Things meat eaters say and do

[Monday]

Today the gas board came out to change my meter. To get to it, the engineer had to remove a bag of dog food (we keep a lot of our pet food under the stairs). As he was finishing up he said "oooh vegetarian dog food". I said yes and he said why and then without a break said I'm sure they would much prefer a big steak. I said that actually they like carrots best. he said that his dogs also liked carrot and apple but then went on to say "But in the long run they would much prefer a juicy piece of meat" and then said goodbye.

I was left feeling a little shaky cos I was cross - I did not ask for his opinion and was not able to put my view across - not that he would have listened anyway. It really annoyed me. I didn't ask for his opinion and isn't it obvious that I don't want to hear about big juicy meat pieces if i'm feeding my dogs a vegetarian diet???!!!!!

Aaaaargh!

Monday xx

[Jamie]

Sorry to go off the subject but Jamie is that your hamster in the picture?

nooo I 'borrowed' Hammy the Hamster from www.cuteoverload.com

[Christie]

Urgh was talking to a friend today and he said that being vegan was placing a lesser being above yourself. Then he actually said that if he knew that a "human burger" tasted nice he eat those to!! There should be a being sick smiley!!

[tilly]

There should be a being sick smiley!!

Totally!
There's a real need for them on this thread...

[Sammy]

I've had so many silly comments from meat eating people, it would be impossible to list them, but one that always sticks in my mind is this.
One day a few years ago, my neighbour came in with a beef stew she had just made, she told me that I could eat it, as she had taken out the lumps of meat!! That says it all I think.

[Christie]

My mum the other day in a half hinting way goes "Ive heard that some people are vegan a home and not vegan when they go out, so i guess they are half sticking to their principles" Haha yea sure mum. Shes worried as we are going on holiday and she wants to eat out everyday. I said is fine and ill get salads and chips and things. As she likes pub resaurants which hardly have vegetarian never mind vegan!

[Haniska]

My dad assumed that I would eat meat when we visited my brother. When I asked why he would think such a thing he said "When in Rome.....?"

[eclectic_one]

So I've had a couple of meat eaters (especially my dad) who know I try to eat healthy ask me if I had to choose something with an animal product in it or a product with some unhealthy non-animal product (like high fructose corn syrup or some transfats), which I would choose. I didn't even have to ponder, as I said, "the unhealthy non-animal product." They seem shocked

[Haniska]

I was talking to my friend online the other night about how I was searching the web for new lube (we have known each other since grade school and are very close) I told him that mine has lactic acid in it which is possibly from muscles. He said "well... isn't that natural?"

[Jamie]

So I've had a couple of meat eaters (especially my dad) who know I try to eat healthy ask me if I had to choose something with an animal product in it or a product with some unhealthy non-animal product (like high fructose corn syrup or some transfats), which I would choose. I didn't even have to ponder, as I said, "the unhealthy non-animal product." They seem shocked

I would consider pretty much ANY animal product to be an unhealthy option! Except maybe honey, but I'm not into stealing

[Jamie]

I was talking to my friend online the other night about how I was searching the web for new lube (we have known each other since grade school and are very close) I told him that mine has lactic acid in it which is possibly from muscles. He said "well... isn't that natural?"

Gosh I wouldn't have even thought about lube! do you know what brands are ok? I think what we normally use is KY gel (don't normally pay much attention to the label when using it, IYKWIM!!).

Speaking of that, and going completely off topic, I need to go look on the forum for details of condomi condoms, which seem to have dissapeared from my town - I had seen them in loads of stores but when I go to actually buy some, there aren't sold anywhere!

[eclectic_one]

I would consider pretty much ANY animal product to be an unhealthy option! Except maybe honey, but I'm not into stealing

I too would consider anything with an animal product unhealthy, but some processed non-animal products are perhaps more so. I wouldn't eat any animal product though if I had a choice

[antman]

"Dave here is a vegan."
"Aww, bless."

Aww, bless?? Bloody hell

[Cherry]

Well I guess it could be worse, Antman. Least you know the truth (that you're rock 'ard )

[tilly]

Lol, you'll be telling us that girls even think you're kind and sensitive next!

[Hetfield]

I was at a restaurant with a good freind of mine who has been really interested in my turning vegan but has NOOOOOO clue what it entails even tho i have tried to explain - we were looking through the menu and she suggested I have the garlic bread. I was just about to explain that it probably was made with butter when she said - oh no ofcourse, you can't have garlic.....

She also bought me a vegan cook book which was really thoughtful but she couldn't believe how many pages it had - she was expecting a book with half a dozen pages...........

Am cooking lunch for her next week so will try to educate her a bit further....

bye for now
hetfield

[fiamma]

I was just about to explain that it probably was made with butter when she said - oh no ofcourse, you can't have garlic.....

hehehe that's funny

[Haniska]

Did you ask her to explain herself? I see a lot of mention in vegetarian books about certain religions (such as the Jain) who do not eat garlic or onions.

[Hetfield]

Hi Haniska,

No she really doesn't know what vegan means and wouldn't have heard of Jain or any other religion who don't eat garlic or onions. What is really cool is that although she knows absolutely nothing about veganism she is the only one of my friends who has asked about it at all and she seems to be very interested.
Have a good day
Hetfield

[sugarmouse]

lol some ppl jus seem so stupid cos its so common sense to me!
my mother tells ppl i am vegan, and eat no chemicals. im not even going to try to get her to explain that one.

[Haniska]

HAHA! My fiance's mother used to think I ate no fat. Till I made a point to tell her the tofurky brats I just ate had so much fat that they made me a bit nauseous.

[Jamie]

I just don't understand how other people can't understand what it's about and get so confused. How hard it is to remember 'no animal products'?! How can you confuse that with garlic or fat?? If you are really that forgetful/confused, how do you manage to get through life???!!

I understand that other people might think it strange or weird, whatever, I just don't understand how some of the mistakes people mentioned on this thread can make!! Unless they are geriatrics, they are excused!

[Haniska]

To me the fat thing falls in with people thinking that I have some extreme diet to be so "thin" 125 lbs and 5' 5 LMAO. I think his mum either thought that I did eat non-fat products, she didn't think of it, she assumed that even non-fat products have some fat, or that I am [stupid and] on some extreme diet that is like "No animal products EVER. SOME of them have fat in them!"
Speaking of which, it bugs me when soy milks compare themselves to whole milk. "Half the fat of WHOLE MILK!" If fat was really the average consumer's reason for drinking soy milk they'd probably drink 1% cow's milk instead. I think it is great that they show that they have iron and fiber etc, but the fat thing is annoying.
The garlic thing is hard to fathom, maybe they assume savory foods are off-limits?

[Jamie]

Speaking of which, it bugs me when soy milks compare themselves to whole milk. "Half the fat of WHOLE MILK!" If fat was really the average consumer's reason for drinking soy milk they'd probably drink 1% cow's milk instead. I think it is great that they show that they have iron and fiber etc, but the fat thing is annoying.

Well if they only sold to vegans, they probably would cost a lot more! I guess it's just things they can think of to put on the box to make it look like an attractive buy? That does sound a little strange thing though, when soy milk has other powers like reducing cholesterol. Maybe they just had a space on the box to fill and thought that sounded good??!

[veganbuzzcock]

last night, my friend said chickens were made to be eaten.


ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGG!

[Jamie]

last night, my friend said chickens were made to be eaten.


ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGG!

I think when people say things like that it's either to wind you up or because they want to justify what they do and simply can't think of a more intelligent excuse..,

[Yogini]

I just don't understand how other people can't understand what it's about and get so confused. How hard it is to remember 'no animal products'?! How can you confuse that with garlic or fat?? If you are really that forgetful/confused, how do you manage to get through life???!!

A lot of people really don't know much about food/nutrition. This blew me away when I first learned it, because my mother is a dietician and facts like "food is comprised of carbohydrate, protein, and fat and all these components are necessary for a healthy diet" are second nature to me. But a lot of folks (particularly Yanks, I think) are totally in the dark. I once had a co-worker who slathered her salads in ranch dressing, bacon bits, and fried croutons and couldn't figure out she why she wasn't losing weight when she was only eating salads. And this was a highly educated woman. Then there was the roommate in my pre-vegan days who was totally suspicious of my parmesan cheese because it was a block of cheese and not the powdered stuff in a green can. She didn't really believe it was parmesan because she'd never seen it in any other form.

When the "low-fat" thing was so popular a few years and everybody was buying low-fat this and reduced fat that and still not losing weight? It was because they had no idea that an empty calorie is still an empty calorie, even if it has no fat (or carbohydrate.)

[Chicken]

last night, my friend said chickens were made to be eaten.


ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGG!

Aww... but chickens are SO CUTE! (A bit vicious though, but I would be too if people wanted to eat me.)

[Haniska]

I went out with my famous friend last night and we stopped at "Maggie Moos" an icecream shop (I suggested vegan options on my survery Hows that for activism?) I got the sorbet and he got the non-fat vanilla. He tasted it and said it tasted like cardboard "Seriously! It tastes like NOTHING! DO you want to taste it?" I ignored him on that point and asked him why was he eating something that didn't taste good? "You are just consuming calories for no reason!" He tells me "I don't worry about calories, I worry about fat." After we got that argument out of the way we somehow came to him saying "But doesn't sugar have fat it in?"
I was absolutely shocked and shouted "ARE YOU INSANE?!?!?!" Lol. He then told me that he knows nothing about nutrition despite all the diets he has been on. Every "diet" I have ever been on has taught me more and more about nutrition and I just can't see this. This guy is also very smart besides.

[coconut]

I think part of the reason for this is while you're under about 40 a person's diet doesn't have such an adverse effect on their health. If you eat a lot of meat, dairy etc. your body is still being ravaged, but you're still able to live a normal life and be active. Nutrition only becomes important to people when the body can no longer put up with all this abuse. Perhaps its not just a failure of information. It could be that people don't care about nutrition, because they think "I'll enjoy myself now (eat badly) and pay later."

[mandycoot]

I was at work the other day and we were talking about ice cream. I mentioned that I had a pint of Soy Delicious waiting for me at home.

One girl went, "Ewww! That stuff's nasty! My sister eats this kind that's got both soy and yogurt and it's much better."

I replied, "Well, I don't eat dairy. I think Soy Delicious is great, anyway." She said, "But yogurt isn't dairy. It's got live cultures."

I was like, what?!? I told her, "Yogurt is dairy. The live cultures of Lactobacillus Acidophilus are bacteria and are dairy-free, but yogurt itself isn't."

She shrugged, and said, "Well, my sister doesn't eat dairy but she eats yogurt. And butter, since that's just fat anyways and doesn't have dairy in it."

"But butter is dairy too!"

"No it isn't; it's pure fat."

At that point I just quit trying. Ugggggh. The worst part is my boyfriend seems to think that kind of ignorance is understandable and that the fact that butter is dairy may not, in fact, be common knowledge.

[Haniska]

Some people who are lactose intolerant can eat yogurt. Also some butter does no contain lactose so this is probably where she became confused. However, I can't imagine a ice cream made of both soy and yogurt.

[Shadowsoul]

I work for a network security industry and my environment poses a huge challenge on my vegan diet, no one supports and fully understands what it is to be a vagan, and some one even told me " You need protein, you must eat meat" or "Why not eat fish? That's no meat?!" LOL

It doesn't take a genius to probably know that dark green plants have waay higher source of protein than animal meat, and that fish is a meat hahaha!

[rianaelf]

last night, my friend said chickens were made to be eaten.


ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGG!

so ignorant and so many people just dont get the basic fact that we love animals and thats why we dont eat them or steal their milk

[Jamie]

the person MC mentioned above might just be confused as to what her friend was eating?? the 'butter' could easily have been ND margarine. And as for soy and yoghurt ice cream... maybe it was like a frozen soy yoghurt?? I've never seen it before but I suppose it could be done, if you had an icecream maker. Or she could just be a loon

[sandra]

Just reading everyone's comments makes me more and more annoyed at people who don't understand about food and what they eat, I am fed up trying to be polite to people when I just want to scream at them. I was in a restaurant recently and asked the waitress for a salad bowl with no egg, cheese, coleslaw or any other animal product in it. She replied 'If we leave all those out there won't be anything left in the bowl'. I then proceeded to list 7 or 8 salad vegetables they could put in and she just stared at me blankly and said, 'Oh I never thought of them'. I smiled sweetly and heard myself saying 'That's ok' when really I wanted to scream!!

[Monday]

I went to a friend's party last night - she was serving food in a buffet style. I had already said I was vegan and we brought some bits and ate before we went (luckily!). She took us to the food and told us what was in things - she pointed to the quiche and said - "this is quiche but it's got cheese in". I pointed out it has egg in it!! Then I asked what ingredients were in the onion rings and she just said "They're just onion rings"! Then she pointed out the slads and said "Oh, they have random bits of egg in" as if we should just pick the egg out! Luckily there were Linda McCartney mini sausage rolls, a safe rice salad and a safe pasta salad so we had a bit of those. I just felt that she had absolutley no idea and didn't care. If it had been me and I wasn't vegan i would have found out what they could and couldn't eat, I would have made things especially and if they asked about something I would have rushed off and checked the packet for them. I know it was her party and she doesn't have to bother but I kind of think how much effort I would make and then am surprised when other people don't and when they just don't get it! She is a vegetarian but eats fish!!

Monday xx

[sandra]

I feel exactly the same way as you do Monday, I would be wanting to make things for people as nice as possible and make sure there was plenty they could eat.

[Yogini]

I don't want hosts to go out of their way to accommodate me. But when they try to yet get it completely wrong ("this stuffing is vegan except for the chicken broth") I'm always torn between laughing and crying.

[mandycoot]

Just reading everyone's comments makes me more and more annoyed at people who don't understand about food and what they eat, I am fed up trying to be polite to people when I just want to scream at them.

It makes me so depressed because I see all these people around me who are so ignorant of what they do, what they put into their bodies, and what's around them. How do people expect to further positive change in the world if they don't pay attention to what's happening and the consequences of their and all of our actions? It doesn't bother me so much that they don't understand my veganism--it bothers me that they don't understand that it's not about me, it's about the greater good. That people don't seem to want to know about what they can do to contribute to it or even understand that there's a problem saddens me. I want to scream at them too, take them by the shoulders. and yell that they're cheating themselves and the whole world with their ignorance.

/hijack and rant

the person MC mentioned above might just be confused as to what her friend was eating?? the 'butter' could easily have been ND margarine. And as for soy and yoghurt ice cream... maybe it was like a frozen soy yoghurt?? I've never seen it before but I suppose it could be done, if you had an icecream maker. Or she could just be a loon

She may have been confused, that's true. But to extrapolate it as she has? She's going into law school! Haha...I weep for her clients.

[sandra]

Mandycoot, I feel exactly as you do, people don't see the bigger picture, it's not just about what you eat, it's about what you don't eat!

[Haniska]

A co-worker friend of mine that I rarely see was filling in at work today.
1. She asked me if work had brisket lately for dinner, and was it delicous. When I said no she was a bit shocked and said "Oh, are you still vegetarian?"
2. She was very upset with me because I wasn't eating any dinner because I had eaten a big plate of fries earlier (I was a bit upset with myself. HAHA.) When I told her I had brought other food for when I did get hungry she still seemed concerned.
3. When she asked me what I was eating (oatmeal, raisins, and seeds) she asked me was there some kind of "tofu...soyish.. [etc etc] stuff in it"
She was also freaked out my me eating "seeds". I asked her would she feel better if I said nuts? She said "You aren't afraid to eat strange things are you?" I asked her why I should I be? Her baby is lactose intolerant and she gives him soy formula but still gives him other dairy foods. This really upsets me. How can you give your kid something that they are allergic to? She is also allergic to dairy and continues to eat it, despite being overweight. Why is it so hard? Especially when you have a medical reason?

[Soyalicius]

She sounds strange Haniska, and then she thinks you are odd, being healthy! I don't want to sound judgemental, but did she ever breast feed her lactose intolerent baby? This seems to be to be coming an increasing problem with formula fed babies.

It sounds like you had an answer for her though, these people are so annoying, and they are usually overweight too, but sometimes not.

[sugarmouse]

this thread, i am sure there isnt one post to which i cant say i can relate to,to which someonehas said something almost the same to me or a similar experience!
i came to the conclusion a long time ago, folk are thick.period.not ignorant,ignorance is easily cured.unless someone is thick.in my experience anyways.I agree, nutritional knowledge to me is common sense...its the fuel we live of forsakes....its important! we should make sure we know about it! but people dont! grrr....lol (gets off soapbox)

[herbwormwood]

Yesterday I was walking along the street wearing my "go Veggie" t shirt.
I must have passed a few hundred people that day as I had been on many errands round the town. One person had already said to me "I like your t shirt, I am a vegetarian"! Sometime later as I passed a group of young people, I heard someone say "go and get some pork sausages!" It wasn't until I had passed them I realised he was talking to me! How offensive! I am glad I had not made eye contact.

[sandra]

Yes, it is offensive, people who say things like that are sad. I have a neighbour who isn't the friendly type and she thought it hilarious to yell up at my bedroom window at 2 a.m, 'Hey, would you like a wee lamb chop, Sandra?' I feel sorry for her.

[Yogini]

She was also freaked out my me eating "seeds". I asked her would she feel better if I said nuts? She said "You aren't afraid to eat strange things are you?"

I had no idea seeds were "strange things." I must thank your friend for enlightening me.

[rianaelf]

I don't want hosts to go out of their way to accommodate me. But when they try to yet get it completely wrong ("this stuffing is vegan except for the chicken broth") I'm always torn between laughing and crying.

Yeah, i know what you mean, that desperate feeling at the pit of your stomach that says i am getting nothink to eat and at the same time i have to watch other people eating dead animals i want to run away and hide cos there are tears pricking at the side of my eyes <i know they are gonna be eating lamb>

[Yogini]

Yesterday I was walking along the street wearing my "go Veggie" t shirt.

I was channel surfing a few months ago and watched about 45 seconds of the George Lopez Show. A character (I think the actress who plays her is named Constance Marie - I know I've seen her in movies) was wearing a "Give Peas A Chance" t-shirt. I meant to try and found out if she is veg*n but never got around to it.

[Haniska]

She sounds strange Haniska, and then she thinks you are odd, being healthy! I don't want to sound judgemental, but did she ever breast feed her lactose intolerent baby? This seems to be to be coming an increasing problem with formula fed babies.

It sounds like you had an answer for her though, these people are so annoying, and they are usually overweight too, but sometimes not.

She did for a little while, say 2 weeks, and then gave up for reasons mumbled.