Tangled Up In Blog

Vegetarian, explained (sort of)

Well I was going to post today about my huge sense of relief and excitement over the recent elections and the resignation of Donald Rumsfeld or "Rummy" as I like to call him but instead I will adress the attack on vegetarians in the comments section of Tuesday's post. I'll save the election stuff for tomorrow. Maybe someone even better will resign today...Cheney perhaps?? A girl can dream can't she....

Anyway, here's what I think is commonly accepted:

Vegetarian- does not eat meat or fish but will eat dairy and some will eat eggs

Vegan- no animal products of any kind, dairy, eggs, meat, fish, etc...

Pescatarian- a "vegetarian" who eats fish

I myself am a pescatarian and if someone says I'm a vegetarian but I eat fish, that's wrong. You're not a vegetarian. I usually just say "I don't eat meat" which is true, I don't eat meat but I do eat fish, eggs, and dairy. I have an issue with eggs and have considered cutting them out as well. When cooking vegetarian people often think...oh, I'll just cook a bunch of vegetables, which is what gives vegetarian cooking a bad name. Mushrooms are an excellent meat substitute along with tofu. Potatoes are great, along with my personal favorite, beans.

I also take issue with the fact that people view a vegetarian option as an inconvenience. People become vegetarians for different reasons but I think the main two are animal cruelty and health. So when you scoff at someone for not eating meat you're basically saying either "Why are you being so stupid, stop caring about your health" or "Who cares if animals are pumped full of hormones, inhumanely treated their entire lives and then slaughtered" That person is making a choice that they believe is better for themselves or the world as a whole and you're looking at it as an inconvenience.

A friend of mine who is a vegan told me recently that she feels obligated to cook meat when she has people over for dinner. I told her this was ridiculous. I wasn't complaining about the vegetarian dish at the wedding..it was pretty good. I just thought it was amusing that the caterer was so close minded about what a vegetarian meal could be...just vegetables and pasta? a six year old could have come up with that. This was especially interesting to me since the groom is a vegetarian.

All I'm saying is I think that people tend to be close-minded about what constitutes vegetarian cooking or vegetarian cuisine. Even Andy has become more open to it. It's better for you and it's much more environmentally sound.

Labels: eating, politics

posted by carolyn @ 8:15 AM