As a vegetarian of seven years, I’ve realized that everyone has very strong opinions when it comes to vegetarians. I am constantly forced to listen to people tell me all of the negatives about my diet, when 100% of the time, I never ask, or I’ve already heard it. I’ve done so much research about being plant-based. I know so much about this diet, yet somehow, every time I talk to people, they think they are thrusting upon me some piece of new knowledge about the harms of not eating meat. But unfortunately, I’ve heard it before. Every vegetarian/vegan knows they’re going to hear the same comments over and over, and we all already have our rebuttals memorized. These the top five comments I hear about being vegetarian.
“It’s the circle of life/we’re supposed to eat other animals.”
This is typically the reaction I get. Every vegan/vegetarian has heard that animals were put on this earth to be eaten.
“We’re animals as well, so shouldn’t we eat other animals, like wild ones do?”
It is not that simple. If we were wild animals scouring for food with no system set in place, the answer would probably be yes, but that is not how we eat our meat. The meat we typically eat comes from confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) in which animals are kept in tiny cages their whole lives, abused and killed, while these farms simultaneously contribute to much of our world’s greenhouse gases. This is the type of meat consumption I choose not to partake in. It is not the same as a lion hunting prey in the wild, which is why me eating meat is not “the circle of life.”
“Vegan meat is so processed and unhealthy.”
I get this comment almost every time someone sees me eat substitute meat. This is always strange to me because a lot of meat is also very processed. The same people who tell me this usually eat fast food and other processed goods. All food is processed if it does not come exactly as it is found. Yes, some vegan meat is unhealthy but Americans eat a lot of processed, unhealthy food, so why draw the line at vegan food? Also, not every vegetarian or vegan eats substitute meat. Since being at the University of Connecticut, I have not had vegan meat in any form. It is very easy to replace the taste and benefits of meat through other natural sources through protein like beans, tofu, or mushrooms. Like these meals, for example:
“So what do you eat? Do you only eat salad?”
I eat everything. There are ways to make pretty much every meal vegetarian, and most restaurants have vegetarian options. I eat everything from Taco Bell to Chipotle, even Texas Roadhouse. Fortunately, UConn dining halls like Whitney and North provide excellent vegan options like sushi bowls, chickpea tikka masala, or penne alla vodka. A lot of people think: if you have to replace the taste, what’s the point of being vegetarian?
But most people aren’t plant-based because they don’t like the taste of meat; they just don’t support CAFOs, so we try to replace the flavor with something more ethical. Even if you don’t realize it, you probably eat someone’s vegetarian/vegan option almost every day.
“I’m going to eat twice as much meat to cancel it out.”
I have no words for this one. Just stop saying this. It’s weird.
Not all of these questions and comments are bad
I have no problem with people asking me questions about my vegetarian diet; I actually love it when people do that, as it shows you are interested and are possibly looking into the diet yourself. I also understand occasionally poking fun at some vegans, like the ones who aggressively push their diet onto others. For example, the infamous vegan teacher on TikTok.
Or my personal favorite, Erin the Vegan from this jubilee video.
Trust me, I am not one of these infamous vegans. For some reason though, I still hear the same sentiments every time I tell people I don’t eat meat. If you are trying to go vegan/vegetarian, be prepared to respond to any of these things at any given time. You might also get “plants have feelings too and you’re eating them” (plants don’t have feelings so this doesn’t make sense), or my personal favorite: “if you were on a deserted island and starving would you eat meat?”
Regardless, I love being vegetarian, even if I have to debunk the same five myths on a weekly basis. It’s a small price to pay in order to help a bigger cause.