Reply #23: Confessions of an ex-meat eater

[Stuckinthebush]

I'm a vegetarian - have been for going on 4 years now. I used to laugh at vegetarians and tell them they were wimps and unhealthy. Who wouldn't love a nice, juicy steak? Crazy vegetarians!

Then, one day in my physician's office, she told me my HDL was dangerously low and that I needed to take drastic measures. One of those measures was cutting back on meat. My wife, also a physician, said, "No, you will be cutting out all meat!"

A forced vegetarian! My god! I'll be one of those pansy, sickly people forced to eat raw broccoli all the time!

After the first few months I stopped looking at the steaks on the menu. Then I stopped thinking about eating meat. Then I started to look at the raw meat in the store with a little level of disgust. Then it grew and I thought, "I was eating that?" Now, I can't imagine putting meat in my mouth.

Remember, I'm not a philosophical vegetarian. I have no problem with people who do eat meat, but it illustrates to me how conditioned we are to want to eat meat. My daughters have never been forced to eat meat, but they haven't been discouraged. Now, two of the three are vegetarians as well. My youngest still eats meat. I think that they aren't used to it at home, and so they don't think about it while they are out. Eventually, they decided that they just didn't want it.

Anyway, I understand the visceral anti-vegetarian responses from some meat eaters but I encourage them to examine why they have such anger toward vegetarians. I think a lot of it is societally produced.