The comments I get being a vegetarian

Whenever I meet new people, I try to avoid telling them I'm a vegetarian. Or when we go out to restaurants, I feel it's unnecessary for my parents to tell the waitress I'm a "picky vegetarian." This is simply because everybody seems to ask one of the cliched questions/comments I've listed below! Then, they always want to argue about how I answered. Sometimes I would just rather not argue about the way I've been living my life for the last five years.

So, as politely as I can manage, I'm going to try to answer them here:


What do you EAT?
Meatless yet edible goods. That's what I eat. You couldn't have figured that out?

Why'd you go vegetarian?
I always seem to stumble at this one, because the reason I went vegetarian is no longer the reason I am vegetarian. See, I can't quite remember the day I decided I wanted to stop eating cute fuzzy animals, but I did. And I was always disgusted by cow and pig already anyway. NOW, however, I know just how cruel and inhumane some (I'm not saying all.) slaughter houses are. I just don't want to be a part of that.

Now, it's not the question itself that annoys me, it's that every single person who has every asked it always follows my answer up with an argument. "So how's one person going to make a difference?" "But then don't plants feel to?" "How do you know if you've never been to a slaughter house?"

I would never let me kids go vegetarian.
Well, that's great. You're a controlling mother that doesn't feel that your children should have their own rights/morals, and you basically just called my mom a bad mother. Run along now.

Are you CRAZY?
That's very nice of you to ask. No, I'm not crazy.


However, I do get some nice, totally acceptable questions/comments every once in a while:

When did you go vegetarian?
What a fairly normal and non-insulting question! Thank you for asking it! I went vegetarian somewhere during 3rd grade, when I was 9 years old.

Is your whole family vegetarian?
No, only me.

Isn't it unhealthy to be vegetarian?
(Don't get this confused with them simply TELLING me that it's unhealthy to be a vegetarian.)
Actually, no. A lot of the vitamins and proteins found in meat can be easily substituted with vitamin supplements, or by simply eating other foods. In fact, most vegetarians live a much healthier lifestyle, and you're not very likely to find an overweight one, seeing how we don't eat fat.

Do you eat cheese and stuff?
Yes, I do. If I were vegan then I would not eat anything that comes from animals, or use any animal products whatsoever. For now, I'm just vegetarian.

Do you eat fish/chicken?
No.