What’s Our Beef with Vegans?
By: Courtney Stars
Tags: Culture, Society, Vegan, Food, Relationships

This morning I read a piece by Mason Sabre that I’ve thought about all day. His question: why do people hate vegans so much?

In the piece, Mason describes the negative reactions from friends and family that he’s experienced about his vegan lifestyle:

I began to hear whisperings in the family about our sudden change to veganism. Not too many nice comments. I was in a restaurant once with the family, and we ordered our food, and I ordered a vegan dish. One of the family members, very loudly said, oh for god sake.

This impolite reaction to someone else’s plate of food made me cringe. Then, it made me wonder if I’ve ever done anything similar.

It also made me wonder why it is that I have a visceral response to the concept of veganism. I know that I’ve done some eye-rolling about vegans at some point. I know that I would wrinkle my nose at the thought of a vegan holiday dinner. I try to be a tolerant person and I think I’m mostly successful. Why do I have any disdain for vegans? It is out of character and I don’t like that I feel that way. That’s why I wanted to examine what’s going on with us omnivores who feel uncomfortable about the vegan lifestyle of others.

One of the first reasons you hear meat-eaters bashing vegans is that they see them as self-righteous. They are doing this positive thing for the animals and the environment, as well as their own health in many cases. Their choice makes others feel judged for not doing the same.

The next anti-vegan sentiment is a rabid defense of meat. This is probably where I would falter. I love eating meat and I have a really hard time imagining life without it. I grew up in America on the same standard American diet as millions of others. No meal seems complete without meat. And a life without bacon or cheese seems tragic.

There are also those who point out that we’re “meant to eat meat.” This argument is sometimes a health argument related to our need for protein and the B12 vitamin. It can also be a food chain argument — we are meant to eat the animals. That it’s either ordained by human evolution or God.

No matter the reason, anti-vegans will quickly and vigorously argue the merits of their anti-vegan stance — and in my experience, they do so way more than vegans tout their lifestyle to others.

I thought about my hypocrisy as a sober person

I gave up alcohol over six years ago. When I drank, I know I said the same obnoxious thing that all alcoholics say to people who don’t drink: “I don’t trust anyone who doesn’t drink!”

Now, I’m on the other side of the table. When people insist on buying me a shot or me trying their cocktail and I say I don’t drink, I sometimes get incredulous over-reactions — usually from the drunkest person at the table. I’m like “yo, I don’t drink, stop making it a thing. I ain’t stopping you, go for it. Do that shot, sip that mimosa.”

I even once heard another sober woman tell a story of a pushy Italian restaurateur who kept insisting she drink the free wine he brought to the table. Finally, she had to dump it in her coffee cup while he wasn’t looking to get him to stop. She was pissed that her coffee was ruined.

The real answer may be about food addiction

I spent time trying to figure out why vegans rub me the wrong way — even a little bit.

I realized that it isn’t because I feel guilty about my moral choice to eat meat. It’s that I’m judging myself for believing that I would not be able to successfully go vegan if I tried.

I don’t have the willpower. I’m addicted to my diet and way of life. And even if I wanted to change my diet because of my belief system, I’m not sure I could.

We don’t need alcohol to live, so giving it up shouldn’t be such a big deal. Millions of vegans prove that we don’t need animal products to live either. But for those of us addicted to the standard American diet, we feel as if we do need it to live.

I have a shaky relationship with food. I’m overweight and I have a history of yo-yo dieting, emotional eating and binge eating. When I try to restrict my food at all, I usually end up in a worse place than when I started off. I always say that every diet seems to have an “equal and opposite reaction.”

But I’d like to think that if I believed in something strongly enough, that I would be able to dig deep and change my diet. I’m just not sure this is true.

Just don’t be rude

As with many things in life, the easiest way to handle relationships with vegans is: don’t be a jerk. In the end, it doesn’t matter what you think of someone else’s diet. If it doesn’t affect you, it’s none of your business.

And if it’s none of your business, loud criticism is just plain rude. Don’t be rude.