Why is it...relationships between meat eaters and veggies...?!

People see what they want to see. If they want to see that you need meat to be strong and healthy, then they will jump over any sniffle or sneeze (even if it is allergies) as confirmation that "Ah-HA! It's that vegetarian nonsense! Your immune system is weak! When are you going to give it up?" They will point to the petite vegetarian who isn't a body-builder and say, "See how weak she is? It's that vegetarian diet," fully ignoring the fact that Miss Petite is a lazy bum and never does any kind of exercise.

Food is personal, and it is not moral for everyone. People don't like knowing that someone views them (or the way they act) as immoral, and generally will seek vindication of their choices. Because they can't argue that their choice is moral (not to the particular audience, anyway), they need to justify their decision in other ways. Taste seems kind of jerky, so they go for health or economics. They'll grab anything they can.

Furthermore, I'd argue that diet is to blame for a lot of ailments. You point out how many non-vegetarians eat crap, but fail to acknowledge that vegetarians do the same thing. During Girl Scout cookie season, I eat the darned things for breakfast. (Yes, really. So sue me.) Vegetarian doesn't automatically mean "healthy and balanced" any more than eating meat does. We (veg*ns) and non-veg folks are equally capable of having a bad diet.

A vegetarian diet is what is most visible as different. Think of the typical American. They don't get much exercise, they probably eat processed foods (and too much of it), and they eat meat at least once a day. You could have nearly identical habits and they would pay attention to the fact that you don't eat meat (rather than the fact that you don't get enough exercise or the fact that you don't eat a lot of whole foods) as a cause for unhealthiness. It's because they perceive their habits to be healthy (or at least not unhealthy). When they see another difference (you have a cold and they don't), they'll imagine that it's because you don't eat meat, not because you had the bad luck of sitting next to Coughy McFlubug on the plane. I think vegetarians sometimes do the same thing. They will point at obesity and heart disease as being caused by meat, but forget the other things that contribute to both: inactivity, smoking, eating too much, etc.

Confirmation bias is one thing. Their mind is set towards one side, so as soon as you get sick, they attribute that to their "truth."
example: a teacher believes that a student is not going to succeed. The soon as the student fails a test, the teacher confirms their bias. Yes it's sad. Keep doing your thing.

Logic

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it only happens in USA and other meat obsessed countries.

India, Pakistan, all of Asia- thankfully the bigger populations- wouldn't even blink.

Why is it some people get obsessed with Why is it questions?

It's because most meat eaters have been raised eating meat & they don't understand those who don't eat meat. They've been raised that you can only be healthy if you have meat in your diet & so that's what they believe. They're just ignorant & don't know any better. I live in the southern part of the bible belt. Here everyone eats meat. That's just how it is. My entire family & everyone I know are meat eaters.

When I was younger the only kind of meat I would eat was raw & my family wouldn't let me do that so I just quit eating it. They didn't know what to do & tried just about everything to make me eat it but I wouldn't. So then they took me to the doctor who is also a meat eater who told them that it was probably just a phase & to make sure I was at least getting plenty of fruits, veggies & nuts or beans for protein.

That was when i was 3, now I'm 17 & still vegan now mainly for ethical reasons. I'm perfectly healthy & rarely get sick. People still look at me strange when I tell them. When they see me walking down the street they just think I'm your average light skinned girl but then they find out I'm vegan & suddenly I'm sickly pale because I'm not eating meat. That is beyond ridiculous.

I eat a balanced diet, get regular exercise & do my best to sleep well. My doctor says I'm one of the most healthy people he's ever met. My parents used to say that when I got sick it was because of my diet but they've grown out of that. Now that they see that being vegan hasn't killed me & that I'm healthy even after 14 years they've changed their views on veganism for the most part. They still can't seem to understand why I won't eat or use any animal products but they know that a vegetarian or vegan diet can still be healthy because to them I'm living proof.

That's enough to get them to go veggie but just the fact that they weren't too stubborn to learn something from it & now accept, even though they don't really support it is good enough for me. People can learn & they can change how they view people. It just takes time & patience. They'll come around eventually & if they don't then that's their problem not yours. As a vegan your going to have to learn to ignore people's ignorance & not let their comments get to you. It can be annoying but that's just life. ^_^

Earthling

If you go vegan because you don't want to see animals treated badly; then you're doing it wrong. You can your friends can go vegan all you want, the the majority of the world's population will still eat meat. Maybe 99% of the world eat meat. So thinking if you go vegan you're helping the animal, you're not. Going on protests, teaching kids, etc. about animal cruelty will bring much quicker result to your cause.
I hate people who abuse animals, but I strongly believe we were made with canines and hands to make tools for a reason. We didn't grow a brain and hands so we can make tools to hunt salad and beans...

In our society, we have been raised to believe that eating meat is the normal, natural, healthy way. We're told, by people solely concerned with money, money and more money, that you must get all that meat for the protein, you must drink milk because you can't get calcium anywhere else (all untrue). And because it's fed to us by the media and so called health organizations, people believe it. They refuse to think for themselves. And they refuse to accept anything that isn't natural to them. It's basically the same as racism and other prejudices. People fear what they do not understand.

Pearl where do you think people hear about vegetarianism, they dont just suddenly have a Eureka moment. they hear about it on TV, in movies in the media. Its exactly the same. Your telling me a 11 year old girl could understand complex moral issues and make her mind up about planning a well contructed diet to get all her nutrients, but is unable to comprehend sexually protection thus why she is not allowed to have sex?

The way most people act, is the way society has taught them to act and unfortunately most people just conform and never question anything.
I know exactly what you're talking about with the whole getting sick thing. My family gets sick all the time (especially during the winter months). They're always taking medication and not feeling well for days or weeks at a time. Since going vegan, I've been sick ONCE and the second I had any signs of a cold everybody was saying it was because of my diet. I was sick for less than two days and did not take a single dose of medication and felt perfectly fine by the end of the next day.
Its one thing to teach your child your own values, its another thing to try brainwashing them into believing your way of life is the only right way, such as with religion, eating meat, being pro-life. Unfortunately some people still think that eating meat is the only way to be healthy.

vegan :D

I have just read through this and I was hopping for a fair debate till I read the first half of your rant, yet again you claim to keep your thoughts to yourself yet you call us Omnivores, meat eaters and suggest all we do is eat unhealthy junk food. Just to give you a pointer not all Omnivores are unhealthy eaters and yes we can actually cook meals, grow vegetables and eat a very very varied diet. Like myself when I try to educate some badly informed veg/vegans of defend Omnivores the violent comments or thumbs down from veg/vegans is terrible. Don't get me wrong there are mature minded people on this site as I have yet to meet a veg/vegan that knows what a fair and friendly debate is, when I was talking to some people about animal cruelty and once they find out I was a meat eater and a hunter they turned and where nasty!!

There is far too many veg/vegans that are high up on their moral horse to listen to anyone other than each other with their very much misinformed information. They shout out about meat industry yet none of them have worked in the industry and they only concentrating on intensive farming and slaughter. They also feel that population and attitude has nothing to do with the way we eat which is diabolical.

I am a very caring omnivore, I do a lot for animals and my community. I fight for organic, free range and to get people to cook and eat more varied meals than just meat and fast food. Yet I get thumbs down when I pass my knowledge of being a farmer and hunter and for promoting healthy living. If you want to be treated more seriously campaign amongst people who share the same values to educate themselves better and also help the likes of organic and free range farming than go against it all which effectively is supporting intensive.

I am sick and tired that people I know who are hunters for a living have to keep quite about it to protect themselves and family. That is how bad it is, how would you like to get death threats or your work place trashed and compromised by people who have no clue about what they talk about, target the wrong people and do not want to listen. I work with decent and good people or I would not work with them other wise, I have seen so much nature thriving on my estate I work for it is beautiful and we look after it yet some of us have to hide the fact who we are due to the extreme peoples views and reactions!!

Addition: I am tired of veg/vegans on this site who try teach me how to suck eggs, they tell me "oh to produce meat it takes more resources", again talking about intensive then yet again they forget how much it takes certainly in the UK to get their out of season food to the UK!! No way would anyone in the UK with our changing climate be able to grow out of seasoned foods and even if they wanted us all to eat like a veggie it will take so much more resources to produce vegetables than meat.

Eat what you like but like I said before if you eat healthy as a omnivore a vegetarian is NOT going to be more healthy than you. If you choose to be vegetarian DO NOT do it for the animals as this personal choice does nothing for them. Vegetarian should ONLY be an option if it benefits you personally to your health as some people can not eat meat!!

Addition: As you are asking this on the UK site and am from Scotland UK and I would rather be called a omnivore than meat eater because I eat more than just meat and to be honest I eat more vegetarian meals than meat because I can not afford expensive organic and free range produce. Meat eater holds too negative, it has been used like meat head from other veg/vegans on this site so it is not used in a good way!!

Addition: Listen I do not want to fight and I did read your question and like you it bothers me that when veg/vegans talk about omnivores/meat heads/meat eaters or flesh eating people they ALWAYS target the unhealthy ones, it is annoying extremely that if you know what you talk about and are a fair decent person then someone not treating you fairly will get you angry. Its like me saying that ALL veg/vegans talk out their hole but I know otherwise. I just wish veg/vegans bring a positive to Omnivores than describing them negatively!! If you are brining in a bad also say a positive or the horrible cycle will never end!!

Addition: PLEASE PLEASE, AS I SAID MEAT EATER IS USED AS A NEGATIVE TERM, I KNOW WHAT IT MEANS BUT MEAT EATER IS USED AS A NEGATIVE ON THIS SITE. I am agreeing with you from a different perspective.

Addition: Oh, I agree with you for sure, we are too detached from food when if we are going to eat it meat or veg we have to have more knowledge and involvement. Most children think eggs come from cartons or have baby's in them and that cotton comes from sheep!! :) I hope you get somewhere to keep animals and you do get a lot of enjoyment out of it.

I am a omnivore, nature person, farm labourer and gillie.

I know what you're saying.
I, myself, am interested in going vegetarian because it just breaks my heart seeing how those poor animals are treated. But I'm currently unable to do so, because my parents are strongly against it and believe that 'vegetarians do not get enough nutrients'
I have tried telling them that many people are vegetarians and their diet is balanced, but they just don't get it.
I mean even Usain Bolt (fastest man on earth) is vegetarian!

Some people just refuse to open their minds to new things