Limited diet must be awkward ?

[SueA]

My Oh and i have just had a week off work, today his friend from work has come to stay for a couple of days so they can play golf, he`s in his thirties like us and a really nice guy, but ! i have cooking duties ! he doesnt eat anything foreign, never tried it not even a spag bol ! he only eats chicken, from what my OH says he eats cheese sandwichs, chicken and some veg ! so i`m going to do a sunday dinner and hope he eats the veg i`ve picked !, i wonder if thats why he`s so thin and pasty looking as his diet is so limited ?

Did he eat anything Louise?
My O.H. has a friend who won't eat various things, he hates gravy or sauces of any kind & the only 'meat' he's keen on is chicken, when they used to go on works outings etc. he'd sit there with a piece of dry turkey or chicken & a handful of carrots!

[SueA]

My dear old Nan used to make me cheese & ham quiche as a vegetarian option (it's only small bits of ham, pick them out if you're that fussy)

That reminds me of 'Nana' in the Royle Family on T.V. when she learns one visitor is vegetarian & thinks it's a shame for her & says 'Can't she have a ham sandwich, it's only wafer thin ham?'
I don't eat meat, purely because I don't like the idea of eating animals but I do eat fish & seafood so am not a vegetarian but I sometimes say I am as it's easier than having to explain everything.

[Two_Sheds]

Honestly I wasn't having a go

No, I realise that

I'm forever being asked why I'm a vegetarian, it's so boring, and people like to try and "trick" me by bringing up the leather question. Now I just say that I don't eat anything with a face.

[FionaH]

Now I just say that I don't eat anything with a face.

I do love that explanation It's the one my friend uses and used to crack my kids up when they were small

[Hilary B]

No, I realise that

I'm forever being asked why I'm a vegetarian, it's so boring, and people like to try and "trick" me by bringing up the leather question. Now I just say that I don't eat anything with a face.

I can never understand the urge to 'have a go' at someone over vegetarianism, unless they are preaching. I like meat, and I do my best to eat not-to-much meat that has had a decent life. Others take a different approach, fine!
Have to admit that until reading the above I always thought the line about 'not eating anything with a face' came under the heading of preaching (there have been times when it has been, and I kind of jumped to the conclusion that this was normally the case). Obviously it is sometimes simply a way of not getting nagged! I hadn't thought of that one.
Best answer to "Why are you a vegetarian?" is "Why aren't you?" which is why I would only ever ask if there was a possibility that it was a matter of allergy or something similar. An acquaintance is Vegan, but that is partly a matter of allergy. She can't use dairy products and doesn't want to eat meat. She is quite willing to cook meat meals for guests.
I am married to a confirmed carnivore. It is tricky getting him to accept a small portion of meat unless I can be devious enough to disguise the shortage!
Dairy produce DOES involve animals getting killed, but 'at one remove', and you get quite a lot of food per death!

[Alison]

Best answer to "Why are you a vegetarian?" is "Why aren't you?" which is why I would only ever ask if there was a possibility that it was a matter of allergy or something similar. An acquaintance is Vegan, but that is partly a matter of allergy. She can't use dairy products and doesn't want to eat meat. She is quite willing to cook meat meals for guests.
I am married to a confirmed carnivore. It is tricky getting him to accept a small portion of meat unless I can be devious enough to disguise the shortage!
Dairy produce DOES involve animals getting killed, but 'at one remove', and you get quite a lot of food per death!

Sometimes people are just interested and there is nothing more meant to it than that. Personally I find it interesting why, when people have gone to the trouble to make a consious decision, the reasoning behind that etc. However it would depend on how well I knew somebody as to whether I entered into that level of conversation.

Re the getting a lot of food per death, not sure I agree with that, male calfs are regularly killed when wanting dairy and I presume the ratio is roughly 50 / 50 (yes I know not all are killed but it's a high number)

[piskieinboots]

Re the getting a lot of food per death, not sure I agree with that, male calfs are regularly killed when wanting dairy and I presume the ratio is roughly 50 / 50 (yes I know not all are killed but it's a high number)

I (truly) didn't know that now I'm sad

[Hilary B]

Sometimes people are just interested and there is nothing more meant to it than that. Personally I find it interesting why, when people have gone to the trouble to make a consious decision, the reasoning behind that etc. However it would depend on how well I knew somebody as to whether I entered into that level of conversation.

Re the getting a lot of food per death, not sure I agree with that, male calfs are regularly killed when wanting dairy and I presume the ratio is roughly 50 / 50 (yes I know not all are killed but it's a high number)

Yeah, but you do get a LOT of milk per calf born (around a thousand gallons, some of which gets turned into cheese and/or butter), and quite a number of them also grow up into beef, which is eaten by the non-vegetarians, so.........
Similarly, while for every laying hen hatched there is a cockerel chick hatched, and most of them end up as food for reptiles of birds of prey, that is still about 600 eggs.

[Two_Sheds]

Yeah, but you do get a LOT of milk per calf ... quite a number of them also grow up into beef

Dairy calves are not used for beef, sadly.

"many of the 482, 000 (male dairy calves) born in the UK each year are either killed soon after birth or exported to continental veal farms"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/food_matters/veal.shtml

[Hilary B]

Dairy calves are not used for beef, sadly.

"many of the 482, 000 (male dairy calves) born in the UK each year are either killed soon after birth or exported to continental veal farms"

BBC - Food - Recipes: Consumer food issues - Is veal cruel?

Many, not all. There is also an increasing market for 'rose veal', which, while far from ideal, has to be a better option than slaughter at birth (possibly going to the nearest zoo as lion food) or the 'crate rearing' systems still popular in some parts.
A proportion are beef-dairy cross, and may get to grow up (perhaps not as few as the media tell us) and, of course, anyone who has the facilities could buy a calf, rear it, and share the meat (and costs) with friends and family. There is nothing wrong (for those of us who do eat beef) with the meat from even a pure Holstein or Jersey bull calf, it's just that rearing them commercially doesn't pay, but for a smallholder, it's a lot of good meals for a moderate cost and a fair bit of hard work.