Eating out

I go to peoples’ places and I’m offered the usual snacks and drinks. I’m met with utter incomprehension when I decline. If pressed, as soon as I tell them my reason, I’m considered a little weird. Nice people race around and find something I can eat. But nice or otherwise most people are defenders of the faith. They secretly resent my finicky eating habits. For that’s what they turn it into – from what could be a respect for my philosophy of compassion into an irritation at being fussy over food. Not often does anyone ask me to explain why.
If they did they’d get an answer that would make them uncomfortable. They would expect me to say something about the food containing too much fat or sugar and too high in protein. They’d expect me to mention it being harmful to health … plus the bit about the animals themselves, and hens in cages, etc
So as a vegan I’m not usually asked to give reasons for my food choices. I’m regarded as a social pariah.
What is it, apart from the animals, that is so awful about so many of the foods people eat? They make us fat, they encourage heart disease, diabetes and cancer. Any sensible person wouldn’t go there. They’d avoid them. But to talk about all this, to get to a point where we may speak, we need to be ready with a couple of interesting points, facts, something to catch the attention that won’t seem as if we are making sweeping statements. If we try to be too outrageous we can draw too much unnecessary fire, making it easy for them to change the subject or get bogged down in fine details which can be lengthily discussed to avoid dealing with more uncomfortable matters. As animal activists we won’t be able to satisfy every inquirer’s questions about diet and nutrition and health consequences, although we should try. Our best approach is to appeal to the heart, to assure people of the general safety and health of a plant-based diet and then to move on to what we feel they know almost nothing about. How the animals are treated with no more respect than machines!