Posted on 07/07/2012 6:21:37 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Is it a dealbreaker if your partner skips the bacon in favor of tofu? For some meat eaters, that’s exactly the case. The recent Love Bites survey of 4,000 singles conducted by TODAY.com and Match.com found that nearly 30 percent of meat eaters say they would not date a vegetarian or vegan.
Writer and omnivore J. Federer told TODAY.com that while he agrees couples should have interests outside the relationship, food is one thing that should be shared. “Food is social, and the dinner table is where a couple gets back together after a day of work or play,” he wrote in an email. “This is where the relationship happens. The ability to provide and share food is part of romance, and I just can't date a person who does not share those moments of life with me.”
Blame it on biology, says Dr. Helen Fisher, a biological anthropologist and Match.com’s chief scientific adviser. She explains that sharing food is integral to courtship throughout the animal kingdom.
“It’s so common in the animal world to give food for sex that it’s called the nuptial gift,” Fisher explained. “Mankind’s first luxury was meat, and when carnivores share food – what they are sharing is this luxury. It’s more than just cultural, it’s instinctual.”
Federer tried but couldn’t get past the distaste for dating a vegetarian. He had a two-year relationship with a vegetarian and another with a vegan, but said he always felt judged when they would sit down to eat.
“She kept talking about the carbon footprint of a pound of meat and the impact of fishing on the oceans,” he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at bites.today.msnbc.msn.com ...
I also noted that he was out sick 3 days in the 4 weeks he worked. The last time I took a sick day, Bush was in his first term. The pizza included meatball and Prosciutto toppings. Yum!
Back in the 70’s when I was in college, the cafeteria introduced a vegetarian buffet. I went vegetarian for almost a year feeling the PC pressure. My mom cooked a full turkey dinner in the middle of summer and nipped that in the bud. LOL. Moms.... Somehow, I survived my college years. I like my beef practically raw now.
Thank you for taking care of #15. I was about to hit the Abuse button.
He was enjoying life and not stressed out - a key to a healthy life. Now that is amazing 93 and riding a motorcycle - love it! And 93 eating bacon and eggs when most are on Ensure. I like gramps!
He reminds me of my MIL who had no restrictions to what she ate and really enjoyed food up to her end at 3 mos short of 93. She kept a spotless house, and I never saw even a dirty window in her place and she loved to laugh! She didn’t drive so she went down the street to catch the first bus in the morning and carried her packages back up to her home. I miss her, she was tons of fun!
Zealots are always boorish.
Mom’s are the best! Full turkey dinner, lots of prep and spending the summer day in the hot kitchen all for her son. I bet she enjoyed doing it as it sounds she was ‘on a mission’.
Let’s just say that I went to great lengths to determine that Mrs. L was a confirmed carnivore before we married.
I’m actually a woman, but I knew she was on a mission when I smelled the turkey roasting, and yes, it was a hot kitchen in July with no air conditioning. Hosting huge family Thanksgiving dinner’s year after year, I’m sure she knew that would seal the deal. “You can fool some of the people all the time, and all the people some of the time, but you can’t fool mom.”-Captain Penny
All things in moderation. And that includes moderation.
and moderators especially!
We went thru the same thing as your friend with our then-7 year old deciding to become vegetarian. Well, except for hot dogs. So we let her for the day it lasted.
Correct me if I’m wrong but I had heard that there was a difference between vegetarian and vegan and that the difference was that “true” vegans were way more selective (restrictive) about what they would consume.
Several years back my band hired a keyboard player. He and his wife were both outspoken vegans, always evangelizing just how healthy and cool the vegan lifestyle was. The funny thing was they both looked like ghouls. Pale grayish skin-tone and slightly sunken eye-sockets with the dark around the eyes.
They never looked or acted healthy or happy.
No thanks!
You nailed it. He rode for fun. The bike was an old Honda
150 Benly that we restored together. When he was just going
downtown he walked or rode his bicycle. He had an Indian
when he was young and told me that he still reached for the
tank shifter once and awhile out of habit.
That said, there are other underlying beliefs/philosophies which often accompany vegetarian or vegan diets which are not compatible with my own insofar as a serious relationship goes.
To each their own, but some days I crave red meat.
My daughter, around the age of nine or so gave up pork. She always loved pigs, but still ate pork and loved it (in all forms). But when she was about nine she went to the zoo - and the highlight was always to see the pigs in the “farmland” area. Except the pigs weren’t there! That is when she gave up pork - she knew the pigs didn’t get sent off to slaughter, and they were there the next time - but it just triggered something in her mind.
We didn’t push it, and we didn’t give up pork.
Just a little while ago, at age 14, she piped up while mom was making breakfast “Mom - can you make enough bacon so I can have some too?”
I was very proud of her for making her own decisions on what she wanted to eat, and for how she stuck to it over all those years. (And never gave us grief for eating it). But also that she came to terms with it on her own as well. And told her all that too.
When she had her first bite of bacon again she said something like “Boy - I’m glad I didn’t give this up for good!”
Part of this is probably the holier than thou attitude of many vegetarians and vegans. Those who keep Kosher rarely brag about it and don’t sit around condemning those who do.
I’ve seen vegans denigrate vegetarians and condemn meat eaters - at a church Thanksgiving dinner with, “I would never give my kids that, did you know how toxic it is?”
And a vegetarian (barring Hindus) or a vegan is almost certainly liberal, while conservatives rarely bother skipping the meat. It’s then an easy way to determine the political divide.
Or you can at least say that the vegan/vegetarian’s Gaia worship is just not compatible with your religion.
I know a 25 year old vegetarian woman...she’s about 5’6” and 250 lbs....
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