standard response is 'what do you want, a medal'?

[1gentlemaorispirit]

I get the silly comment of 'I don't eat meat that often' my standard response is 'what do you want, a medal'?

LOL! I love the sarcasm of it. It's also funny seeing their faces in response. :lol:

[BJJNick]

Can there be a mute button for these people???

[Manzana]

That's a bit harsh.. surely it is better to eat little meat than lots of it? I think we should try to encourage that decision instead of totally alienating them... (then again... I do often think to myself the "what do you want a medal?"... it's just I think it is more helpful for conversation/debate if i donnt share it!)

[BJJNick]

That's a bit harsh.. surely it is better to eat little meat than lots of it? I think we should try to encourage that decision instead of totally alienating them... (then again... I do often think to myself the "what do you want a medal?"... it's just I think it is more helpful for conversation/debate if i donnt share it!)

So is it okay to give them justification?

[squigaletta]

That's a bit harsh.. surely it is better to eat little meat than lots of it? I think we should try to encourage that decision instead of totally alienating them... (then again... I do often think to myself the "what do you want a medal?"... it's just I think it is more helpful for conversation/debate if i donnt share it!)
I don't say it in a mean way, just in a way aimed to highlight that how much meat they ingest isn't really the point. I think I encourage the people I am with to make cruelty free choice as much as I can. I just don't like to encourage that kind of half hearted coincidental excuse. No-one I've said it 2 has seemed overly upset, but they do tend to get the point that not eating meat for b'fast lunch and dinner is the same as taking an fundamental ethical stand point.

[DiaShel]

I get the silly comment of 'I don't eat meat that often' my standard response is 'what do you want, a medal'?

One of my supervisors is like that. I heard beforehand from a classmate that had that internship but when I got there and said I was vegan she said "Oh yeah? Me and my husband don't eat much meat". Everyone there considers her a vegetarian though :confused:. She acts like we have so much in common because of this fact.